Snooker Shoot Out Rules: The Shot Clock, Fouls and the Blue Ball Shoot-Out

The Shoot Out is the one event on the World Snooker Tour played to different rules. There is no clawing back a slow start over a long match, no time to study the table, and a few rules that don't exist anywhere else. That is why a first-time viewer will see a player penalised without an obvious foul, a cue ball placed anywhere on the table, and a tied frame settled on the blue. This guide goes through the official Shoot Out rules in the WPBSA rulebook one by one, then covers the 2026 dates and prize money, ranking status and every winner. For the normal rules of scoring and fouls, see Snooker Rules Explained.

What changes from normal snooker

The WPBSA rulebook says the official rules of snooker apply to the Shoot Out except where its own rules change them. Ball values, what counts as a pot and most fouls work exactly as usual. This is what changes:

The last row is tournament custom rather than a written rule. The rest are covered below.

The match clock and the shot clock

Two clocks run in a Shoot Out frame:

• The match clock gives the frame a maximum of 10 minutes. It starts the moment the cue ball is struck for the opening shot.
• The shot clock times each shot: 15 seconds during the first five minutes, 10 seconds during the last five.

The rulebook is precise about when the shot clock starts: once all the balls have stopped and any colour has been re-spotted; when the referee calls the break score; or, after a foul, when the referee hands the cue ball to the incoming player or places it on the table. It stops the instant the tip strikes the cue ball.

Failing to play in time is a time foul: a penalty of at least five points, or the value of the ball on if that is higher (seven when you are on the black), and the opponent plays from in hand. In the first round in 2025, Michael Holt trailed Ashley Hugill by seven points with 45 seconds left, laid a snooker, and Hugill committed a time foul; Holt then potted a red and a pink to win. It was controversial because the warning bleeps had not sounded before Hugill's shot clock ran out.

• Does a shot count if the buzzer goes while the balls are rolling? Yes. As long as the stroke was started in time, it is completed even if the shot clock or match clock then runs out, and any points scored or penalty points stand.
• Does asking the referee to clean a ball stop the clock? No, unless the referee decides it should and calls time out.
• What about referee decisions and replays? The referee can pause the shot clock or the match clock while making a decision or reviewing a replay, and can pause or reset the shot clock if someone outside the game distracts the player.

The lag decides who breaks

Instead of a coin toss, Shoot Out players lag. Both strike a cue ball from the baulk line at the same time, up the table to the top cushion and back. The player whose ball finishes nearer the baulk cushion, in the referee's opinion, wins the lag and chooses who breaks.

In the lag the cue ball may only touch the top and baulk cushions; touching any other cushion forfeits it. Winning the lag matters twice: the winner also chooses who goes first if the frame ends in a blue ball shoot-out.

A cushion or a pot on every shot

This is the rule people remember: on every shot, at least one ball must hit a cushion or go into a pocket. It can be the cue ball or any object ball. If not, it is a foul worth at least five points (or the value of the ball on, if higher), and the opponent gets ball in hand.

It changes safety play. The classic tactic of rolling the cue ball up to the reds and leaving it tight against a ball, with nothing touching a cushion, is a foul here. In the last 16 in 2025, Elliot Slessor lost to Iulian Boiko after being called for exactly that: a shot where no ball reached a cushion.

Fouls: ball in hand, no miss

After any foul the incoming player has the cue ball in hand, and in the Shoot Out that means anywhere on the table, not just in the D. The incoming player cannot ask the offender to play again.

• No foul and a miss. The rulebook switches off the normal play-again and miss rules. The long sequences of repeated misses you see in normal matches can't happen.
• Free balls almost never happen. The free ball rule only applies if, even with the cue ball in hand, it is impossible to hit a ball on.
• Fouls are expensive. The opponent can place the cue ball wherever suits them best to start a break. The points themselves are similar to normal snooker: time fouls and the cushion rule carry a minimum of five, and other fouls (hitting the wrong ball first, for example) follow the normal rules, with a minimum of four.

The shot clock starts when the referee hands the cue ball over. If the player isn't in position to take it, the referee places it on the table and the clock starts; the player can still pick it up and place it anywhere, but must play within the time allowed.

How a frame ends

• Time runs out: once the last stroke has finished, the higher score wins.
• All the balls are potted.
• The last black: when the black is the only object ball left, the first pot or foul ends the frame, even if the scores are then level. In normal snooker a tie would bring a re-spotted black; here it goes to a blue ball shoot-out.

In a stalemate, where neither player can safely change the position, the referee in a normal match can offer a re-rack. In the Shoot Out there is no re-rack: the players have to resolve it within the time.

The blue ball shoot-out

If the scores are level at the end, the frame is decided by a blue ball shoot-out:

1. The blue goes on its spot in the middle of the table, and the cue ball anywhere on or inside the lines of the D.
2. The winner of the lag chooses who goes first.
3. The players take one shot each, in turn, until one has potted the blue more times than the other from the same number of attempts. Like a football penalty shoot-out, a player who misses after the opponent has potted is out.
4. The blue must be potted directly. Touching any cushion other than the curved jaws of the pocket being attempted does not count.

Is the Snooker Shoot Out a ranking event?

Yes. A one-off Shoot-Out was held in 1990, and the event was revived in 2011 as a non-ranking tournament for the top 64 players in the world rankings. It became a ranking event from the 2017 edition, open to all 128 professionals, and the players voted at the end of that season to keep it that way.

World rankings add up ranking-event prize money over two seasons, and Shoot Out money counts, with one exception: the £250 for losing in the first round earns no ranking points. The £50,000 first prize is the second smallest of any ranking event this season; only the Championship League pays less.

The draw is unusual too: it is made at random before every round, with no seeding. A 128-player draw means seven rounds, so seven frames won is a ranking title, the shortest route to one in the sport.

2026 Shoot Out: dates, venue and prize money

The 2026 event, the TAOM Shoot Out, is the 10th ranking event of the 2026–27 season. It runs from 9 to 12 December at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, after the UK Championship (28 November to 6 December, York) and before the Scottish Open (14 to 20 December, Edinburgh). The Tower Circus staged the event from its revival in 2011 until 2015, and it returned there in 2025. Alfie Burden is the defending champion. Tickets went on sale through WST, with prices from £25 when the prize money was announced in August.

WST announced in August 2026 that the total prize fund would rise from £171,000 to £213,000. The winner's £50,000 is unchanged; every other round pays more:

In 2025 the event was shown on TNT Sports and discovery+ in the UK and Ireland, on Eurosport in mainland Europe and on WST Play in territories with no other coverage. Check WST for the 2026 broadcasters.

Every Snooker Shoot Out winner

There have been 17 editions from the first in 1990 to 2025 (two were played in 2023, in January and December, one in each season), and 17 different winners: nobody has won it twice. Scores are the points in the final frame; in 1990 every match except the final was a single frame, and the final went to three frames.

Records and talking points

• The only 147: Shaun Murphy made the first, and so far only, maximum in Shoot Out history in the first round in December 2023, against Bulcsú Révész.
• The oldest first-time ranking winner: Alfie Burden only got into the 2025 event as an amateur substitute on the morning of his first-round match, when another player withdrew. He won the title the day before his 49th birthday, the oldest player to win a first ranking title, and the second to win a ranking event as an amateur after Zhao Xintong at the 2025 World Championship.
• Firsts for women: in January 2023 Reanne Evans became the first woman to win a Shoot Out match, and the first to win a televised match at a ranking event. In 2025 Hong Kong's Ng On-yee beat world number nine Mark Allen, the first woman to beat a top-10 player at a ranking event.
• The youngest player: Liam Davies played in 2019 aged 12, the youngest player ever to appear at a professional ranking event. The WPBSA nominates several amateurs each year, many of them national junior champions.
• Seeds don't last: in 2025 the last top-16 player was out by the end of the third round, and five amateurs reached the last 16.
• Champions fall too: in 2025 reigning world champion Zhao Xintong led Ross Muir by eight points with two minutes left in the first round and lost. Wu Yize made a 141 clearance, the third-highest break in the event's history, before losing to David Gilbert in round two.

The rules have changed over the years. Before 2013 the shot clock was 20 seconds for the first five minutes and 15 seconds for the last five. Before 2018 the time foul and the cushion rule were always worth five points; since then it has been five or the value of the ball on, whichever is higher.

FAQ

Is the Snooker Shoot Out a ranking event?

Yes, since 2017. Only the money for losing in the first round doesn't count towards the rankings.

How long do players get per shot?

15 seconds in the first five minutes and 10 seconds in the last five. A time foul costs at least five points and gives the opponent ball in hand anywhere.

What happens if the frame is tied?

A blue ball shoot-out from the D, one attempt each in turn, until one player has more pots from the same number of attempts.

How do they decide who breaks?

A lag: both players send a cue ball up to the top cushion and back, and the one that stops nearer the baulk cushion wins.

Has anyone won the Shoot Out twice?

No. All 17 editions have had different winners.

What is the 2026 prize money?

£213,000 in total, with £50,000 to the winner and £22,000 to the runner-up.

When and where is the 2026 Shoot Out?

9 to 12 December 2026 at the Tower Circus in Blackpool.

Related reading: Snooker Rules Explained · How Long Is a Snooker Match? · Snooker Safety Play for Pool Players · Snooker Break Building · Billiards vs Pool vs Snooker

Sources: WPBSA Official Rules of the Games of Snooker and English Billiards, revised September 2024: Snooker Shootout Competition Rules 1–22, and Section 3 Rules 4 and 17 of the snooker rules; WST prize money announcement of 14 August 2026 and the WST Shoot Out page (dates, venue, tickets); English Wikipedia, "Snooker Shoot Out" and the 2025 and 2026 event articles (winners, records, 2025 results and broadcasters, rule history). Figure 1 is a schematic; figures 2 and 3 use a full-size 3569 × 1778 mm table with 52.5 mm balls. This article contains no sponsored or affiliate links.