Owen, John (October 18, 2020). "Teaser 3030: Pot Success". Len Ganley, John Street and John Williams officiated at seventeen of the first twenty World Snooker finals held at the Crucible Theatre. At first of a body, the item balls are positioned on the desk as shown in illustration A. Starting with the cue ball within the "D", the primary participant executes a break-off shot by striking the cue ball with the tip of their cue, aiming to hit any of the pink balls within the triangular pack. The tip of the cue must solely make contact with the cue ball and is rarely used for hanging any of the reds or colours straight. The cue ball can contact an object ball instantly or it could also be made to bounce off a number of cushions earlier than hitting the required object ball. Failure to make contact with a purple ball constitutes a foul, which ends up in penalty points being awarded to the opponent. However, gamers will usually play on even when there aren't sufficient factors out there for them to win, in the hope of laying a number of "snookers" to power their opponent into enjoying foul pictures. Beginning in the 2014-15 season, some gamers have also received invitational tour cards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the sport; these playing cards are issued on the discretion of the World Snooker Board, and have been awarded to players including Steve Davis, James Wattana, Jimmy White, and Stephen Hendry.

Additionally, "one-yr" and "two-year" rating lists are compiled at the end of every season, after the World Championship; these year-finish lists are used for pre-qualification at certain tournaments and for tour-card guarantees. This "rolling" record is maintained and up to date all through the season, with factors from tournaments played in the present season replacing factors earned from the corresponding tournaments of two seasons ago. The colours must subsequent be potted within the ascending order of their values, from lowest to highest, i.e. yellow first (price two factors), then green (three factors), brown (four factors), blue (5 factors), pink (six factors), and eventually black (seven factors); at this stage of the sport, each color remains in the pocket after being potted. The World Championship uses an extended format, with matches starting from the best of 19 frames in the primary spherical to best of 35 for the final, What is a billiards club which is played over four classes of play held over two days.

The participant to take the primary strike in the tiebreak is chosen at random, and the game continues until one of the players both wins the frame by potting the black ball or loses the body by committing a foul. One game of snooker known as a "body", and a snooker match typically consists of a predetermined variety of frames. Most matches in current professional tournaments are played because the best of 7, 9, or eleven frames, with finals normally the best of 17 or 19 frames. Some early world finals had for much longer matches, such as the 1947 World Snooker Championship, which was performed over the best of 145 frames. If there aren't sufficient factors remaining on the desk for a player to potentially win the body, that participant may offer to concede the frame while at the desk (but not while their opponent remains to be on the table); a frame concession is a standard occurrence in professional snooker. A participant wins a frame by scoring extra factors than their opponent. Points accumulated by potting successive object balls are known as a "break" (see Scoring below). A simple scoring bead is generally used, referred to as a "scoring string" or "scoring wire".

Each section of the string (bead) represents one level because the players can transfer one or several beads alongside the string. All competitions are open to professional players who have certified for the tour, and selected beginner players, however most occasions embody a separate qualification stage. While the primary professional tour is open to male and feminine players alike, there is also a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker (previously the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association) which encourages feminine gamers to participate in the sport and participate in excessive level newbie competitions. A two-tier construction was adopted for the 1997-98 season; comprising six tournaments identified as the WPBSA Minor Tour was open to all professionals, but solely ran for one season. World Snooker Ltd is chargeable for the skilled tour which is owned by both the WPBSA and Matchroom Sport. The following is a glossary of conventional English-language phrases used in the three overarching cue sports activities disciplines: carom billiards referring to the varied carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a desk with six pockets; and snooker, played on a big pocket table, and which has a sport tradition unto itself distinct from pool.