The Rules of Snooker Explained Simply (2026 Guide)
Published · Mark O'Sullivan
Snooker is won by scoring more points than your opponent through potting reds and colours in the correct order, with the frame ending when all the balls are potted or one player cannot mathematically catch up.
If you have just started watching snooker, or you have picked up a cue for the first time and someone has put you in front of a full-size table, the rules can look daunting. There is a referee in white gloves, players calling for "a colour" or "free ball", and a scoreboard that climbs in odd jumps. In practice the game is built on a handful of simple ideas repeated over and over, and once those ideas click, everything else follows.
This guide is written the way I would explain it to someone standing next to me at the table, working through the objective, the balls, the order of play, and then the bits that actually cause arguments in club matches: fouls, the free ball, re-spotting the black, and the miss rule. By the end you should be able to follow a professional frame on television, or referee your own game with your mates, without having to guess.
The objective and how a frame is won
A frame of snooker is simply a contest to score more points than your opponent before the balls run out. Points come from potting balls in the right sequence, and from fouls your opponent gives away. There is no bonus for style or for clearing the table quickly. The player with the higher score when the final ball has been potted, or when it becomes impossible for the trailing player to catch up, wins the frame.
A match is made up of a set number of frames, and whoever wins the most frames wins the match. So the frame is the basic unit of scoring, but the match is the thing that decides the contest, whether that is a best-of-seven club match or a best-of-thirty-five World Championship final.
The balls and their values
Snooker is played with 22 balls: one white cue ball, 15 reds, and six colours. Each colour has a fixed point value, and each colour also has a fixed spot on the table where it is placed at the start of the frame and where it returns to if it needs to be re-spotted during play.
| Ball | Points | Where it spots |
|---|---|---|
| Red | 1 | Not respotted; packed in the triangle at the start |
| Yellow | 2 | Right corner of the D |
| Green | 3 | Left corner of the D |
| Brown | 4 | Middle of the D, on the baulk line |
| Blue | 5 | Centre spot of the table |
| Pink | 6 | Centre of the triangle, in line with the top of the reds |
| Black | 7 | Near the top cushion, on the spot closest to it |
The reds are worth one point each and, once potted, they stay in the pocket for the rest of the frame. The six colours are worth between two and seven points, and unlike reds, they get re-spotted on their own marked spot whenever they are potted during the reds-and-colours phase of the frame, so they can be used again and again until the reds run out.
Order of play: reds, then colours, then colours in sequence
For most of a frame, the players must pot a red first, then a colour of their choice, then another red, then another colour, and so on. This alternation is compulsory: if it is your turn and there are reds left on the table, you must aim to hit a red first with the cue ball, and if you legally pot a red you may then nominate any colour you like as your next shot.
Once potted, a colour is spotted back on its own spot and play returns to reds. This continues until all fifteen reds have gone. At that point the game changes shape: the six colours must now be potted in strict ascending order of value, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, then black, and once potted in this final phase they are not re-spotted, they stay down for good. The frame ends when the black is potted in this final sequence, or earlier if the score becomes unassailable.
Whoever is at the table when the reds run out simply continues into the colours phase if it is their turn, or the balls are left where they are for the incoming player if the previous shot ended their break. There is no special reset between the two phases beyond the change in which ball must be struck next.
Fouls and penalties
A foul happens whenever a player breaks one of the rules of a legal shot: hitting the wrong ball first, missing everything on the table, potting the cue ball, potting a ball that was not "on", or a number of smaller technical infringements such as playing before the balls have stopped moving or having a foot off the floor at the moment of striking.
Every foul carries a minimum penalty of four points, awarded to the opponent. If the foul involves a ball worth more than four points, for example the shot strikes the pink or the black illegally, the penalty is the value of that ball instead of the flat four. Where two different balls are involved in a single foul, and they carry different values, the penalty awarded is the higher of the two values, not the lower and not the total. So a foul that clips a red and then a black, for instance, is scored as a black-value foul, seven points, because that is the higher ball involved.
Fouls also carry a consequence beyond the points: the incoming player can ask the referee to make the offending player play again from the same position, which is a tactic used when the resulting position is worse for the opponent than simply taking the balls on themselves.
The free ball
A free ball is awarded when your opponent leaves you snookered after a foul, meaning you cannot see any part of a ball you are legally entitled to hit because the path is blocked by a ball you are not on. In that situation, the referee grants you a free ball, which means you may nominate any ball on the table to count as if it were the ball you should have been playing.
If you are on a red when the free ball is awarded, the ball you nominate counts as a red for scoring purposes, worth one point if potted, and you can then nominate any colour to follow it as normal. If you are on a colour, the free ball counts as that colour's value. Crucially, if you actually pot the free ball itself rather than the real ball it stands in for, the points scored are for whichever ball has the lower value between the two, so there is no way to profit twice from the situation.
Re-spotting colours and the re-spotted black
During the reds-and-colours phase, any colour that is potted legally is placed back on its own spot immediately, ready to be used again. This is why you will see the pink or the blue potted several times in a single break, each time being replaced before the next shot.
Things get more particular right at the end of a frame. If the scores are level after the final black has been potted in the colours sequence, the black is re-spotted and the players effectively play a mini decider for it, with the referee tossing a coin to decide who takes the first shot, since neither player has a ball in hand advantage at that point. This is the situation that produces some of the tensest moments in the sport, because a single pot or miss on the black decides the entire frame.
The miss rule and when it is called
The miss rule exists to stop players deliberately playing a poor safety shot and calling it an "attempt" when they never really tried to hit the ball they were on. A referee will call a miss when they judge that a player has not made a genuine effort to hit the ball on, taking into account the player's ability and the difficulty of the shot.
When a miss is called, it is a foul, so the usual penalty points apply, and the incoming player also has the option to ask for the balls to be left as they are and have their opponent play the shot again, sometimes more than once if repeated misses occur. This rule is applied with some judgement by the referee rather than mechanically, which is why it occasionally draws debate even among people who know the game well.
Frame and match scoring: best-of formats
A match's length is set in advance as a fixed number of frames, always presented as "best of" a certain number so there is a clear point at which the match ends. A best-of-seven match, common in shorter club or early-round professional matches, is won by the first player to reach four frames. A best-of-eleven needs six frames, and so on, with major finals sometimes stretching to best-of-thirty-five across two or more days.
Within a single frame, once it becomes mathematically impossible for the trailing player to draw level or overtake, even by potting every remaining ball including the black, the frame is conceded rather than played out to the final pot. This is why you sometimes see a player shake hands and concede with balls still on the table, and it is a normal, sporting part of the game rather than anything unusual.
Common misconceptions
A few points of confusion come up again and again among newer viewers and players, and they are worth clearing up directly.
You do not have to nominate a red before playing it. Reds have no individual identity to call, unlike colours, so a player is simply required to strike a red first when it is their turn during that phase, without announcing anything. It is only colours that need to be nominated, because there is a choice involved.
A snooker itself is not a foul. Being left snookered, unable to see the ball you need to hit, is simply a tactical situation, and it is entirely legal for your opponent to have put you there deliberately as part of normal safety play. It only becomes a foul-related matter if the snooker was left as the result of an illegal shot, which is when the free ball rule comes into play.
A "touching ball" is not automatically a foul either. If the cue ball is resting against another ball that is on, the player may still play a shot that counts as legally striking it, provided they play away from it in a way the referee is satisfied was a genuine stroke and not a push. And potting the white, the cue ball itself, is always a foul, worth at minimum four points, or more if a higher-value ball was involved in the same shot.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if a player fouls three times in a row?
There is no automatic extra penalty for repeated fouls in ordinary play, each foul is simply scored on its own merits. The exception is repeated misses under the miss rule, where a referee can require the same player to play the shot again more than once if they judge that no genuine attempt was made.
Can you win a frame without potting the black?
Yes, a frame is won as soon as the trailing player can no longer catch up, which can happen with balls, including the black, still on the table. Many frames on television end this way with a concession rather than a final pot.
What is the minimum number of points for a foul?
Four points is the minimum penalty for any foul, awarded to the opponent. If a higher-value ball, such as the blue, pink or black, is involved in the foul, the penalty rises to match that ball's value instead.
Why do players sometimes ask their opponent to play again?
After any foul, the incoming player has the option of taking the points and playing the balls as they lie, or asking the offending player to play the same shot again from the same position. This is used tactically when the position left behind is more awkward than the points on offer.
Is it true you can pot any ball as a free ball and it still counts full value?
Not quite. If you pot the nominated free ball itself, it scores as whichever value is lower between the free ball and the ball it was standing in for, rather than automatically taking the higher value.
How is a tied frame decided if the colours run out level?
If the scores are level after the black has been potted in the final colours sequence, the black is re-spotted, a coin toss decides who plays first, and the frame continues until the black is potted or conceded.
Do amateur and club matches follow the same rules as professional snooker?
Yes, the core rules around potting order, fouls, free balls and re-spotting are the same at every level. What differs between casual club play and professional matches is mainly the presence of a trained referee and the strictness with which finer points, like the miss rule, are applied.