Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a baize-covered snooker table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white cue ball, 15 red balls worth one point each, and six balls of different colours: yellow, green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6), black (7). A player wins a frame of snooker by scoring more points than the opponent(s), using the cue ball to pot the red and coloured object balls. A player wins a match when they have achieved the best-of score from a pre-determined number of frames. The number of frames is always odd so as to prevent a tie or a draw.
Pack of reds, not touching the pink
Snooker table with all balls at the beginning of a frame. The cue ball has been placed within the D for a break-off shot.
Glossary of cue sports terms
The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also games such as English billiards that include aspects of multiple disciplines.
An 8 ball (with the cue ball behind it)
Billiards glasses
A player with her bridge hand close to the centre pocket
A manufacturer's sample board showing various styles of diamond inlays for billiard tables