Online Snooker Rules
brislet asked:
Snooker is a totally different game than pool, although its origins come from the same place. Snooker is played on a pool table with larger dimensions and with a different set of balls and longer cue sticks.
In Snooker, in addition to the white cue ball, there are 21 target balls, 15 red and 6 colored. Each ball color has a different point value. The red balls are worth 1 point, the yellow balls are worth 2, the green are worth 3, the brown are worth 4, the blue are worth 5, the pink are worth 6 and the black is worth 7.
Here’s how the game works. First you must pocket a red ball and then after every red ball that’s pocketed, you should pocket a color ball. This will allow you to gain the point value of the colored ball. If there are still red balls on the table, the colored balls are returned to their place on the table (there is a designated location for each colored ball) in order to continue gaining points. When there are no more red balls on the table, then the players must aim to pocket the colored balls. This must be done according to their point value. The overall objective of the game is to get more points than your opponent by the end of the game.
If a player causes the white cue ball to hit the wrong ball (either a colored before a red, or the wrong color at the end of the game because it’s out of order) then it’s considered a foul. When a player gets a foul, the player’s turn is over and his opponent gains points for the foul. The opponent can allow the player to then do-over the hit and if the player with a foul continues to foul (three in a row), then he automatically loses the frame.
Online snooker is played the same as offline snooker. Many players like to play snooker online in order to practice their skills and learn additional strategies as they go along. It’s a great way for players who are learning snooker (and who might not have access to snooker tables, etc.), to play the game and develop their personal skills and strategies.
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Snooker is a totally different game than pool, although its origins come from the same place. Snooker is played on a pool table with larger dimensions and with a different set of balls and longer cue sticks.
In Snooker, in addition to the white cue ball, there are 21 target balls, 15 red and 6 colored. Each ball color has a different point value. The red balls are worth 1 point, the yellow balls are worth 2, the green are worth 3, the brown are worth 4, the blue are worth 5, the pink are worth 6 and the black is worth 7.
Here’s how the game works. First you must pocket a red ball and then after every red ball that’s pocketed, you should pocket a color ball. This will allow you to gain the point value of the colored ball. If there are still red balls on the table, the colored balls are returned to their place on the table (there is a designated location for each colored ball) in order to continue gaining points. When there are no more red balls on the table, then the players must aim to pocket the colored balls. This must be done according to their point value. The overall objective of the game is to get more points than your opponent by the end of the game.
If a player causes the white cue ball to hit the wrong ball (either a colored before a red, or the wrong color at the end of the game because it’s out of order) then it’s considered a foul. When a player gets a foul, the player’s turn is over and his opponent gains points for the foul. The opponent can allow the player to then do-over the hit and if the player with a foul continues to foul (three in a row), then he automatically loses the frame.
Online snooker is played the same as offline snooker. Many players like to play snooker online in order to practice their skills and learn additional strategies as they go along. It’s a great way for players who are learning snooker (and who might not have access to snooker tables, etc.), to play the game and develop their personal skills and strategies.
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In Praise of Snooker Tables
Steve Porter asked:
Snooker is one of the great games, relaxing, requiring some skill but not too strenuous. Having a snooker room in your home is something to aspire to, at least for men. However you do need a large room for the 12-foot full-blown version. The good news is you can get smaller tables too, starting at 7 foot. They still have the same slate bed and leather pockets so they last forever and still have that classic wood frame. The 7 foot and 8 foot versions only have 10 reds on the table so the table doesn’t get overcrowded with balls, but apart from that its almost as good as the real thing.
If you are thinking of buying a snooker table, first check the room size required. As a general rule of thumb, add 10 feet to each dimension to find out what room size you need. The 12-foot table for example requires a room size of 22 feet by 16 feet to allow for a clean cue action all around the table. The cues are normally 57 inches in length. So for a 7-foot table you need a room of 17 feet by 10 foot 6 inches. (A snooker table is always twice as long as it is wide)
When it comes to which one to buy, bear in mind that the actual playing surface is virtually the same on all snooker tables. The price you pay for a table is largely determined by the leg design and wood chosen. The tables can be made either in solid wood like mahogany or ash or made from boxwood covered in a veneer. The tables made from the solid wood are stained to give it the colour you want whilst the veneered type have the correct colour of veneer applied and are less expensive. Also the leg design is also a factor in the cost. A complicated design is more difficult to make and so more expensive.
The larger tables have 8 legs and the smaller tables have 4 legs and the medium size tables have 6 legs. The weight of a big 12-foot table is almost 1 ton and generally the weight of a snooker table is the equivalent weight of 2 men per leg. So a 4-leg table is half a ton up to the full ton for an 8 leg table.
Most of the weight of a snooker table is in the slate of course. The thickness of the slate is usually 1 inch up to 1-¾ inches for the tournament tables. The smaller tables usually have a single piece of slate for tables up to 8 feet. That requires 3 men at least to lift it, so for the bigger tables the slate is cut into separate pieces and then aligned when it is assembled on site. This is why snooker tables should be professionally installed.
When the snooker table is put together, the frame is assembled first and that has large wooden cross members to put the slate on. The slate is the put onto the frame and if the slate is in separate pieces they are aligned to provide a perfectly flat surface so the gap between the individual pieces is virtually non-existent. The cloth is then stretched over the slate and stapled to the frame to keep the cloth taught. The cushions which already have the rubber and cloth prepared, are then bolted to the frame. The pockets are made from metal and leather are screwed into the side rails last of all.
So if you are thinking of buying a snooker table, first determine what size table will fit in your room and then decide what colour wood would be best in your room from light coloured ash to the dark mahogany. The weight of the table is spread between lots of legs and a standard floor type is usually quite sufficient. Then think of what it would be like to have your own snooker table, the look and feel of it, and enjoy.
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Snooker is one of the great games, relaxing, requiring some skill but not too strenuous. Having a snooker room in your home is something to aspire to, at least for men. However you do need a large room for the 12-foot full-blown version. The good news is you can get smaller tables too, starting at 7 foot. They still have the same slate bed and leather pockets so they last forever and still have that classic wood frame. The 7 foot and 8 foot versions only have 10 reds on the table so the table doesn’t get overcrowded with balls, but apart from that its almost as good as the real thing.
If you are thinking of buying a snooker table, first check the room size required. As a general rule of thumb, add 10 feet to each dimension to find out what room size you need. The 12-foot table for example requires a room size of 22 feet by 16 feet to allow for a clean cue action all around the table. The cues are normally 57 inches in length. So for a 7-foot table you need a room of 17 feet by 10 foot 6 inches. (A snooker table is always twice as long as it is wide)
When it comes to which one to buy, bear in mind that the actual playing surface is virtually the same on all snooker tables. The price you pay for a table is largely determined by the leg design and wood chosen. The tables can be made either in solid wood like mahogany or ash or made from boxwood covered in a veneer. The tables made from the solid wood are stained to give it the colour you want whilst the veneered type have the correct colour of veneer applied and are less expensive. Also the leg design is also a factor in the cost. A complicated design is more difficult to make and so more expensive.
The larger tables have 8 legs and the smaller tables have 4 legs and the medium size tables have 6 legs. The weight of a big 12-foot table is almost 1 ton and generally the weight of a snooker table is the equivalent weight of 2 men per leg. So a 4-leg table is half a ton up to the full ton for an 8 leg table.
Most of the weight of a snooker table is in the slate of course. The thickness of the slate is usually 1 inch up to 1-¾ inches for the tournament tables. The smaller tables usually have a single piece of slate for tables up to 8 feet. That requires 3 men at least to lift it, so for the bigger tables the slate is cut into separate pieces and then aligned when it is assembled on site. This is why snooker tables should be professionally installed.
When the snooker table is put together, the frame is assembled first and that has large wooden cross members to put the slate on. The slate is the put onto the frame and if the slate is in separate pieces they are aligned to provide a perfectly flat surface so the gap between the individual pieces is virtually non-existent. The cloth is then stretched over the slate and stapled to the frame to keep the cloth taught. The cushions which already have the rubber and cloth prepared, are then bolted to the frame. The pockets are made from metal and leather are screwed into the side rails last of all.
So if you are thinking of buying a snooker table, first determine what size table will fit in your room and then decide what colour wood would be best in your room from light coloured ash to the dark mahogany. The weight of the table is spread between lots of legs and a standard floor type is usually quite sufficient. Then think of what it would be like to have your own snooker table, the look and feel of it, and enjoy.
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American Pool is an Incredible Sport, Yet it is not Catching on in the Uk?
Pete Williams asked:
American Pool, which is played on a 9 x 4.5ft table, consists of at least 5 regularly played disciplines. The most popular are the games of 9-ball and 8-ball and these games are played all over the world at an amateur and professional level.
The American style tables first started being put into UK clubs in the early 90’s when operators could see the benefit of offering cue sports for all. These tables are easy to play on and take up far less space than snooker tables.
The lack of popularity of American Pool in the UK is caused in part by conservatism, snooker and English pool are both very traditional sports and at a tournament and professional level are played in very traditional ways. Players wear suits, waistcoats and dickey-bow ties. American Pool is very liberal; players do have to adhere to a dress code but this is not so strict. Audiences tend to be a lot more vocal too!
The next point that I touch on is that there are over 5 million snooker and English pool players in the UK. In the case of English pool, it is always going to be very difficult to convert a player to the larger tables because their local pub can’t house a 9ft pool table. This is the case for the vast majority of public houses throughout the UK. The main player base does not want to travel to a pool hall and pay £7-£8 per hour to play a game of pool when they can go around the corner to their local pub and pay 50p per game. Not that it is all about money, it is convenience too. That is not to say that these “pub pool” players do not enjoy American Pool, I am sure they do, it is just seen as a night out for them and something that only happens rarely.
We then have to consider the impact of television and media coverage of Cue Sports. Snooker commands huge television audiences from its broadcasts on the BBC. The BBC is accessible in nearly every home in the UK, which means that anyone can tune in to watch if they want to. By having the game easily accessible on the TV networks people get a buzz for the sport and want to go and play themselves. This is especially prevalent considering the large sums of money that the professional players receive for winning a tournament. Who would not be attracted to that aspect of the sport?
In contrast American pool is only available via the SKY Sports network (although some is now reaching British Eurosport) and is shown at very inconvenient times. I am not sure of the number of homes that subscribe to SKY Sports but it is probably only about one tenth of the total number of households that can view the BBC. Of these 10% the majority are subscribing to watch the football not the pool. So it all comes down to promotion and exposure. Without reaching the mass market via terrestrial TV American pool will not develop and although English pool does not have the exposure either it is accessible due to the number of tables available in local pubs.
Something that I touched on earlier that further cements the case is prize money. A sport is only attractive to TV audiences (in the first instance) if players are seen to be earning huge sums of money or if the TV networks can see that there is already a mass market. In snooker this has previously been the case (more recently prize funds have dwindled but they still are into the £100,000’s), which is why young people especially want to take up the sport, it is relatively cheap to play and if you get good then you can earn some money playing the game.
In American Pool prize funds in the vast majority of cases are made up solely of entry fees. This means that it can be expensive to play with no real rewards for winning. Even in the USA and on the main professional circuits, sponsorship in the form of added prize money is at a premium. It is not very attractive to players if they cannot be seen to be making a living. I don’t want to paint a completely bleak picture because there are around 30-40 players that earn a very decent living through tournaments and endorsements.
So in conclusion it is easy to see that until the exposure of the sport changes and sponsors come on board the sport will not grow in the UK and our cueists (who I believe to be the best in the world) will stick to what they know.
The game also needs a grassroots level, which is something I tried to introduce when I launched APN Leagues (now owned and operated by a different party). It is grassroots tournaments, coaching and leagues that will build the player base in the first instance, then all the other factors mentioned above will almost fall into place.
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American Pool, which is played on a 9 x 4.5ft table, consists of at least 5 regularly played disciplines. The most popular are the games of 9-ball and 8-ball and these games are played all over the world at an amateur and professional level.
The American style tables first started being put into UK clubs in the early 90’s when operators could see the benefit of offering cue sports for all. These tables are easy to play on and take up far less space than snooker tables.
The lack of popularity of American Pool in the UK is caused in part by conservatism, snooker and English pool are both very traditional sports and at a tournament and professional level are played in very traditional ways. Players wear suits, waistcoats and dickey-bow ties. American Pool is very liberal; players do have to adhere to a dress code but this is not so strict. Audiences tend to be a lot more vocal too!
The next point that I touch on is that there are over 5 million snooker and English pool players in the UK. In the case of English pool, it is always going to be very difficult to convert a player to the larger tables because their local pub can’t house a 9ft pool table. This is the case for the vast majority of public houses throughout the UK. The main player base does not want to travel to a pool hall and pay £7-£8 per hour to play a game of pool when they can go around the corner to their local pub and pay 50p per game. Not that it is all about money, it is convenience too. That is not to say that these “pub pool” players do not enjoy American Pool, I am sure they do, it is just seen as a night out for them and something that only happens rarely.
We then have to consider the impact of television and media coverage of Cue Sports. Snooker commands huge television audiences from its broadcasts on the BBC. The BBC is accessible in nearly every home in the UK, which means that anyone can tune in to watch if they want to. By having the game easily accessible on the TV networks people get a buzz for the sport and want to go and play themselves. This is especially prevalent considering the large sums of money that the professional players receive for winning a tournament. Who would not be attracted to that aspect of the sport?
In contrast American pool is only available via the SKY Sports network (although some is now reaching British Eurosport) and is shown at very inconvenient times. I am not sure of the number of homes that subscribe to SKY Sports but it is probably only about one tenth of the total number of households that can view the BBC. Of these 10% the majority are subscribing to watch the football not the pool. So it all comes down to promotion and exposure. Without reaching the mass market via terrestrial TV American pool will not develop and although English pool does not have the exposure either it is accessible due to the number of tables available in local pubs.
Something that I touched on earlier that further cements the case is prize money. A sport is only attractive to TV audiences (in the first instance) if players are seen to be earning huge sums of money or if the TV networks can see that there is already a mass market. In snooker this has previously been the case (more recently prize funds have dwindled but they still are into the £100,000’s), which is why young people especially want to take up the sport, it is relatively cheap to play and if you get good then you can earn some money playing the game.
In American Pool prize funds in the vast majority of cases are made up solely of entry fees. This means that it can be expensive to play with no real rewards for winning. Even in the USA and on the main professional circuits, sponsorship in the form of added prize money is at a premium. It is not very attractive to players if they cannot be seen to be making a living. I don’t want to paint a completely bleak picture because there are around 30-40 players that earn a very decent living through tournaments and endorsements.
So in conclusion it is easy to see that until the exposure of the sport changes and sponsors come on board the sport will not grow in the UK and our cueists (who I believe to be the best in the world) will stick to what they know.
The game also needs a grassroots level, which is something I tried to introduce when I launched APN Leagues (now owned and operated by a different party). It is grassroots tournaments, coaching and leagues that will build the player base in the first instance, then all the other factors mentioned above will almost fall into place.
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Pool Table Construction: Hardwoods Vs Mdf
The most common hardwoods used in the construction of pool tables are mahogany, oak, birch and rosewood. The durability of these woods makes them ideal for holding the weight of a slate playing surface, without the risk of warping over time. Not only are these woods extremely hard wearing but the grain and finish of the wood adds to the character of the finished pool table.
Mahogany was particularly prevalent in the pool and snooker industry up until the early 19th century. When polished it displays a deep red brown finish which darkens over time, and straight grain. While it is still regarded as one of the best choices for larger pool tables, intensive deforestation has increased the cost immensely. The same is true to a lesser extent of other hardwoods, and this has led to the introduction of MDF as a cheaper alternative.
The introduction of MDF to the pool table industry created a wealth of cheaper, less durable models which, for the first time, made pool tables affordable to almost anybody. The main reason for the introduction of cheaper, smaller pool tables was for the domestic consumer market. These tables are not hand crafted/finished as their predecessors were, but machine made.
The main benefit of the wider availability of pool tables, which had once been the privilege of the very wealthy, was that the game of pool was brought to a much wider audience. Whereas before you had to join a club, or be old enough to go to a pub to play, people could now enjoy the game in their own home.
The major disadvantages of using a cheaper, manmade composite like MDF are that it is not as durable as a natural hardwood, and must more susceptible to variations in humidity and temperature. In order to maintain the appearance of a ‘real’ pool table, these MDF bed tables are usually finished with a wood effect veneer (typically of mahogany, rosewood or oak) and domestic quality cloth/rubber.
