I’m resurrecting this thread because I finally got around to watching Sinuca brasileira (Brazilian Snooker). I watched it on YouTube, of course. Hoping to see some in person since there are some Brazilian clubs in this town.
The game is a streamlined version of the standard game: different enough to be considered a separate game; similar enough to be appreciable by those only familiar with the standard game.
I just became aware of another rarely-applied rule of snooker. (The rule isn’t even mentioned in the Wikipedia summary; I eventually found it in the WayBack Machine!)
Sometimes a position will develop similar to perpetual check in chess, or where 50 strokes are made without a a pawn move or ball potting! By mutual consent, the players can abandon the game, i.e. do a rerack. What I didn’t realize is that the referee can force a game to end in stalemate.
[QUOTE=Snooker Rules & Regulations, Section 3]
…
16. Stalemate
If the referee thinks a position of stalemate exists, or is being approached, he shall offer the players the immediate option of re-starting the frame. If any player objects, the referee shall allow play to continue with the proviso that the situation must change within a stated period, usually after three more strokes to each side but at the referee’s discretion. If the situation remains basically unchanged after the stated period has expired, the referee shall nullify all scores and re-set all balls as for the start of a frame and
(a) the same player shall again make the opening stroke,
(b) the same order of play shall be maintained.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve been watching Snooker YouTubes. I’ve yet to see the referee declare a stalemate, but the topic came up in the commentary to two YouTubes:
In this game at 1:19 the final red ball is sent to join two colored balls crowding one tiny pocket. Eighteen shots follow with no progress, but no stalemate was called because the balls kept being nudged very gradually but inexorably closer and closer to the pocket. Finally at about 5:00 Liam Highfield sinks the yellow and fouls.
Here, instead of a single final red ball being unsinkable, a crush of 11 red balls develops in a corner guarded by the black ball. This game is probably much too boring to watch (though one of the commentators calls it “grimly enjoyable.”) The 11th red doesn’t get thoroughly ensconced until 25:40. The black ball finally fouls into the pocket at 29:50. Ten red balls are left in a snafu, but they’re gradually cleared up, beginning with a “four-ball plant” shot.