Rules of snooker satisfied that the player was only positioning the ball, and not playing a shot or preparing to play one. When a player commits a foul, the opponent receives penalty points equal to the value of the ball "on", the value of the highest valued ball involved in the foul, or 4 points, whichever is greatest. When multiple fouls are made in one shot, only the most highly valued foul is counted. Penalty points are therefore at least 4 points and at most 7. Not hitting the ball "on" first is the most common foul. A common defensive tactic is to
Holding the ball Laws in 1948 (excluding the references to prior opportunity which were not added until the 1990s). These changes help to reduce malingering and provide incentive to win the hard ball; but, they introduced further points of discretion and sources of inconsistency to the umpire. The wording of the holding the ball rule remained more or less unchanged for the next forty or fifty years, but the interpretation of the rule was adapted to suit changes to the game. As full body tackling became a fundamental part of the game, the interpretations of holding the ball (including what constituted a 'reasonable