O'Sullivan played only a subset of tournaments in 2012, so he could spend more time with his children; as a result he ended the 2012-13 season ranked 19th in the world despite being the world champion. A two-tier structure was adopted for the 1997-98 snooker season; comprising six tournaments known as the WPBSA Minor Tour was open to all professionals, but only ran for one season. Events held specifically for seniors are handled by the WPBSA under the World Seniors Tour. Most matches in current professional tournaments are played as the best of 7, 9, or 11 frames, with finals usually the best of 17 or 19 frames. He did lose matches in handicapped tournaments, but on level terms these defeats were the only losses of his entire career. Snooker has faced criticism for matches taking too long. One game of snooker is called a "frame". Sinuca brasileira (or "Brazilian snooker") is a variant of snooker played exclusively in Brazil, with fully divergent rules from the standard game, and using only one red ball instead of fifteen.

In some unofficial circles, a scratch on a break is an automatic loss, but this is not common practice in the professional pool world or in most agreed upon informal rules. Snooker rules and refereeing. The shot-timed Premier League Snooker was held between 1987 and 2012, with seven players invited to compete at regular United Kingdom venues, and was televised on Sky Sports. John Pulman won the 1957 event and was the most successful player of the 1960s, won the event seven times between April 1964 and March 1968 when the World Championship was contested on a challenge basis. Players can qualify for the tour by virtue of their position in the world rankings from prior seasons, by winning continental championships, or through the Challenge Tour or Q School events. While the main professional tour is open to female players, there is also a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker (formerly the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association) that encourages female players to participate in the sport. You will need a small set of cylinders in various keyways, a board or vice to hold them in while you practice, and a small re-pinning kit (extra pins and springs and a "follower" tool).

Or I’ll get under the ball by accident and send it flying across the bar, where it’ll softly roll up against the boot of some pony-tailed, tattooed biker dude, who will then shoot me a cold, what is billiards piercing stare and begin punching his fist into his palm. Chances are the two pins will be reversed -- the formerly springy one will give resistance and the formerly stuck one will be springy. Pocketing the 1 ball scores 1 point.Pocketing the 2 ball scores 2 points.Caroming the cue ball off both object balls scores 1 point.- check Caroming the cue ball off one or both object balls and then into the bottle knocking it onto its side scores 5 points.- check Caroming the cue ball off one or both object balls and then into the bottle knocking onto its base results in an automatic win. The game employs a specialized vocabulary, chiefly derived from French words, encompassing many terms that have no analogues in other cue sports disciplines. The number of balls used in pool range from one to fifteen depending on the game type.

O'Sullivan played only one tournament in 2013, the World Championship, which he won. This event has been taken out of the tour since 2013, when the Champion of Champions was established. As of the 2024-25 season, players in the top 64 on the official ranking list are guaranteed a tour place for the next season, as well as a maximum of 31 players who are currently on the first year of a two-year tour card, and the top four prize money earners during the most recent season who are not already qualified; this being assessed after the World Championship. An alternative endgame is "poison": in this variant, a player who has scored the last wicket but not hit the starting stake becomes a "poison ball", which may eliminate other balls from the game by roqueting them. As someone who loves to play ladderball (but struggles to keep track of the score) I was immediately drawn to the elegance and simplicity (and touch of brutality) that is kubb.