I don’t understand how Snooker works at all. 8 and 9 ball is easy peasy
Basically, get the highest score to win.
There are 15 red balls, each worth 1 point.
There are coloured balls - Yellow, Green, Brown, Blue, Pink, Black - each worth 2 - 7 (in order listed).
To score points, you must first pot (sink) a red ball, then any of the coloured balls, then another red, then another colour and so on until someone wins. (the coloured balls are respotted in their position on the table when there are still red balls in play).
The difficulty is: the table is 12' x 6', with a directional cloth (meaning the ball travels up table differently than down table), and the pockets are much tighter (so you generally cannot use the pocket edges to pot a ball due to the angles of the pockets being more closed and rouned, so you need near perfect aim). The cue is also longer but thinner, with the tip being, on average, 9.5mm (vs. a standard 8 or 9 ball cue being 12mm) and heavily rounded. The cue is the same size and weight as the target balls (in 8 and 9 ball the cue is lighter than the target balls).
There are also some rules that make the game harder, such as a scratch is worth 4 to 7 points to the non-shooting player; the game must end, after all red balls are potted, with the coloured balls being potted in the above listed sequence; hitting the wrong ball (not potting it, just hitting it) awards the ball's value to the non shooting player. Plus a billion other rules that are somewhat situational.
All of the table factors and potting rules don't even begin to get into the need for cue and ball control (being able to hit a ball and force the cue ball to cannon back up the table off a screw (fancy term for the ball spinning and moving in the opposite direction)), and the tactical play (setting your opponent into a Snooker (basically using ball control to plant the cue ball behind a colored ball focring the opponent to use multi-rail banks to hit a legal red ball target or the next sequenced color).. very complex and nuanced.
I've been playing 9 ball for 10 years and am decently good at it, at snooker... I am decently garbage.
This will give you an idea of the high-level control needed to play snooker:
