Century break

Snooker table with balls placed in their starting positions

A century break is a score of 100 points or more within one visit at the table, without missing a shot.[2] The player does this by potting red balls and coloured balls alternately, where the coloured balls are repositioned on their starting locations. After repositioning the coloured ball paired to the last red on the table, the six coloured balls are potted in order of their increasing value. Because a break is defined as series of consecutive pots by a player during a single frame,[3] scoring 100 points over the course of a whole frame does not necessarily constitute a century break, as it must be done on a single turn at the table. Points for a foul shot by the opponent do not count in a player's break.

Under normal circumstances, the highest possible century in snooker is 147 (a "maximum break"), composed of 15 reds (one point each), 15 blacks (seven points each) and the six remaining colours; yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black potted consecutively (two through seven points each for a total of 27). If for example only the least-valued colour (yellow, two points) would be used instead of the black ball, the break value would only be 72 points. This means that only a single century break is possible in a frame of snooker under a limited number of combinations, but it requires the potting of at least 25 consecutive balls (10 x (1 + 7) + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 100).[1] To score one, there must be at least ten reds on the table when the player comes to play since if there are only nine reds left, only 99 (= 9 × (1 + 7) + 27) points may be scored. An exception exists if the opponent fouls and leaves the incoming player snookered on all the remaining reds. In such a situation, the player can nominate one of the other colours as a red, known as a "free ball", which carries the same value as a red for just that shot, and therefore, a century break is still possible with only nine reds left.

Breaks above 147 are possible (up to 155) when an opponent fouls and leaves a free ball with all fifteen reds still remaining on the table, creating a situation identical to as if there were 16 red balls on the table. This has happened only once in professional competition, when Jamie Burnett made a 148 at the qualifying stage of the 2004 UK Championship.[4]

A "century of centuries" refers to a total of 100 breaks of at least 100 points each.[1] By December 2001, only 15 players had reached this milestone in professional snooker tournaments.[5] With the increased occurrence of centuries compiled in professional competition in the past decades,[1] another 27 players had achieved a "century of centuries" by October 2011, bringing the total to 42.[6] By the end of the 2013–14 season, the total number of players reaching the 100 centuries threshold had increased to 52.[7] By the end of the English Open in October 2018, there were 66 players that had reached the 100 century breaks marker.[8]

The following players are reported to have passed 100 breaks and at least the given threshold above this.

Threshold	Player	Ref
1000	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[9]
800	John Higgins	[10]
750	Stephen Hendry	[11]
	Judd Trump	[12]
	Neil Robertson	[13]
650	Mark Selby	[14][15]
550	Ding Junhui	[14][15]
500	Shaun Murphy	[14][16]
	Marco Fu	[14]
450	Mark Williams	[17]
400	Mark Allen	[18]
350	Peter Ebdon (377)†	[19]
	Steve Davis (355)†	[20]
300	Ken Doherty	[1][21]
	Barry Hawkins	[22]
250	Matthew Stevens	[23]
200	Alan McManus	[22]
100	Willie Thorne (126)†	[24]
	Paul Hunter (114)†	[25]
	Ian McCulloch (105)†	[26]
	Nigel Bond	[27]
	Mark King	[28]

Key

Exact tally for a retired player