muddy397 wrote:In a recent game, my opponent was leading by 6 points. The pink and black balls are still on the table. My opponent pockets the pink ball and he is now leading by 12 points. The black ball still remains on the table.
- Does he win by default at this stage before pocketing the black ball? OR
- Does the game still continue since there is a slight possibility of him committing a foul on the black ball?
In fact, we continued the game and he did commit a foul on the black. I, then, proceeded to pocket the black ball and win the frame, leading by 2 points.
Sorry Muddy, you lost. Informally, the frame is complete the instant the Pink fell in the pocket and other balls came to rest without a foul having been committed. The striker (he who potted the Pink) was not in fact obliged to play at the Black at all; he certainly may if he wishes but he could just shake your hand without a stroke at the Black. Formally, by the Rules of Snooker, Section 2., Rule 4. (a): "When Black is the only object ball remaining on the table, the first score or foul ends the frame..." so if the striker does in fact choose to strike at the Black as in the case of your opponent, then three things may happen: 1) he pots it and is credited with seven more points to the "official" final score, 2) he commits a foul (whether or not Black remains on the table afterward is irrelevant) and he is penalized by YOU receiving seven more points for the "official" final score, still not enough for you to win, but you are not allowed to play on (see point 3)), or 3) he strikes at Black, does not pot, no foul, just a fair stroke....so you may think it is your turn now, but it is NOT...in NORMAL snooker, since there are not enough points for you to win available, you in essence are forced to concede the frame at this point.
There is a possibility that you may continue to play at the Black in a special form of snooker in which "aggregate scores apply", but that variation is very rarely played. It basically means that instead of playing each frame for a separate "win" tally of 1 point per frame like normal, the aggregate score is continuously tracked over a set number of frames to determine the winner. So for instance, we could play a match of 3 frames, aggregate scores. So we would play frames one and two all the way through until Black is potted even if one player is far, far up on the scoreboard. So after three frames, the "match score" might be 230 to 170 or some other unusual sounding score to "normal snooker ears". With aggregate scores, you might run into the seemingly unusual situation that Player A "wins" both frame one and frame two by very close scores potting the Black ball, but Player B would win the MATCH by running a century in the third frame leaving Player A whitewashed. In the end, Player B finished with more aggregate points even though he only "won" one frame.