I recently watched the snooker final on television, and I was enthralled. The level of accuracy and precision necessary, as well as the sums of money and sponsorship each player receives, are astounding.
I realize that to some people this may appear like one of the most boring games in the world (some may not even classify it as a sport!). The winner took home a record-breaking £250,000 prize for winning the tournament for the seventh consecutive year, while the runner-up was awarded £90,000.
I was curious about how popular snooker is worldwide and if anyone outside of the UK had heard of it after seeing the television documentary that demonstrated how the sport had developed through time and grown to be a major sport.
Pool is a totally different game with much smaller balls and different rules, yet I used to mix it with snooker. It might be very challenging to see the opposite end of the snooker table because it is 11 feet, 8.5 inches long.
The snooker rules are not too complicated. The only object you can strike with your snooker cue is the white cue ball. All of the balls on the table must be placed into the six pockets, two of which are halfway down each of the table’s long sides and two of which are situated in each of the table’s four corners.
You receive a specific number of points for each color ball. There are 15 red balls, and you must pot a colored ball first before you may pot another red ball.
Realistically, you want to pot a black every time you hit a red ball to get the maximum of 8 points overall. The other ball colors are yellow (2), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6), and black (7). (1 for the red ball plus 7 for the black). Once all of the red balls have been planted, you must plant the other colors according to the preceding explanation. The other player takes over if you miss potting a ball.
In order to win, you must consecutively pot as many balls as you can without allowing the other player take a turn. When you can’t pot the right ball, you might try to “snooker” your opponent by striking the ball such it lands behind another ball, preventing them from potting the right ball.
Each player must make an effort to plan which ball they want to pot next to guarantee the ball finishes where they want it to in order to ensure they do not miss the ball they are looking for and do not pot the cue ball.
