In my infinite quest for little known cue sports I stumbled upon this Pakistani Snooker variant called Century.
Much like Sinuca Brasileira, Century only uses one copy of the red ball. Unlike Sinuca Brasileira, the red is re-spotted any time it is pocketed.
I'm struggling to find any rules references for this game other than an archived copy of snookergames.co.uk and this one video:
From what I gather about the game, the exact rules vary from community to community, so this is just one interpretation of the rules.
If I got any details wrong, feel free to comment.
Materials & Setup
To play this game you need
- A Snooker table (though some sources simply say "billiards table")
- 1 red Snooker ball + the other six colours
Interestingly, you are not allowed to use rests for this game, but extra long cues are okay.
Note that in some variants of the game, the red ball is placed behind the black up against the foot cushion.
The Game
The aim of the game is to score exactly 100 points without going over.
Exceeding 100 points is a 10 point foul, deducting 10 points from your score.
All pocketed balls are immediately re-spotted, including the red ball.
The Break
The break is the same as in regular Snooker. Simply place the cue-ball in the D and shoot for the red ball.
Structure
Like Snooker, the game is played in innings, whereby a player keeps on playing as long as they score points.
No player can score any points until they become "open". To become open, a player must pocket the red ball at 0 points once, After that, the red ball becomes worth 10 points, and the player can then freely choose between any of the other balls.
Failing to pocket the red ball when not open results in a foul.
Missing a shot ends the current player's inning and passes the turn to the next player.
It is also not permissible to shoot the same ball more than three times in a row. The streak must be broken up.
Scoring
The balls are worth the following amount of points:
- Red: 0 (before open), 10 (when open), 1 (at 99)
- Yellow: 2
- Green: 3
- Brown: 4
- Blue: 5
- Pink: 6
- Black: 7
The colours are all worth their usual amount of points except the red, which starts off worthless, then becomes worth 10 points. If a player then reaches 99 points, the red ball's value decreases down to 1 point to make it possible to win.
Fouls
I haven't been able to find any clear definitive answer as to what exactly constitutes a foul in this game. Break From Life's video on the topic suggests that any missed shot is a foul. But that would mean the game has no safety shots. snookergames.co.uk doesn't elaborate on what a foul is either. Going by Break From Life's video as the root assumption, here are the foul shots and their point values:
Foul points are deducted from the player who fouled. This is different from regular Snooker where they are awarded to the opponent(s). This does mean it is possible to go below 0.- Failing to pocket red: -10 points
- Failing to pocket yellow: -2 points
- Failing to pocket green: -3 points
- Failing to pocket brown: -4 points
- Failing to pocket blue: -5 points
- Failing to pocket pink: -6 points
- Failing to pocket black: -7 points
- Going above 100 points: -10 points
- Shooting the same ball a 4th consecutive time: value of the ball
- Other typical Snooker fouls: -10 points or whatever the value of the touched ball was.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as someone scores their 100th and final point. That player is then declared the winner.
Variants
Variant 1
A Pakistani commenter on Break From Life's video states that in their circles, all one has to do to become "open" is to simply touch the red ball, not pocket it.
Variant 2
According to a commenter on Break From Life's video, another mentod of playing the game is to play it like a regular Snooker game, where a red must be pocketed between every colour.
In this variant, the red is worth 1 point like normal, but is re-spotted every time it's pocketed like in the rules above. The aim is still to reach 100 points exactly.
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