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Snooker rules for beginners
Snooker looks complicated, but the scoring is simple once you know what each ball is worth and the order you play them in. This is everything you need to start building breaks in Apex Break.
What each ball is worth
There are fifteen reds worth 1 point each, and six colours: yellow 2, green 3, brown 4, blue 5, pink 6 and black 7. The white is the cue ball, the only ball you strike with the cue.
The order of play
While there are reds on the table, you play a red first. Pot a red, and you may then play any colour. Pot the colour and it comes back to its spot, and you play another red. Red, colour, red, colour, for as long as you keep potting.
When the last red is gone, the colours are played in order of value, from yellow up to black, and they stay down once potted.
What a break is
A break is the total you score in one visit to the table, from your first potted ball until you miss. Pot a red (1), then the black (7), then another red (1) and the blue (5), and your break is 14. The highest possible break is 147: every red with the black, then all six colours.
How Apex Break uses it
In an Apex Break competition your score is your highest single break in the competition window. Ties go to the higher total in a single frame, then the quicker frame, and players still level share the prizes for the places they occupy.
A foul scores nothing, even if the right ball goes in: hit the wrong ball first, hit nothing, sink the wrong ball or sink the white, and your run ends. The first shot of a frame is free, so a foul there scores nothing but play goes on.
Practice is free and needs no account, so you can learn the angles and the order of play before you enter.
Where to go next
Once the order of play is second nature, the next step is position: leaving the cue ball where your next shot is easy. Our guide to building big breaks covers aiming, power and spin.