Snooker – Rules

World professional billiards and snooker association (WPBSA) creates the rules and set guidelines to play snooker. All the matches are played by abiding these rules. Below are some important rules that a beginner should know.

• A legitimately potted ball gives the right to the striker to continue at the table until he fails to officially pot a ball.

• It is not essential to cause the cue ball or an object ball to touch the cushion or drop in a pocket after the cue ball has made contact with a legal object ball. If the cue ball failed to make contact with a legal object ball first, it will be considered as a foul.

• As long as red balls are on the table, the striker always have a red as his lawful object ball.

• Any of the red balls potted on a legitimate shot are lawfully potted balls. The striker doesn’t need to call any particular red balls, pockets or details of how the pot will be played.

• When the striker have a red ball as his ball as a legal object, he must ground the cue ball’s first contact to be with a red ball. If he fails to do so it is a foul.

• After the striker has notched a red ball initially, his next legitimate object is a color. As long as the reds remain on the table, he must substitute his play between reds and colors. When reds are kept on the table and a color is the target, the striker must first designate prior to striking which color ball is his object, and secondly, grounds the cue ball’s first contact with a ball to be with particular colored ball. If the striker fails to meet these expectations, it will be a foul.

• If the striker has to pot a red ball and he pots a color, it will be considered as a foul.

• If the striker has to pot a colored ball and he pots red ball, it will be considered as a foul.

• Jump shots are illegitimate in International Snooker. It is a foul if the striker deliberately causes the cue ball to jump, by any means.

• As the red balls remain on the table, each potted color is spotted prior to the next strike. If the striker plays while a ball is wrongly marked, the shot is taken as a foul. If the striker plays two strokes after such error, he is free of penalty if the opponent or referee do not obstruct. He can continue playing and scoring usually as though the spotting error simply had not happened.

• When no reds are left on the table, the colored balls becomes the target of a striker in arising numerical order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). These legally potted colors are not marked after each is potted.