Snooker Free Ball Rule: When It Applies and What It Scores
The snooker free ball rule as played in England and across the UK: when a referee calls it, what the nominated ball scores and the snooker it cannot lay.
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished Snooker Rules25 min read
- Free ball worth with reds on
- 1 point
- Highest break it makes possible
- 155
- Minimum foul penalty
- 4 points
- Snooker behind it allowed
- Last two balls only
Under the WPBSA rules used in England and across the UK, when a player fouls and leaves the incoming player snookered, the referee calls a free ball, and the incoming player may nominate any other ball to stand in for the ball on for one stroke. With reds on the table the nominated ball counts as a red and scores one point if potted; on the colours it takes the value of the colour that is on. It then goes back on its own spot, and play continues as though a real ball on had been taken. The one thing a player may not do with it, on a stroke that pots nothing, is leave the opponent snookered behind it, except when only two object balls remain.
Picture the position at a club in Sheffield on a league night. Your opponent has gone for a thin red, missed it, and caught the blue instead. Five points to you, because the blue was the first ball struck. The cue ball has come to rest tight behind the brown, and when you crouch at the baulk end you cannot get a straight line to both edges of any red. The referee steps forward and says two words: "Free ball."
When the referee calls a free ball: the snooker free ball rule in sequence
The rule fires only after a foul. That point gets lost at club level more than any other. A player who is snookered because the opponent played a good safety shot has no remedy at all, however awkward the position. A player who is snookered because the opponent committed a foul has one.
The order of events matters, because each step closes off or opens up options.
- Foul calledThe referee announces the foul and the penalty, which is added to the incoming player's score.
- Snooker checkThe referee judges whether the cue ball, where it now lies, is snookered on every ball on.
- Free ball statedIf it is, the referee says "free ball" before the incoming player chooses anything.
- Player decidesThe incoming player plays the stroke or asks the offender to play again.
- NominationIf playing a different ball, the player nominates it clearly so the referee can confirm it.
- Stroke playedThe nominated ball is now the ball on for this one stroke and carries the ball on's scoring value.
The order of decisions under the WPBSA rules after a foul is called. A miss call adds the option of having the balls replaced.
The referee is the only person who decides whether a free ball exists. The players can ask, and a good referee will often walk round to the cue ball and check the line from the striker's side before calling, but nobody else's judgement counts. In matches without a referee, which covers many league fixtures in England, the non-striker acts in that role, and that is where the arguments start. They are dealt with at the end of this page.
There is a subtle point about timing. The referee looks at the position as it stands after every ball has stopped moving. A cue ball that was snookered when it trickled past the brown but settled with a clear view of a red is not snookered. A cue ball that looked clear in flight but stopped dead behind the pink is. Only the final position counts.
The free ball is also called before the incoming player has decided anything. That ordering is deliberate: the striker needs to know whether a free ball is on offer before choosing between playing and putting the opponent back in. Referees who forget to state it are usually prompted by the player, and the rules expect the call to be made rather than inferred.
Our wider guide to snooker fouls and the penalties each carries sets out how the points for the original foul are worked out. This page picks up from the moment those points are on the board.
The snookered test: both extreme edges, and only balls count
The rule book does not define "snookered" loosely. It sets a precise geometric test, and every argument about free balls is an argument about this test.
The cue ball is snookered when a direct stroke in a straight line to every ball on is wholly or partly blocked by a ball or balls that are not on. Put the other way round, if the striker can hit at least one ball on at both of its extreme edges, unobstructed, the cue ball is not snookered, and there is no free ball.
Both edges is the key phrase. Imagine two lines from the sides of the cue ball to the two outer edges of a red. If either line is interrupted by another ball, that red does not count as visible. The striker must find a single red, or the single colour on, where both lines run clear. With fifteen reds spread about the table that is often easy. With three reds left clustered near the black, it can come down to millimetres.
So a player who can see "half a red" is snookered for free-ball purposes. They may well be able to hit it. Hitting a thin edge of a red with the near side blocked is a perfectly playable shot, and professionals do exactly that from free-ball positions when they choose. But the test is not whether a contact is possible. It is whether the full ball is available.
Cushions and pocket jaws do not count
The obstruction has to be a ball. If the cue ball is tucked in the jaws of a corner pocket, or sitting behind the curve of a cushion nose so that the rail itself blocks the line to a red, the striker is not snookered in the rule-book sense. The WPBSA definition says it in so many words: the cue ball cannot be snookered by a cushion. Players call this position "angled", and being angled after a foul brings no free ball. The striker just has to play the shot.
That catches players out because the practical effect is the same: no straight line to the ball on. The distinction exists because a free ball is a remedy for an opponent's foul having left a ball in the way, and a cushion is part of the table, not something the opponent put there.
More than one blocking ball
When several balls not on obstruct the line, the rules treat the one nearest the cue ball as the effective snookering ball, and if two are the same distance away, both count. When red is the ball on and different reds are hidden by different balls, there is no effective snookering ball at all. This matters mostly for the restriction on snookering behind a free ball, covered further down, and for commentary, which will say a player is "snookered behind the green" when the green is nearest.
When the cue ball is in hand
After a foul that sends the cue ball into a pocket, the incoming player has the cue ball in hand and can place it anywhere on or inside the lines of the D. The snookered test then becomes much stricter. The cue ball is snookered only if it would be obstructed from every possible position in the D.
In practice that means a free ball after an in-off is rare. If there is any spot in the D from which both edges of a ball on can be seen, there is no free ball, even if the spot is awkward. The referee may place the cue ball at different points to check, or simply look along lines from each end of the D. Our guide to playing from the D with the ball in hand explains the placement rules themselves.
What the nominated ball is worth while reds remain and on the colours
A free ball never scores its own face value. That is the single most important fact about it, and the one beginners get wrong most often.
While reds remain on the table, the ball on for a player starting a visit is a red. So a nominated free ball counts as a red. It scores one point if potted, regardless of whether it is the yellow or the black. Once all the reds have gone and the players are on the colours, the free ball takes the value of whichever colour is on. If the yellow is on and the striker nominates the pink as a free ball and pots it, the pink scores two.
After it has been potted, the nominated ball comes back out of the pocket and is placed on its own spot, just as a colour is respotted while reds are still in play. If its spot is taken, the usual respotting rules apply: the highest-value spot available, or, if every spot is occupied, as near to its own spot as possible between that spot and the nearest part of the top cushion.
The table below sets out the common situations in full.
| Situation | Ball on | Ball nominated | Score if potted | What happens to the ball |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reds remain, start of a visit | Red | Black | 1 | Respotted on the black spot |
| Reds remain, start of a visit | Red | Green | 1 | Respotted on the green spot |
| Colours stage, yellow on | Yellow | Pink | 2 | Respotted on the pink spot |
| Colours stage, brown on | Brown | Black | 4 | Respotted on the black spot |
| Colours stage, blue on | Blue | Pink | 5 | Respotted on the pink spot |
There is no free ball possible with only the black left. Nothing else is on the table to nominate.
Why does the nominated ball score the lower value? Because the remedy is meant to restore what the foul took away, not to hand the incoming player a bonus. The foul left them unable to hit the ball on properly. The free ball gives them a substitute ball on. A substitute that scored seven every time a red was due would turn every foul into a windfall worth far more than the penalty.
Carrying on after a free ball taken as a red
Once a free ball nominated as a red has been potted, the break carries on exactly as if a real red had gone in. The striker is entitled to a colour next, nominates or plays one in the usual way, and if it goes down it scores its full face value.
This is where a free ball becomes valuable. With reds on, the free ball itself scores only one, but it opens the way to a colour. A player who nominates the brown as a free ball, pots it for one, and then pots the black for seven has made eight from a position in which they could not see a red.
There is a nice twist available. The nominated ball and the following colour can be the same ball. The brown goes in as the free ball for one point, comes back to its spot, and then the striker pots the brown again as the colour for four. Jamie Burnett's 148 in qualifying for the 2004 UK Championship began exactly that way, with a free-ball brown followed by the brown. Our guide to the 147 and the breaks that have gone past it has the full sequence.
From there, red then colour, red then colour. Nothing about the earlier free ball affects the rest of the visit. It is not "one free shot" in the sense of a stroke that does not count; it is a full scoring stroke that happens to use a stand-in ball.
The colours stage works differently
On the colours there is no "red then colour" alternation, so the free ball simply replaces the ball on for one pot. Suppose the green is on. The striker nominates the pink as a free ball and pots it for three. The pink is respotted. The green is still on, because the green itself was never potted. The striker now plays the green, and then brown, blue, pink and black in order.
That means a free ball on the colours adds points without removing a ball from the table. In a tight frame the extra three or four can be the difference, and the player gets to keep the ball on in play as well. A free ball late in a close frame is worth more than its face value suggests.
Potting the free ball and the real ball on in the same stroke
Two balls going down on one stroke after a free ball has been nominated is legal. What scores depends on which stage of the frame it is.
With reds on the table, every ball potted counts. If the cue ball strikes the nominated free ball first, or strikes the free ball and a red simultaneously, and both the nominated ball and one or more reds go into pockets, each scores one. The free ball is respotted, the reds stay down, and the striker plays a colour next. A free-ball blue and a red together are worth two points, with a colour to follow.
The rules allow the simultaneous first contact in this case, which is otherwise a foul. Normally the cue ball may hit two balls at once only when both are reds. A free ball and the ball on together are the other permitted pair.
On the colours, only the ball on scores. If the yellow is on, the pink has been nominated as the free ball, and both the pink and the yellow go down, the striker scores two for the yellow. The pink is respotted. The yellow stays off the table, because it was legitimately potted, and the green is now on.
| Stage | Balls potted | Points scored | Ball respotted | Ball on next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reds remain | Free ball only | 1 | Free ball | Any colour |
| Reds remain | Free ball and one red | 2 | Free ball | Any colour |
| Reds remain | Free ball and two reds | 3 | Free ball | Any colour |
| Colours, yellow on | Free ball only | 2 | Free ball | Yellow still |
| Colours, yellow on | Free ball and yellow | 2 | Free ball | Green |
The colours-stage case can feel mean. Two balls in, two points. But the logic is the same: the free ball is a substitute for the ball on, and a substitute and the original cannot both be scored as the ball on in one stroke.
What if the striker hits a real red first when the black has been nominated? That is a foul, as explained below. Once a free ball has been nominated it becomes the ball on, and the cue ball must strike it first or strike it simultaneously with a genuine ball on.
The restriction: leaving the opponent snookered behind the nominated ball
This is the clause that makes the free ball a remedy rather than a weapon. A player who has been awarded a free ball must not use it to snooker the opponent. If, after a non-scoring stroke, the opponent is snookered on all the reds, or on the ball on during the colours, by the nominated free ball, it is a foul. The words "non-scoring" matter: a striker who pots the free ball stays at the table, so the question of a snooker does not arise.
The test is the same both-edges test used to decide whether a free ball was awarded in the first place. The question the referee asks is whether the nominated ball is now the obstruction. If the cue ball finishes tight behind the free ball so that no red can be seen at both edges, and the free ball is the effective snookering ball, the striker has fouled.
Other balls are fine. A player taking a free ball as a red can leave the opponent snookered behind the green, provided the green was not the nominated ball. The restriction is narrow: the ball the player chose to nominate cannot be the one that hides the cue ball.
The pink and black exception
There is one exception, and it is written into the rule. When only two object balls remain on the table, a player may leave the opponent snookered behind the nominated free ball without fouling. In a normal frame that means the pink and black. Until August 2024 the rule named the pink and black alone; the WPBSA's amendment that month reworded it to "only two object balls", which also covers the rare case of the black and one other colour left after a spotting error.
The usual explanation is practical. With pink on and only the black otherwise on the table, the only ball that can be nominated as a free ball is the black. Any safety shot played off the black could leave the cue ball behind it, because there is nothing else on the table for the cue ball to hide behind. Without the exception, almost every safety stroke at that stage would risk a foul. So the rule lifts the restriction and lets the end of the frame be played naturally.
Why the rule exists at all
Without the restriction, a free ball would be a gift worth far more than the foul that created it. A player who is snookered could nominate a ball, roll the cue ball up behind it, and leave the opponent in the same bind. Snookering behind the free ball is the obvious tactical move, and the rules ban it for that reason. The penalty is set out in the list of fouls valued at the ball on: four points with reds on, or the value of the colour on in the endgame if that is higher, whichever ball was nominated.
The practical upshot at the table is that free-ball safety play tends to be thin contacts and long runs of the cue ball to the baulk cushion, away from the nominated ball, rather than the tight roll-up behind it that the position might otherwise invite.
Fouls on a free-ball stroke and the penalty they carry
A free-ball stroke can be fouled in all the ordinary ways and in two ways of its own. The two specific ones are failing to strike the nominated ball first and leaving the forbidden snooker behind it.
Once nominated, the free ball is the ball on for that stroke. The cue ball must contact it first, or contact it and a genuine ball on at the same instant. Hitting a real red first after nominating the blue is a foul even though, a moment earlier, the red was the ball on. That surprises people. The nomination changes the target.
How much the foul costs follows the usual penalty structure. Snooker fouls cost the value of the ball on, rising to the value of a higher-valued ball involved in the offence, with four as the floor and seven as the ceiling. The detail that matters with a free ball is that the rule says the nominated ball is "regarded as, and acquire[s] the value of, the ball on". With reds on, a nominated black is worth one for penalty purposes, just as it is when potted. What raises the penalty is the ball actually struck in error: nominate the black, hit a red first, and the foul costs four; hit the pink first instead, and it costs six.
| Foul on a free-ball stroke | Example with reds on | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Missing every ball | Pink nominated, cue ball hits nothing | 4 |
| Hitting a different ball first | Black nominated, red hit first | 4 |
| Hitting a different ball first | Black nominated, pink hit first | 6 |
| Snookering behind the free ball | Blue nominated, opponent left behind blue | 4 |
| Cue ball potted after hitting it | Green nominated, cue ball in-off | 4 |
Missing every ball is the cleanest case. The rule values that foul at the ball on with the four-point floor, so with reds on it is four whatever was nominated. In-offs and the forbidden snooker sit in the same list. Wrong-ball contact is the one valued at the ball on or the ball concerned, whichever is higher, so the cost depends on which ball the cue ball found, not on which one was nominated.
The miss rule can attach too
A free-ball stroke can also be called a foul and a miss if the referee judges the striker made no proper attempt to hit the nominated ball. The opponent then has the full set of miss options, including replacement. In practice this is rare, because a player nominating a free ball has chosen the ball they intend to hit and usually has a clear line to it.
Nominating clearly
The striker should tell the referee which ball is being nominated. The rules define a nominated ball as one the striker indicates to the referee's satisfaction or declares aloud, and if the referee asks which ball the striker is on, the striker must say. Failing to declare when asked is a seven-point foul. Pointing with the cue is the common practice at club level; at professional events the player usually says it aloud.
Declining the free ball or putting the offender back in
A free ball is an option the incoming player may take, not an obligation. Three choices are on the table after the call.
The first is to nominate a free ball and play it. This is the default and, in most positions, the right one.
The second is to ignore the free ball and play at a real ball on from where the cue ball lies. Strong players do this more than spectators expect. If a long swerve or a thin edge on a red is available and leaves a safe position, there may be no reason to nominate anything. Playing at the real ball on also avoids the restriction on snookering behind the nominated ball.
The third is to make the offender play again from the same position. The free-ball call then falls away: it applies only to the incoming player, and once the offender is back at the table the position is simply a snooker they have to escape. The incoming player keeps the penalty points from the foul.
Positions where a tactician puts the offender back in
The third option looks perverse until you play the position. Say the cue ball has come to rest on the baulk cushion, tight behind the green, with the reds packed near the pink spot. There is a free ball, but every ball the striker might nominate is in baulk and offers nothing to pot. Any safety shot off the nominated ball risks leaving the forbidden snooker. And whatever happens, the opponent will be back at the table with a chance.
Put the offender back in and the burden reverses. They are snookered behind the green on all fifteen reds, with no free ball available to them because the snooker came from their own foul. If they miss, four more points go to the player who declined. If the referee judges their attempt inadequate, the call is foul and a miss, with replacement available.
Professional players use this route most often in two situations. One is a snooker close to a cushion, with the reds well away, where escaping cleanly is hard. The other is late in a frame, when the player who has just received the penalty points can now afford to make the opponent dig themselves out rather than gamble on a pot.
Declining is also common when a player needs snookers to win the frame. A player chasing a frame does not want to give their opponent any chance; making the opponent play out of trouble repeatedly can build the points needed without the risk of leaving a red.
The sixteenth red and the arithmetic of the 155
When a free ball is awarded before any red has gone down, there are, in effect, sixteen reds on the table. The nominated ball counts as a red, and all fifteen real reds are still waiting.
That is what makes the 155 break possible. Pot the free ball as a red for one, take the black for seven, and then make a 147 from the fifteen reds and six colours that remain. Eight plus 147 is 155.
- 1Free ball taken as a red
- 7Black after the free ball
- 147Fifteen reds, fifteen blacks and the colours
- 155Total break
Theoretical maximum from a single visit, available only when a free ball is awarded with all fifteen reds still on the table.
A few points about the arithmetic are easy to miss.
The opening free ball can be any colour, and its score is one regardless. The colour that follows it is what earns the seven, so the best result needs the black after the free ball, as after any red.
The 155 also needs the free ball to arrive at a particular point. After the break-off, if the opponent fouls and leaves the striker snookered before any red has been potted, the sixteenth-red position exists. Even then the balls seldom sit in a way that allows a clearance, because the foul that created the free ball has usually left the cue ball somewhere the striker would rather not be.
There is a smaller version of the same idea at any point while reds remain. A free ball taken as a red in the middle of a frame adds one plus a colour to what is still available. The full 155 just requires the extra red to come before any of the fifteen.
Break totals above 147 are rare enough to make news. The 155 has been reported from practice tables, which do not count for records, and the position it needs almost never arises in a match. The arithmetic and the history are covered in more depth in our guide to the maximum break.
Free ball and foul and a miss arriving together
The miss rule and the free ball often arrive in the same call, and they interact in a way that can feel back to front.
A miss is called when a player has not, in the referee's judgement, made the best attempt to hit the ball on. After a foul and a miss, the incoming player has an extra option: having every ball replaced in its position before the stroke and making the offender play the shot again.
If the failed escape has also left the cue ball snookered, the referee announces "foul and a miss, free ball". The incoming player then chooses between two remedies that cannot both be taken:
- play from where the balls now lie, with a free ball, or
- have the balls replaced and the offender play again.
Taking the free ball means accepting the position as it is. Replacement means giving up the free ball, because the offender plays the next stroke and the free ball only ever belongs to the incoming player.
Which to choose
The decision depends on what the failed escape has done to the table. If the cue ball has run into the reds and split them, leaving an open pack with a free ball available, playing from where they lie is usually right. If the escape has left the position untidy for the incoming player, with the free ball offering only a long thin pot, replacement keeps the opponent stuck in the original snooker and lets the points mount.
A run of misses with free balls on offer can look strange from the gallery. The incoming player keeps choosing replacement when a free ball is available, and the commentators explain that the free ball is a poor option compared with another four points and another awkward escape for the offender.
The miss rule also has its own clauses about when a miss is not called and when the third failure loses the frame. Those belong on its own page: our guide to the foul and a miss and the three-miss rule covers them.
Club arguments the rule book settles
The free ball generates more disputes in English club snooker than almost any other rule. Most of them can be settled quickly with the text.
"I can see one side of it"
This is the classic. The incoming player claims a free ball. The offender says the red is visible, at least one side of it. The rule is on the claimant's side: a free ball requires that no ball on can be hit at both extreme edges. Seeing one side, or "most of it", means the cue ball is snookered.
The way to check is to stand behind the cue ball and sight past each side of it to each edge of the red. Many players use the cue held out horizontally as a straight edge from the cue ball to the edge of the target. If either line is blocked by a ball, the red does not count. If there is any red where both lines are clear, there is no free ball.
"It's too awkward to cue at"
Awkwardness is irrelevant. A cue ball tight on the cushion, a red that requires the rest, a bridge over a ball, a position that demands a jump the rules do not allow: none of these creates a free ball. The test is the straight line from cue ball to the ball on, not whether the shot can be played comfortably.
The same applies to the angled position in the jaws of a pocket. The striker may have no straight line at all to a red, but because the blocking object is a cushion rather than a ball, there is no free ball.
"The ball is touching"
A touching ball is a separate rule with its own consequences: the striker must play away from it without moving it. Whether a free ball is also on offer is still decided by the same both-edges test from where the cue ball lies, and the touch itself neither creates nor removes one. Our guide to what happens when the cue ball is touching another ball covers the stroke the striker must then play.
"Who decides without a referee?"
In a league match with no referee, the convention is that the non-striker acts as referee for the purpose of judging the snooker. Where a league handbook covers the point, it is the handbook that settles it, so it is worth reading before the season starts. The cleanest way to keep the peace is for both players to look along the lines before the call. Disputes left to the end of the match are much harder to settle than ones settled at the table.
Where a league has a referee available on the night, either player can call for one. Leagues vary on whether a match captain can be asked to adjudicate. Our guide to what a snooker referee does during a frame explains the duties, and the free-ball call is among the most common the referee makes.
"I didn't nominate, but it was obvious"
At club level a nominated free ball is often implied. The striker plays the black from a position where no red can be seen, and both players understand it as a free ball. That is fine as long as nobody disputes it afterwards. When a dispute does arise, the rule that the striker must make a clear nomination when asked usually settles it against the player who did not. Saying the nominated ball aloud costs nothing.
The full rules of the game, from the break-off to the respotted black, are on our snooker rules overview, and other guides to English sport sit on the England sports hub.