The player must then pot another red ball followed by another colour. Play then continues with the cue ball shot from where it rested and the fifteenth ball from where it rested prior to racking. The player must then play away from that ball without moving it or else the player will concede penalty points. Failure to make contact with a red ball constitutes a foul, which results in penalty points being awarded to the opponent. These rules are similar to the ones used today, although rules for a minimal point penalty were imposed later. Such rules are detailed on the following chart (note therein that the kitchen refers to the area behind the table's head string). The popularity of snooker has led to the creation of many variations based on the standard game but with different rules or equipment, including six-red snooker, the short-lived "snooker plus" and the more recent Snooker Shoot Out version.

In the 1870s, billiards was popular among British Army officers stationed in Jubbulpore, India, and several variations of the game were devised during this time. While there is some separation between the billiards hall and the bar (there are new bathrooms located between the two spaces), the large entry between the two rooms offers patrons the ability to bring beers and food into the billiards area. While pool tables are common to many pubs, snooker tends to be played either in private settings or in public snooker halls. In the 2022-23 season, only two professional ranking tournaments were played outside the UK, the European Masters in Fürth and the German Masters in Berlin, while lucrative Chinese events remained off the calendar. A Women's Professional Snooker Championship (now the World Women's Snooker Championship) was created in 1934 for top female players. The main professional tour is open to both male and female players, and there is a separate women's tour organised by World Women's Snooker.

In the same year, promoter Barry Hearn gained a controlling interest in the World Snooker Tour, pledging to revitalise the "moribund" professional game. However, the British public's interest in snooker had waned significantly by the late 2000s. Warning that the sport was "lurching into terminal crisis", The Guardian newspaper predicted in 2010 that snooker would cease to exist as a professional sport within ten years. However, lower-ranked professional players struggled to make a living from the sport, especially after paying tournament entry fees, travel, and other expenses. Each segment of the string (bead) represents one point as the players can move one or several beads along the string. In the same year, the 1969 World Snooker Championship reverted to a knockout tournament format, with eight players competing. In 1985, an estimated 18.5 million viewers stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch the conclusion of the World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, a record viewership in the UK for any broadcast on BBC Two or any broadcast after midnight. 1978 World Snooker Championship was the first to receive daily television coverage. Played in 1926 and 1927, the first World Snooker Championship-then known as the Professional Championship of Snooker-was won by Joe Davis.

As a professional English billiards and snooker player himself, Davis raised the game from a recreational pastime to a professional sporting activity. Billiards is a reference name given to a bunch of three games; pocket billiards, snooker carom billiards. With the playing of this billiards table one can always end up losing a lot of calories that would help him staying fit, it does not matter if you go to the gym or not, or if you do enough physical exercise like running or jogging, as long as you are paying on the billiard table removalists in Brisbane, what is billiards you are good to go for that matter. Picking depends on weaknesses in the implementation of locks -- small manufacturing imperfections -- rather than fundamental, abstract design flaws that would be present no matter how carefully made the locks might be. These locks are specially pinned to facilitate a more step-by-step approach.