How to Play Snooker: A Beginner's Guide

To play snooker you set up the balls, break off from the D, and then take turns potting a red followed by a colour, over and over, until the reds run out — then you clear the colours in order and count up the points. Most points wins the frame. This guide walks a complete beginner through it, from racking the table to your first visit.

Snooker rewards patience over power. The single biggest thing to learn early isn’t potting hard, it’s controlling where the cue ball stops, so you have a shot at the next ball.

Step 1: Set up the table

The six colours each have a fixed spot, and the reds go in a triangle behind the pink.

Ball	Where it goes
Yellow	Right corner of the D (baulk line)
Green	Left corner of the D (baulk line)
Brown	Centre of the baulk line
Blue	Centre spot of the table
Pink	Just below the middle (pyramid spot)
Black	Near the top cushion
15 reds	Tight triangle directly behind the pink

The cue ball starts in the D, the semicircle on the baulk line, and the player breaking may place it anywhere inside that D.

Step 2: Break off

The break-off is the opening shot, and the goal is safety, not a pot. Aim to clip the outside red of the pack thinly and send the cue ball back down to the baulk cushion, leaving your opponent nothing easy. Crashing into the pack scatters the reds and hands the other player chances — a classic beginner error.

Step 3: Take your turn

Here’s the sequence that runs the whole game. On your visit:

1. Pot a red (worth 1 point). It stays down.
2. Pot any colour. It’s worth its value — then it’s re-spotted back onto the table.
3. Pot another red, then another colour, and so on.
4. Keep alternating red, colour, red, colour until all 15 reds are gone.
5. Now pot the colours in order: yellow (2), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6), black (7). These stay down.

You keep your turn as long as you keep potting legally. The moment you miss, foul, or decide to play a safety shot instead, your visit ends and your opponent comes to the table. Because you take the highest colour — the black — after each red for maximum points, the perfect visit adds up to snooker’s 147 maximum break.

Step 4: Score and win the frame

Points come from balls you pot and from fouls your opponent commits. Your running total in one visit is your break, and stringing pots together is the whole art. The player with the most points when the balls are cleared wins the frame. For the full point-by-point picture, our how snooker scoring works guide lays out the maths, and snooker ball values is a handy reference for the colours.

The fouls to avoid

Even as a beginner it’s worth knowing the fouls, because each one gives your opponent at least four points:

• Missing every ball with the cue ball.
• Potting the cue ball (an “in-off”).
• Hitting a colour first when you’re on a red.
• Knocking a ball off the table.

The full penalties are in our snooker fouls explained guide, and the complete framework — potting order, frames, snookers — in snooker rules explained.

How to get better

When you’re starting, chase three things: keep your head still over the shot, deliver the cue straight, and think about where the cue ball will finish, not just whether the object ball drops. The best practice drill is the line-up: pot balls in sequence while trying to leave yourself the next shot. That habit — playing position — is what separates someone who pots one ball from someone who makes a break.

If you enjoy how different cue sports set their own puzzles, our guide to how to rack pool balls and the wider types of pool games show how the setup and scoring change once you move to the pool table.

The short version: set the colours on their spots and the reds behind the pink, break off for safety, then pot red-colour-red-colour until the reds are gone, clear the colours in order, and outscore your opponent. Learn cue-ball position early and the breaks will follow.