I had no idea Michaela also refereed 8-Ball. Somehow I'd assumed that a Snooker referee (even a former one) would be above such things. :-)

As you can see from the sign behind the table this is a 9 Ball tournament between Canada & the US. If you're not familiar with the game there is a cue ball and 9 numbered balls. The primary requirement for a legal shot is the cue ball must first hit the lowest numbered ball remaining on the table. In this case the 5 ball was between the cue and the 2 ball.

The tall mustached guy in the red shirt applauding the shot is Cliff Thorburn former World Snooker Champion and World #1 Ranked snooker player back in the 80's. I saw him at Dalhousie University's SUB giving a trick shot demonstration. Unbelievable. If he's giving you a standing O you done good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker

Every time I see one of these great snooker videos make it to the front, I have to watch Mitchell and Webb Look vid about snooker: http://videosift.com/video/That-Mitchell-and-Webb-Look-Ohh-Thats-A-Bad-Miss comedy to go with the amazing game play...

I don't know anything about snooker, but that guy is fuckin' good at it.

They keep saying the referee didn't see it. How do they know that immediately? I mean sometimes the referee could see something but the player could own up to it before the referee has a chance to say something. I think at least some of these were the player admitting and the referee agreeing because they were just about to call it.

Not like snooker refs have a whistle.

Snooker championship in deed..

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UGH god, thanks for reminding me of Ebdon. The most dismally boring snooker player ever seen on tv. Average shot time 20 minutes.

As an aside, one of the things I love about Snooker is the sportsmanship. In a lot of these, you can see the player who was just snookered tapping the rail of the table with their cue or with their palm; they're applauding the shot. I think that's fantastic.

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Do you know, I now fancy a trip to a snooker hall. It's been so long and I'll be worse than I ever was given my declining eyesight but so much fun.

In theory, the player performing the break could pot a red and then continue on that break, but that would be extremely unlikely and probably a very bad move. At no point in snooker do you get two shots in one turn, not even on the break.

The break shot requires that the player hits a red ball first. Since the pink is at the top of the rack (the triangle of balls), this prevents the player from breaking like you would in a game of 8 or 9-ball. Therefore, you are unlikely to get a red ball to move with enough momentum to make it to a pocket. And if you did manage to do that, everything on the table would be scrambled to hell which does not lend itself to easy, predictable shots or high scores (following the red-black-red-black pattern).

So, instead, in snooker the perfect break sees the cue ball striking one of the bottom corner balls, sending it in to the bottom cushion with the momentum moving along the back line of balls sending the other corner ball into the side cushion. Ideally, both of those balls will return very close to their starting position with the rack essentially undisturbed. At the same time, you want the cue ball to move around the table and come to rest either against the top cushion (as far away from the reds as possible) or hidden behind the green, brown, or yellow ball.

TLDR: No, breaks in snooker are defensive in nature.

Hell yea. Snooker is a blast to play. Far more enjoyable than 8 or 9 ball.

That's some *quality snooker right there.