SNOOKER
Snooker—or, to give it its full title, Snooker’s Pool—is a hybrid game, half pool and half pyramids. Any reasonable number of players, say five or six, may take part; but it is best to play a single-handed game, or for two to play against two. As is the case with black pool, there are no accepted rules, the published code being of little use, so many are the deviations from it. The general method of play is here laid down, so that those who are unfamiliar with the game may make its acquaintance.
The pyramid balls are set up in the usual way, and the striker always uses the white ball. The black ball is set on the billiard spot, the pink on the centre spot. Blue is placed just below the apex-ball of the pyramid, brown on the centre spot of the Ｄ, with yellow and green on the right and left corner spots.
If pink and black are not introduced, blue is put on the billiard spot, brown on the centre spot, green at the apex of the triangle, and yellow on the centre spot of the Ｄ. The positions of pink and black are sometimes reversed.
A red ball counts one, yellow two, green three, brown four, blue five, pink six, and black seven. The score, if two persons are playing or sides are formed, may be marked on the board as at billiards.
A red ball must be taken before a coloured ball can be played at; if the striker, playing on a red, holes it, and takes a coloured ball also, the latter does not count and is spotted. If, playing on red, he fails to hole it, but holes a coloured ball, the value of the latter is scored to the other side.
In each of these cases the striker is allowed in some rooms to score the coloured ball; the rule given is the generally accepted one.
After taking a red, the striker must play on one of the coloured balls. If he holes one of them, any other balls that go down by the same stroke count to him. All coloured balls which are holed must be spotted immediately; if the striker plays before all are spotted, the stroke is foul. No red ball is ever put up. The rules for foul strokes are the same as those of ordinary pool, and penalties are incurred in the same way, but the amount of the penalty is the value of the ball played at—i.e. to miss a red counts one, to miss the yellow two, and so forth. If the striker, playing at red, hits a coloured ball, the penalty is the value of the ball struck.
The rule is not always as severe as this. In many rooms, to miss red involves a penalty of one, to miss yellow of two, and so on, regardless of the value of any ball that may be struck afterwards.
If the striker gives a miss, the ball is left where it finally stops. If the striker is by law obliged to play on a red ball or on a coloured ball, but from the position of his own ball is unable to do so directly, he is said to be snookered; he must then make a bona-fide shot at the proper ball off the cushion, the penalty if he misses being the minimum penalty: e.g. if he is bound to hit a red ball, the penalty is only one; if a coloured ball, two—the value of yellow.