All points scored in the break before the foul was committed are awarded to the striker, but no points are scored for any ball pocketed during the foul shot. Following a foul, the incoming player has ball-in-hand anywhere on the table, unless the foul occurred on the break shot, what is billiards as noted previously. When the final ball is potted, the player with the most points wins the frame. A player wins a frame by scoring more points than their opponent. Special sets designed to be more easily discernible on television substitute pink for the dark purple of the 4 and 12 and light tan for the darker maroon of the 7 and 15 balls, and these alternative-color sets are now also available to consumers. The colours must next be potted in the ascending order of their values, from lowest to highest, i.e. yellow first (worth two points), then green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points), and finally black (seven points); each colour remains in the pocket after being potted. You can visualise it like this: put a loop of string around pins located at the foci, then pull the string taut at one point using a pencil.

You can reduce squirt by using a low-deflection pool cue. The latter is a common foul committed when a player fails to escape from a "snooker", where the previous player has left the cue ball positioned such that no legal ball can be struck directly in a straight line without being wholly or partially obstructed by an illegal ball. If dissatisfied with the position left after a foul, the next player may nominate the opponent who committed the foul to play again from where the balls have come to rest. At the end of each shot, the cue ball remains in the position where it has come to rest (unless it has entered a pocket, where it is returned to the "D") ready for the next shot. 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. The current world rankings are determined using a two-year rolling points system, where points are allocated to the players according to the prize money earned at designated tournaments. Points in snooker are gained from potting the object balls in the correct sequence.

A maximum break in snooker is achieved by potting all reds with blacks, then potting all six colours, yielding 147 points; this is often known as a "147" or a "maximum". If a player is awarded a free ball with all 15 red balls still in play, they can potentially make a break exceeding 147, with the highest possible being a 155 break, achieved by nominating the free ball as an extra red, then potting the black as the additional colour after potting the free-ball red, followed by the 15 reds with blacks, and finally the colours. The process of alternately potting reds and colours continues until the striker fails to pot the desired object ball or commits a foul-at which point the opponent comes to the table to start the next turn-or when there are no red balls remaining. The process involves using the cue ball to pocket the red and coloured balls.

Although triacetate does not decompose in as dangerous a way as nitrate does, it is still subject to a process known as deacetylation, often nicknamed "vinegar syndrome" (due to the acetic acid smell of decomposing film) by archivists, which causes the film to shrink, deform, become brittle and eventually unusable. Keeping an eye on the asteroids is difficult but worthwhile, since such chaotic effects may one day fling an unwelcome surprise our way. The cue ball may contact an object ball directly or it can be made to bounce off one or more cushions before hitting the required object ball. Breaks of 100 points or more are referred to as a century break, and are recorded over the career of a professional player. The responsibilities of the referee include announcing the points scored during a break, determining when a foul has been committed and awarding penalty points and free balls accordingly, replacing colours onto their designated spots after they are potted, restoring the balls to their previous positions after the "miss" rule has been invoked (see Scoring), and cleaning the cue ball or any object ball upon request by the striker.