History of snooker History of snooker The game of snooker is a cue sport which emerged in its modern form in the late 19th century, with roots going back to the 16th century form of English billiards. Billiards was popular among the British Armed Forces stationed in India. As billiards was only a two player game, new games such as life pool and pyramid pool were developed in order to accommodate more players. Eventually, these two games were combined to form snooker. Billiards was first played in the 16th century. It was known as a "gentleman's game" because of its popularity among royalty.
2017 Snooker Shoot-Out 2017 Snooker Shoot-Out The 2017 Coral Snooker Shoot-Out was a professional ranking snooker tournament which took place at the Watford Colosseum in Watford from 23 to 26 February 2017. It was played under a variation of the standard rules of snooker. In 2017 it was extended from 64 to 128 players, and became a ranking tournament for the first time in its history. It was the 15th ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. Robin Hull was the defending champion, but he lost 18–25 to Fergal O'Brien in the second round. Anthony McGill won his second ranking title, beating Xiao Guodong