Snooker's rules are published by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Its rules page lists the 2024-25 rulebook, released in September 2024, as current, along with an August 2024 update document. The same page's meta description says the rules were last updated in November 2019, which conflicts with that; we follow the 2024-25 rulebook and its update. The WPBSA reviews the printed rulebook every two years, and planned its next print for after the 2025/26 World Snooker Tour season. Some details on this page come from an earlier website edition of the rulebook (updated May 2022), listed in the sources.
The table
| Measurement | WPBSA figure |
|---|---|
| Playing area | 3569 mm by 1778 mm (11 ft 8.5 in by 5 ft 10 in), plus or minus 13 mm |
| Height, floor to top of cushion rail | 864 mm (2 ft 10 in), plus or minus 13 mm |
| Baulk line | 737 mm (29 in) from the face of the bottom cushion |
| The "D" | A semicircle centred on the middle of the baulk line, radius 292 mm (11.5 in) |
| Black spot | 324 mm (12.75 in) from the top cushion |
Viewed from the baulk end, the colours sit on these spots: yellow on the right-hand corner of the D, green on the left-hand corner, brown in the middle of the baulk line, blue at the centre of the table, pink halfway between the blue and the top cushion, and black on its spot near the top cushion.
Balls and cue
Snooker balls are 52.5 mm in diameter, plus or minus 0.05 mm, and the balls in a set should not differ in weight by more than 3 g. A snooker cue must be at least 3 ft (914 mm) long and have the traditional tapered shape.
| Ball | Number | Value |
|---|---|---|
| White (cue ball) | 1 | None |
| Red | 15 | 1 each |
| Yellow | 1 | 2 |
| Green | 1 | 3 |
| Brown | 1 | 4 |
| Blue | 1 | 5 |
| Pink | 1 | 6 |
| Black | 1 | 7 |
The reds are set up in a tight equilateral triangle. The apex red sits on the centre line as close as possible to the pink without touching the pink's spot, with the base of the triangle parallel to the top cushion. The colours go on their spots.
How play works
- Start every turn on a red. The first stroke of each turn must be at a red.
- Red, then a colour. After potting a red, you nominate a colour as your next ball on, and play it. While reds remain, a potted colour goes back on its spot.
- Keep alternating. Red, colour, red, colour, for as long as you keep potting.
- Clear the colours. Once all the reds are gone, the colours are potted in ascending order of value, yellow through black, and stay off the table.
The maximum break
A maximum break of 147 is fifteen reds, each followed by the black (15 times 8 makes 120), then all six colours in order (2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 5 plus 6 plus 7 makes 27). The WPBSA records Steve Davis's 147 against John Spencer at the 1982 Lada Classic as the first official maximum, and David Gilbert's at the Championship League in Coventry in January 2019 as the 147th.
A break above 147 is possible when a free ball (explained below) is nominated before any red has been potted, because the free ball acts as an extra red. With the black after it, that gives a theoretical maximum of 155. SnookerHQ says a 155 has never been made in professional play, and records a 148 by Jamie Burnett in UK Championship qualifying.
Fouls and penalties
Every foul costs at least four penalty points. Some fouls cost more:
| Penalty | Examples |
|---|---|
| Value of the ball on (minimum 4) | Striking the cue ball twice, both feet off the floor, playing improperly from in-hand, potting the cue ball, a jump shot, using a non-standard cue |
| Value of the ball on or the ball concerned, whichever is higher (minimum 4) | Striking while a ball is still moving, potting a ball that is not on, the cue ball first hitting a ball that is not on, a push stroke, touching a ball with your body or equipment, forcing a ball off the table |
| Fixed 7 points | Using a ball that is off the table, measuring with an object, potting reds in consecutive strokes, using anything other than the white as the cue ball, failing to say which ball is on when asked, fouling after potting a red but before nominating a colour |
If a single stroke commits several fouls, only the highest penalty applies. Balls potted on a foul stroke do not score. After a foul, the next player can either play from the position left or make the offender play again.
Two of these fouls are defined precisely in the rules. A push stroke is when the tip stays on the cue ball after it has started moving, or is still touching it when it reaches an object ball. A jump shot, in which the cue ball passes over any part of an object ball (with some exceptions), is a foul in snooker. This differs from WPA pool, where a properly played jump is legal.
Snookers and the free ball
You are snookered when every ball on is fully or partly blocked from a straight path by balls that are not on. If you can hit both outside edges of any ball on, you are not snookered, and a cushion in the way does not count as a snooker.
If a foul leaves the next player snookered, the referee calls FREE BALL. You may then nominate any ball and play it as though it were the ball on. The free ball takes the value of the ball on, and if you pot it, it is re-spotted and you score the value of the ball on.
Two things are fouls on a free ball: failing to hit the free ball first, and, on a stroke that scores nothing, using the free ball to snooker your opponent behind it on all the reds or the ball on. The snookering restriction has an exception that used to apply only when the pink and black were the last balls; the August 2024 update extended it to also cover the black plus one other colour.
Foul and a miss
When you had a clear straight path to a ball on and the cue ball did not hit it first, the referee calls FOUL AND A MISS. Your opponent can choose to play from the position left, or have every ball put back where it was and make you play again. On a replay from the original position, another failure is again a foul and a miss, whatever the score, and you are warned that failing again will give the frame to your opponent.
The common description of this as "three misses and you lose the frame" does not appear in that form in the WPBSA text we read, which describes a warning before the frame is awarded. In the Six Reds variant, the warning comes after the fourth consecutive foul and a miss.
Touching ball
If the cue ball comes to rest touching a ball that is on, or could be on, the referee calls TOUCHING BALL. You must play away from it without moving that ball, or it is a push stroke.
Ending the frame
- Last black. When only the black is left, the first pot or foul normally ends the frame.
- Claiming the frame. When only the black remains and you lead by more than seven points, you may claim the frame.
- Re-spotted black. If the scores are level after the last black is potted (or after a foul on it), and aggregate scores do not matter, the black is re-spotted. The players draw lots to decide who plays first; that player plays from in-hand in the D, and the next pot or foul ends the frame. The same procedure is used at the end of the last frame of a match decided on aggregate scores.
English billiards, briefly
The same WPBSA rulebook covers English billiards, played on a table the size of a snooker table with 52.5 mm balls. Potting the red, or going in-off the red, scores 3. A cannon, potting the other cue ball, or going in-off the other cue ball scores 2. A foul costs two points, with no more than two charged on one stroke, and a miss also costs two.
For cueing and stance specific to snooker, see snooker technique.