Overview
Two players take turns potting balls on a 12-foot table, alternating red and coloured balls. The highest score when the balls run out wins the frame.
Checked against the WPBSA Official Rules, revised September 2024. The WPBSA is the world governing body. Rule numbers below refer to Section 3.
1. The table and balls
A full-size table is known as a 12-foot table. Its playing area, inside the cushions, is 11 ft 8½ in by 5 ft 10 in (3,569 mm by 1,778 mm).
Twenty-two balls: one white cue ball, fifteen reds, and six colours.
| Colour | Value |
|---|---|
| Red | 1 |
| Yellow | 2 |
| Green | 3 |
| Brown | 4 |
| Blue | 5 |
| Pink | 6 |
| Black | 7 |
2. The sequence
This is the whole game, and getting it wrong is the most common beginner error.
- Pot a red. It stays down.
- Pot any colour. It is respotted on its own spot.
- Pot another red.
- Pot another colour — which may be the same one again.
- Repeat until all fifteen reds are gone.
- Then pot the colours in ascending order: yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black. These stay down.
The frame ends when the black is potted, or when a player concedes. If the scores are level after the black, it's re-spotted and the frame is decided by the re-spotted black.
3. The break
A break is the number of points scored in a single visit to the table.
The maximum possible is 147: fifteen reds each followed by a black (120), then the colours in sequence (27).
4. Fouls
A foul gives the opponent four points, or more for some fouls: the value of the ball on, or of the ball concerned, whichever is higher (Rule 11).
Common fouls:
- Potting the cue ball — in off
- Failing to hit the ball on first
- Hitting no ball at all — a miss
- Potting a ball that is not on
- Touching a ball with anything other than the cue tip
- A push shot, where the tip remains in contact with the cue ball
After a foul, the incoming player may play from where the cue ball lies, or ask the offender to play again.
5. The miss rule
Players must try their best to hit the ball on. If the referee judges they didn't, they call foul and a miss, and the opponent may have the offender play again from the position left or with the balls put back (Rule 14).
Where the ball on was in full view, a second miss from the same position brings a warning that a third will lose the frame, and a third does (Rule 14(d)).
6. Snookering
A player is snookered when the cue ball has no direct straight-line path to any ball on.
Laying a deliberate snooker is a core tactical weapon, particularly when a player is behind and needs fouls to catch up.
A free ball is called when a player is left snookered after a foul: they may nominate any ball to act as the ball on, worth the same as the ball on. If potted, it's re-spotted (Rule 12).
7. Frames and matches
A match is a set number of frames, or the most frames won.
Players concede when the remaining points cannot catch the deficit — described as "needing snookers".
Commonly argued
- Red, colour, red, colour — colours respot until the reds are gone.
- A foul is worth at least four points, more if the ball involved is worth more.
- Three misses lose the frame only after a warning, and only when the ball was in full view.
- The maximum break is 147, or 155 with a free ball at the start: the free ball counts as a red, then 15 reds and blacks and the colours.
- After a foul you may make the opponent play again.
- The colours are potted in ascending value order, not in any order.
Spotted a mistake?
Corrections are reviewed by an editor before they publish.