Excellent post. I saw this live - and by the time he got to 97, I was telling my dame to stop cooking and come watch it with me. The tension was almost palpable.

Bloody hell, amazing.

For those totally unfamiliar with Snooker, let me explain a couple of points: Putting the black earns you 7 points, but you'll have to put one red before putting another.

So there really is only ONE way to get 147. you have to put all the balls in exactly this order. red,black,red,black.... and so on until all reds are down, then you HAVE to do yellow,green,brown,blue,pink and finish it of with black. ONLY that order. He could NOT, for instance, pop down the blue or something in the middle there, it HAS to be in this particular order.

Now, most of you have probably tried pool. And if you think pool is hard (like me) try just looking at a snooker table, its about twice as big, and the balls are smaller, and the holes are f¤%&&ing IMPOSSIBLE to put into. Not only are they smaller, but unlike a pool table, they have these rounded edges that makes it even harder.

So when I said this is hard, I really, really mean it. Only an elite few in the world can do this, and it doesnt happen often. Even in big star games like this reaching 100 is considered really, really good. The fact that O'sullivan does this one in 6 and a half minutes, and another one in 5 minutes and 20 seconds, makes him one of the coldest sons'o'bitches on the whole planet IMO, and its one of the greatest sports achievements ever.

Points for the various colors:

red-1

yellow-2
green-3
brown-4
blue-5
pink-6
black-7

Every color, except red, gets placed back on the table, for as long as there are reds left, so you COULD do red-blue,red-yellow, red-black and so on, except then you are "using up" reds to put low-scoring balls, so to make 147, you have to start with red-black,red-black etc.

When all the reds are down, the remaining balls, have to be done in the order of their points, from 2 to 7.

O'Sullivan - brilliant, like a cracked mirror. The epitomy of a flawed genius.

THAT was SWEET. Thanks for the info about snooker, I wouldn't've known what was going on without it.

It's interesting that at 81 points (about 4:00 into the video) someone gets the idea that something amazing is happening and they put up the clock showing how long the break has taken next to his score.

Oh I see. So he achieved a perfect score very quickly. I think this post is sorely lacking the term "perfect" to explain to us unacquainted with snookie why the magic number 147 is so special.

Thanks a ton to BicycleRepairMan for the excellent breakdown.

Thanks a ton to BicycleRepairMan for the excellent breakdown.

its all in a days work.. I'm also the poster of the video, so I guess I'm taking the complaint as well "perfect score" added to tags.

Oh, and one more thing, getting 147 in these tournaments is worth $147000, by the way..

And in theory, its possible to go higher than 147 IF the other player gets a foul first. Fouls counts as point for your opponent in Snooker. theoretically, this can get you 155 points, but theres only been one reported in a practice match. It can also happen if the referees screws up by placing the wrong balls on the table, but thats never happened in matches like this I think.

Slight correction. £

Considering the $ value, thats significant. Also, tournaments often have extra prize money for the highest break in the competition, in addition to the automatic £147k. For instance, the other fast 147 linked above I believe netted him £170,000 GBP total.

For some reason, just watching the play is very calming/soothing.

Christians don't believe in snooker.

Why are there so many red ones??

Well, that looks easy! I don't see why they don't just do that every time!

I guess Premier Bingo banked on the wrong man.

Is it just me, or should have AC/DC's Sink The Pink been playing quietly in the background?

Seems a bit strange that this sift should have more votes than the world record:

http://www.videosift.com/video/MEGA-147-maximum-break-made-to-look-easy

It would seem that the right thing to do was for someone privileged to promote it. $0.02

*british for Ronnie O'Sullivan

Adding video to channels (British) - requested by Zifnab.

>> ^HaricotVert:
For some reason, just watching the play is very calming/soothing.


So's cricket! NO ONE BELIEVES US!!!!!

I'm sitting here thinking, "Awwww...poor Marco Fu."

Awesome to watch again. Ronnie was *so* focussed during that game, even the audience going wild didn't put him off.

well, for someone who has been in england for about a year and had never played snooker before a month ago, i find this very impressive. i'm pretty good at pool but was amazed by snooker when my friend took me a few weeks ago. the table is the size of a football pitch. you have to have really good cue ball control otherwise you will end up 10 feet away from your target ball. i've got a long way to go before i'm any good; the skill level required is much higher than is needed for pool. if you're interested and live in europe, you can catch the world championships online at BBC or Eurosport websites.

I tried playing snooker a few times. Going from the 8 foot bar tables to the 12 foot snooker table was intimidating in itself. I think the only thing more intimidating was carom.

Ronnie has a great soft break and awesome control. Sweet sift!

so so sad that it is *dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by dbot2006.

Note to new viewers: This video was dead'ed and replaced (by me, with thanks to dbot2006) with a different video, I'm not totally sure it is the same match, as the one I originally posted was a little over 6 minutes, and I think older than 2008. i will try and replace it with a video from the match I originally posted.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, April 21st, 2008 6:40am PDT - promote requested by ZappaDanMan.

*skillful

Adding video to channels (Skillful) - requested by luxury_pie.