Help Guide
How to play live online, aim, control spin and power, read path previews, set up positions, use the shot recommender, and play frames.
Quick start
From the menu to your first pot in a few minutes. Tap or click a number on any picture to see what that control does.
-
Pick what to play
- Gameswitch tables. A game marked ↗ opens on our sister site.
- Set up a match…skill, names and who breaks, before you start.
- Solo high scorea one-player run-out. A miss or a foul ends it.
- Practice tableno score and no rules. Put the balls anywhere: the best place to learn the controls.
- Everything elsehelp, feedback, the leaderboard, medals, your account and tools.
New here? Start on the Practice table. Nothing counts, Undo takes any shot back, and Recommend shows you a good shot when you're stuck. -
Find your way around the table
The controls hug the edges of the screen so the table stays clear.
The practice table on a computer, in the Aim camera.
- Menuback to the main menu.
- TV picture-in-picturea live broadcast view in a small window. Drag it to move it, drag a corner to resize it.
- Camera helpthe camera's gestures and keys at a glance.
- Camera viewsAim, TV, Overhead, the four cushions and Reverse aim. C cycles them.
- Undo / Redo
- Pathshow much of the shot is drawn ahead of time. See Reading the table.
- Spinstep 4.
- Powerstep 5.
- Aim · Look · Object Ballhow the camera behaves while you aim. Step 3.
- Cue-tip arrowsstep 3.
- Elevraises the butt of the cue for jumps and massés.
- Followhow long the tip stays with the ball.
- Side panelsevery setting lives in one of these. See Make it yours.
- Replaythe last shot again; ▾ for more.
- Recommendthe AI suggests a shot (practice table only).
Pull down, let go
The practice table on a phone.
- Menuback to the main menu.
- Cameraswitches between Aim and Overhead.
- Undo / Redo
- Pathshow much of the shot is drawn ahead of time.
- Aim · Object Ballhow the camera behaves while you aim, and the FINE aim wheel. Step 3.
- Spinstep 4.
- Power barpull down to load the shot, let go to play it. Step 5.
- Elevraises the butt of the cue for jumps and massés.
- Followhow long the tip stays with the ball.
- Recommendthe AI suggests a shot.
- Replaythe last shot again.
- Panel tabsevery setting, each as a sheet. Table closes it.
-
Line up the shot
Swing the cue round with a drag, then settle on the exact line with the fine controls. The dotted line shows where the cue ball goes and which way the first ball it hits will travel.
- Drag the cloththe cue and the camera swing round the cue ball together. On a phone, drag anywhere.
- Cue-tip arrowstap for the smallest nudge (0.01°), hold to sweep. The camera stays still.
- Aimthe camera sits behind the cue, and dragging turns the shot. A
- Lookthe camera orbits, pans and zooms freely; the cue stays where it is. L. On a phone, pinch and drag with two fingers instead.
- FINE aim wheeldrag it for slow, precise turning. ← / → step 0.01°.
- Object Ballzooms onto the first ball your line hits to show the contact point. O
-
Choose your spin
Leave the tip in the centre for your first shots, then try a little screw (below centre) to see the cue ball come back.
- Spin balldrag the dot for a quick change, or tap it to open the big picker.
- Big pickertap where the tip should strike: below centre screws back, above follows through, left and right add side. The dashed ring is as far out as you can go without a miscue.
-
Set the power and play it
- Powerdrag up for harder. The scale is gentle at the bottom and strong at the top, so most positional shots live in the lower half. + / − step it.
- Take Shotplays it. Or press Space.
On a phone? The power bar is a Catapult: pull it down to load the shot and let go to play it, with no Take Shot button. Cue control explains both ways, and how to switch. -
Watch it, then go again
The camera follows the shot. When the balls stop, Replay runs it again, Undo puts the balls back so you can try another line, and Recommend shows what the engine would have played.
-
Play a real rack
Back on the menu, start a rack against the computer, online, or with a friend. The referee keeps score and calls fouls.
- Cue ball in handat the break, and after a foul that gives ball in hand, drag the cue ball where you want it (or move it with the arrow keys), then play. For the break it stays behind the head string, or the baulk line on the UK table.
- Turn and groupswhose turn it is, each side's balls, and what's left to pot.
- Pause / EndPause puts the rack away to finish later.
Make it yours
Every setting is in one of the side panels, and each choice is remembered on the device you made it on. How much the table shows you is set by Paths on the practice table and by Hints in a rack.
Shot panel: how you play the shot
- CueSnooker, Pro or Classic. Looks only: every cue plays the same. Online, your opponent sees yours.
- Cue powerSlider + Take Shot or Catapult. See Cue control.
- Slidersaim and spin as exact numbers.
Scene panel: how it looks
- VenueBilliards room, Theatre (raked seating, and its own echo), Club (an old snooker and pool hall), Apartment (a loft over the city at night), or None for just the table, which is quicker on older devices.
- Graphics qualityAuto adjusts to keep the frame rate up. High and Balanced fix the detail; Performance and Minimal trade it for speed, and Minimal also drops the shadows and the room.
- Tableany cloth and surround colour, and the finish of the rails, from Mahogany to Carbon Fibre. The pool tables add a Pocket colour, and the UK table the colours of the Reds and Yellows.
- CameraAfter the shot: None stays put, TV frames it like a broadcast, Track follows the ball. Aim assist (experimental) stops an aiming drag tilting the view unless you drag clearly up or down, and pulls back as the view lifts. Shot zoom pushes in at impact. Pot close-ups when watching cuts to the pocket when you watch someone else play. Aim pose: zoom or pan the Aim camera to your stance, then Set, and every shot starts from there.
- Cue actionFeathering: a couple of warm-up strokes before the strike. Referee's hand: a white-gloved hand carries a ball that goes back on the table to its spot, instead of the ball just reappearing.
Sign in for a lot more
As a guest, everything on the table works, but the Account panel holds little more than your player profile, and what you do stays on this device. Sign in (it's free, with no password) and the panel opens up:
- Youthe name and email you signed in with, and sign out.
- Profile photoadd one and crop it; choose whether other players see it.
- Spread the wordpost about us and earn the Ambassador badge. See Your account.
- Ratingyour Elo on every board, your recent rated matches, and Appear offline to hide from the people who follow you.
- Leaderboardyour display name and flag, and whether your scores post to the public boards: never, ask each time, or automatically.
- Saved shotsCapture table keeps the layout in front of you (a tricky safety, a run-out puzzle, a rack from last night); tap one to put it back on the table, on any device.
- Player profileyour cue hand and height, which decide what you can reach, and Place the rest for me. See The rest and the spider.
Signed in, your medals and recent games follow you to every device, and online racks are rated.
Everything else that's remembered
- The practice table, exactly as you left it.
- The Paths setting, and which side panel was open.
- Whether the TV picture-in-picture is showing, and where you put it.
- Sound on or off.
- Your rack options in the Play panel.
About the simulator
CueSim is a real pool table in your browser — somewhere to play with the game as much as play it. Try shots, study angles, recreate positions you've seen, or rack up a rack against a friend or the computer.
Under the hood it's a proper physics simulator. Every shot is modelled — cushion bounces, spin transfer, throw, squirt, swerve, jumps and massés — with no scripted outcomes. If you put bottom-left on a thin cut at three-quarter pace, the cue ball does what the laws of physics say it should. The path previews on screen are the engine running ahead of time, so what's drawn is exactly what will happen.
That opens up things a normal pool game doesn't:
- Drop balls anywhere on the table and try a shot a hundred different ways.
- Take a phone photo of a real rack and rebuild it here to study.
- Share a position as a link and ask someone "what would you play?".
- Ask the recommender to search the position with the real physics and show you strong lines.
And when you do want to compete, the simulator wears a referee's hat. Break a rack Solo, Pass & Play with a friend, against the Computer (which uses the same recommender at varying strengths), or Online against a live opponent.
Four codes are on offer, each on its own table: 8-ball on the American 9ft table (solids and stripes, ball-in-hand on a foul), 8-ball on the English 7ft table (reds and yellows, two shots on a foul), and 9-ball and 10-ball on the American table. The referee applies the standard rules for whichever you pick.
Aiming
Quick start shows every aiming control. This is how they behave.
Orbiting
In the Aim camera, the further you drag, the bigger the turn, so dragging is for the coarse part of an aim. On touch the sensitivity follows your finger: a quick sweep turns the cue a long way and a slow drag settles it gently.
With Aim assist on (Scene panel, Camera), a sideways or slightly diagonal drag only turns the shot, so the view can't tilt by accident. Drag clearly up or down to change the view: down lifts the camera a little and pulls back for a look at the whole table, up drops back in behind the cue. Turn it off for free orbiting.
You can aim from Overhead or TV view too: drag on the empty cloth and the shot turns while the camera stays parked. The other fixed views, a cushion or reverse aim, only move the camera.
Fine aim
Holding a cue-tip arrow ramps from a crawl to a fast sweep, so let go as soon as the line looks right; swipe on one instead and the cue follows your finger. The aim wheel turns the cue at a fixed gentle rate (about 1° for every 40px you drag) however far the camera is zoomed, in every camera view. In Object Ball, the wheel, the arrows and the arrow keys all go finer still, sized to the shot, so a nudge moves the object ball's line by about the same hair on a long thin cut as on a short one.
Look
Use Look to check a pocket angle, scout the path of a ball, or check whether you're hooked behind a blocker, without losing your line. Switch back to Aim to carry on aiming.
Object Ball
Judging "half-ball or three-quarters?" is much easier here than from behind the cue. A, L or Esc takes you back.
- Contact pointwhere the cue ball will meet the object ball, and the line it will take.
- Fine aimextra fine here, sized to the cut.
Aim sliders
The Shot panel's Aim slider covers the full ±180°, and Fine tune (±2°) the hundredths of a degree. After each shot the fine offset is folded into the coarse aim, so you always have the full ±2° for the next one.
Cue control
Where the tip strikes
The mark on the cue ball shows where the tip will land. The Vertical / Side spin sliders in the Shot panel, and Shift + arrow keys, set it too.
- Top (above centre) — the cue ball rolls on after contact (follow).
- Bottom (below centre) — the cue ball comes back (draw / screw).
- Centre — stun. Pace and angle decide where it stops.
- Side — running or check side off the cushion, plus throw on the object ball. Side also pushes the cue ball slightly off the line you aimed (squirt), more the harder you hit, so allow for it on long pots.
You can't strike off the edge of the ball: the tip is held inside a realistic miscue limit, so the tip you see is where the ball will actually be hit.
Power
Power runs from a barely-rolling touch to a full break, on a curved scale: the lower half is for safeties and positional shots, the top half for power.
Slider or Catapult
There are two ways to use the power bar. Switch any time under Shot → Cue power:
- Slider + Take Shot — set the pace, then press Take Shot or Space. Setting power and striking are separate, so you can keep refining the aim before you commit. Best when accuracy matters most. The default on tablets and computers.
- Catapult — power and the strike are one gesture. Press anywhere on the power bar, pull down to load the shot (the further you pull, the harder it's hit) and let go to play it. Slide back to the top before letting go to cancel. Your last power stays marked on the bar so you can repeat it by feel, and a recommended shot's power shows as a gold marker the pull snaps onto. Quicker and more like a real cue action, but harder to be precise. The default on phones.
Once a shot is played, the controls lock until the balls stop.
Follow-through
The Follow slider models how long the tip stays with the ball. Leave it on Neutral for normal shots. Push it up (Through / Deep) to deepen spin — sharper screw-back, more aggressive running side. Push it down (Short / Stab) for a dab. A very low follow-through near touching balls is judged a push shot and refused.
Elevation, massé and jumps
Elev raises the butt of the cue, from the 3° every shot starts at. Use it for jump shots, massé curves around a blocker, or to clear a cushion behind the cue ball. Its minimum lifts itself when something's in the way: that's the engine telling you a flatter stroke won't fit. A massé is elevation plus side spin; a jump is elevation plus a firm strike with topspin.
The rest and the spider
When the cue ball is out of reach for your height and cue hand (Account → Player profile), a rest is laid for you; turn off Place the rest for me there to be asked first. You can also put one down or take it away with the Cue bridge tool, or the keyboard: the rest (R) seats the cue in its X-cross, and the spider (Shift+R) arches high so the cue bridges over balls in the way.
- Rest noticewhich bridge you're on, with a button to swap to the spider or remove it.
- The restslide it to change the cue's elevation. Drag its body to move it, or the cones beside it to turn it.
- Elevfollows the rest: the bridge sets how high the cue sits.
Reading the table
The path previews run the real physics, so what's drawn is exactly what happens if you shoot. Choose how much you see with the Paths button. In a rack, the Hints level decides instead.
If a line surprises you, it's worth a pause: usually it's throw on a slight cut, squirt from side, or running side carrying off a cushion. The preview is a reliable teacher of those small effects.
Setting up positions
You can rearrange the table whenever a rack isn't in progress. Click a ball to select it, then drag it, or nudge it with the arrow keys (Esc lets go). Everything else is in the Tools panel.
- Import from photosee below.
- Share positionsee below.
- Record a clipsee Watching the shot.
- Trick-shot propssee below.
- Cue bridgesee The rest and the spider.
Show labels, at the bottom of the panel, prints each ball's name above it, handy when you're describing a position to someone.
Import from photo
Photograph a real table from above one end, with all four corners in the picture, then Import from photo… rebuilds it here in two steps.
Step 1: mark the corners.
- Choose photo…a photo from your device. On a phone you can also take one there and then.
- The cornersfour yellow handles, named after the ends of the table. Drag each onto the inside corner of the cushion, where the two cushion edges meet at the pocket.
- Auto-find cornershas a go at placing them for you. It works best when the cloth fills most of the photo; check them either way.
- Rotateturn the photo, or swap which end the handles think is which.
- Continue → Edit ballsstraightens the photo into a view from directly above and finds the balls.
Step 2: check the balls.
- Your table, from aboveevery ball it found is ringed in its colour. Drag a ball to move it, click one to change its colour or delete it, and click empty cloth to add one.
- Detected layoutthe position as it will be set up, with a count of each colour.
- Back to cornersfix a corner without losing your changes.
Reflections and shadows can fool the detector, so give the picture a quick check before you apply it.
Share a position
Copy share link, under Share position, puts the whole scene into a link — ball positions, settings, the score so far — and opens that exact rack for whoever you send it to. Useful for pool puzzles, mid-rack discussions, or asking for a second opinion. Tick Include predicted paths to have the previews on when it opens. A link opens in Aim; from another camera view, choose Open in that view instead.
Trick-shot props
Show Trickshot Props opens a palette you can drag anywhere on the screen. Props really are part of the table: a ramp launches a ball, a bumper kicks it away and a tube carries it through, and the path previews show all of it. They're saved with the position, so they travel in share links and saved shots.
- Propsclick one to drop it in the middle of the table, or drag it to where you want it. On touch, press and hold, then drag. Each one explains itself when you hover over it.
- Selected propclick a prop to select it. Drag its body to move it, or nudge it with the arrow keys; Esc lets go.
- Handlesdrag them to reshape or turn the prop. Each kind has its own: a ramp's height, length and curve, a wall's bend, a bumper's bounce, a patch's grip.
- Deletetakes the prop off the table.
- Duplicatea copy of the selected prop, to build a row of them.
- Path preview look-aheadhow many seconds ahead the previews run, up to a minute, for long trick shots.
Watching the shot
The camera button opens the views: overhead for plotting position, the cushions for safety angles, TV for the broadcast look. On a phone it switches between Aim and Overhead instead.
How the camera moves during and after a shot is set in the Scene panel.
The walk-up
When a rack starts, or you re-rack in practice, the camera walks you up to the cue the way a player gets down on a shot. Press Space to skip it.
TV picture-in-picture
On a computer or tablet. While you're watching an opponent, the window switches to their behind-the-cue view so you can see what they're lining up.
Replay
- Replaythe last shot, from the camera you're in. ▾ opens these options.
- Which shot and camerathe last shot or one of the two before it, from any view or the Pot angle that follows the ball into the pocket. Slow motion is for the replay only.
- Download recordingthe panel button becomes Play and download and saves the replay as a video: the shape of your window, square for a feed post, or portrait for Reels, TikTok and Shorts.
A replay is identical to the original, so it's the place to study a near-miss frame by frame. The main Replay button never records.
Recording
Record a clip (Tools) records whatever happens on the table, for up to a minute. Set the camera first: TV view and a slow-motion replay make a good clip. Stop it with the red indicator at the top of the scene.
Watching a whole rack again
Every rack you play is recorded. Under Recent games in the Play panel, Watch replays one from the break, at any speed, with the clocks as they were. Rated online games on the leaderboard can be watched the same way. The replay bar has play and pause, a shot back and forward, speed, paths and record, and you can drag it out of the way.
Playing a rack
The menu cards start a rack straight away. The Play panel sets it up first.
- ModeComputer, Pass & Play, Online or Solo.
- Hintswhat's drawn on the table: Full the aim line and every ball's path, Partial the aim line and the first rebound, None nothing at all.
- Computer optionsits skill from 1 to 5, who breaks, and whether it reacts to your shots and replays a good pot.
- Recent gamesWatch a rack again.
Modes
- Solo — one player, full rules for the table you're on. It's a single-rack clearance: in 8-ball, pot a ball to claim your group (solids or stripes — reds or yellows on the UK table), clear it, then legally pot the 8 to win; in 9-ball and 10-ball, run the balls in numerical order to the money ball. The run ends the moment you miss or foul, which makes it a natural run-out exercise. The break itself is forgiven — you're allowed to miss the first shot so you don't end the rack before it's started.
- Play Computer — you against the AI Recommender. Its skill sets how far ahead it plans and how often it misses; your hints only change what you see. Recommend and Undo are off for both sides.
- Online — a live rack against another person. Find a matched opponent or invite a friend with a link. No account required.
In the 8-ball games the rules engine handles group assignment (solids and stripes on the US table, reds and yellows on the UK table), the open-table phase, fouls, scratches, ball-in-hand after a foul (US) or two-shots (UK), the 8-ball, and win detection. Potting the 8 before your group is cleared, or on a foul, loses the rack. The score chip top-left tracks the current turn — click it for a breakdown of pots.
9-ball and 10-ball are rotation games: there are no groups, and the cue ball must strike the lowest-numbered ball on the table first every single shot. Beyond that, anything you pot counts and you carry on — a ball potted off a legal contact keeps you at the table, whether or not it was the one you were aiming at. Miss that first contact, scratch, or knock a ball off the table and it's a foul: the opponent takes ball-in-hand anywhere. The break has to be a real one — pot a ball, or drive at least four object balls into a cushion — or that too is a foul. Pot the money ball legally and you win the rack outright, combinations included. The 9 counts even on the break; a 10 potted on the break goes back on the foot spot and the breaker plays on. A money ball that goes down on a foul is likewise respotted rather than deciding the rack. The chip top-left shows which ball you're on.
After a legal break the incoming shooter may announce a push-out before they play: the cue ball does not have to hit a ball or a rail, and the opponent then chooses to take the table or pass the shot back. Shots are never called (so slop counts in 10-ball as well as 9-ball), and the three-consecutive-fouls loss is not played. An illegal break is a plain foul here too, rather than offering the incoming player a re-rack.
Playing the computer
Once the computer has lined up its shot, nothing you do on the table changes it. Pause computer, in the bubble while it plays, makes it wait between shots, to replay one or look at the table. It concedes a rack it can no longer win.
Playing online
Open Play Online from the intro menu, or pick Online in the Play panel. Two ways in:
- Find opponent — look for someone else who is searching. The rack starts when you're paired. Your chosen assist level (hints) is the one both of you play under.
- Invite a friend — copy a challenge link and send it. They open it and sit down at your table.
The rules engine referees both sides. You only take a shot on your visit; while the opponent is at the table you watch. A coin toss decides who breaks, and both of you see who won it before the first shot. Resign or offer a draw from the Play panel if you want to end the rack without walking away mid-shot.
When the visit comes back to you, a chime marks the turn. If the match is in another tab, the bell repeats and the tab title flashes until you come back.
Following and challenges
Signed in, Players you follow is in the Online part of the Play panel. Find players searches by display name and lists recent opponents. Follow someone and their row shows what they're doing — free, in a match, practising, or watching. When they're free and on your table, Challenge asks them for a rack. The offer goes only to them, and they can accept or leave it. If they're offline, Notify can send that challenge to their phone. If they're watching a match, Watch joins them.
An invite or a live match can be on another table — US 8-ball, UK 8-ball, 9-ball or 10-ball. The offer names which, and Switch & accept or Switch & play takes you there. Watch on a match at another table does the same. The number of players online counts every table on the site, and says how many are at the one you're on.
During a match you can chat. Quick replies under the box send a common line — nice shot, thanks, and so on — without typing, and a row of emoji sends a reaction on its own. If your opponent isn't signed in, chat can fill in a note asking them to; edit it or send it as it is. When the match ends the conversation stays on screen until you close it, so a share link doesn't vanish with the table. A rematch keeps the same thread; a new opponent starts a new one. Mute hides their messages for you; Report sends the conversation to a moderator and mutes them. Chat is filtered for abuse. Mute also remembers your preference for the next match.
People watching can clap. When they do, a note rises over the table. Mute on that note turns the sound and the hands off for the rest of this game. The note disappears on its own. The next game, the crowd is back.
Signed-in vs signed-in matches are rated. After the rack the summary shows what it did to your number. See Elo ratings below for how the ranking works, and what doesn't count.
You can also follow someone else's rack live, without taking a seat. See Watching matches.
Pausing a game
Pause puts a Solo, Computer or Pass & Play rack away to finish later, once the balls have stopped and any foul choice is made. An online rack can't be paused. It waits under Game in progress, one per mode: Resume brings back the table, the score and the clocks, without the time you were away; Discard throws it away. Starting that mode again asks first, because the new rack replaces the paused one.
Accepting an online game pauses one of these for you. The offer says so, and you resume it from the same list afterwards.
Daily Run-out
Every day there's one new 9-ball run-out, the same for everyone. It's a short position on the American 9-ball table — a handful of balls ending with the 9 — that takes a few minutes. It's easiest on Monday and gets harder through the week; the weekend ones are hard. A new puzzle goes live at midnight UTC.
Open it from Daily Run-out on the main menu, or the Daily section at the top of the Challenge panel. You get one attempt; on the easy days you start with the cue ball in hand. The 9-ball rules apply: hit the lowest-numbered ball first every shot, and the run is over at the first miss or foul. You play with Partial path hints, and the recommender and undo are off. Your score is the number of balls you pot; potting the 9 legally clears the rack. If you leave between shots (to take an online game, say), the attempt waits: open the daily again to carry on from the same position. An attempt still unfinished when the day ends doesn't count, and your streak starts again.
Your result
When the attempt ends you see your score against par — what the engine pots on the same position — and the share of today's players you beat. More balls beats fewer; on the same score, the quicker time wins. Share copies a spoiler-free summary: a square for each ball potted, no positions. Watch your run plays your attempt back shot by shot (on the device you played it on), Watch the engine plays the position for you, and Practise it lets you play it again as often as you like. Practice runs aren't counted.
Playing on consecutive days builds a daily streak. The Daily section keeps your stats: puzzles played, how often you cleared, your current and best streak, and how your scores spread against par. You can also practise any of the last seven days there.
You don't need an account. As a guest your results stay on this device; sign in and they join your account, so your streak follows you everywhere.
Watching matches
You can watch a live online rack as it is played — the score, whose visit it is, and every shot — even if you arrive halfway through, or while a ball is still rolling. You don't take a seat, so nothing you do changes the match.
Finding one
The intro menu, and Online in the Play panel, both list Matches in progress: who's playing, their flags, the score, and how many people are already watching. Press Watch on a row to sit in.
Follow a player from their profile and, when they're watching a match themselves, their row in the players list grows a Watch button so you can join the same one.
A match is only listed when both players are happy to be watched. Allow spectators, under Online in the Play panel, is on by default and remembered on this device. Turn it off for a private game — either player can, and that keeps the rack off the list and refuses anyone who tries to join.
While you watch
A bar at the top reads Watching live. Clap cheers a shot — tap it, or hold for a run of applause. The players and the other viewers hear it. If someone else is clapping and you'd rather they weren't, Mute on the note over the table silences the crowd for the rest of this game — the sound and the hands. The note itself disappears. The next game, the crowd is back. Your own clap still plays. Leave, or Esc, puts your own table back the way you left it, including a rack you had under way.
The shot controls come off the screen. Power and spin stay as a readout of the stroke the player at the table is setting: you can see the aim, you can't change it. The camera opens on TV view, unless you were already on another fixed angle. Pick a different one from the camera panel and it stays for the rest of the match, including a rematch.
The scoreboard keeps the live score. Click a signed-in player's name to open their profile.
What you hear from the players
You don't have the chat box. When someone is watching, each player can tick Also show to everyone watching on a message, and those lines appear for you as a short note on screen. Anything they don't tick stays between the two of them.
When the rack ends
A note says who won — a finished rack, a resignation, a timeout, someone leaving, or a draw. If they play again you stay for the next one. If they don't, the feed ends and you're back at your own table.
Continuing on another device
Started a match on your phone and want to finish it on the computer? Open CueSim on the other device, signed in to the same account. A card says you're already in a rack elsewhere: Continue on this device moves your seat here and carries on from the current shot, or Watch follows it without taking over. The lobby offers the same choice before you join another game, so you don't end up in two at once.
Elo ratings
Online matches between two signed-in players are rated with Elo — a ranking number that goes up when you win and down when you lose. It is the same idea chess uses: beating a stronger opponent pays more than beating a weaker one, and losing to someone below you costs more than losing to someone above you.
Everyone starts at 1200. After each rated rack the summary shows your new number and how far it moved. You can also find every board you've played under Account → Rating, and the public standings on the leaderboard under Top 100.
How a rating moves
The system already expects the higher-rated player to win. When that happens, both numbers barely shift. An upset — or a draw against someone much stronger — moves them a lot. A draw between equals leaves both where they were.
Your first ten racks on a board move faster so the number finds your level in an evening rather than a season. After that it settles, and at the very top of the board a single result barely budges anyone. A result against someone still on those first ten racks counts for less on your side — their number is still a guess — but they still take the full swing, so a new player can climb quickly without rewriting a settled rating.
What counts
- Both seats must be signed in on different accounts. A guest in either chair, or two tabs of the same account, leaves the rack unrated.
- At least one shot must have been played. Joining and leaving before the break is not a contest.
- A completed rack, a timeout, a resignation, a disconnect and a draw all count. Walking away from a losing rack costs the same as losing it — resigning is not a free escape.
- Solo, Pass & Play and Computer racks are not rated.
Separate boards
There is a separate rating for each game (8-ball on the US 9-foot or UK 7-foot table, 9-ball, 10-ball) and each assist level — No hints, Partial and Full paths. Playing with the paths drawn for you is a different skill from potting with none, so one number spanning both would describe neither.
You appear on the public ratings board after five rated matches on that board, against at least two different opponents. Until then you still have a rating — it just isn't ranked yet, so a handful of lucky racks, or a run against one familiar opponent, can't out-place a season of play. The public list only includes players who opted in via their leaderboard profile, same as high scores.
Playing the same opponent
Your first three rated racks against the same opponent in a day count in full. After that they count for less: half for the next three, a quarter for the four after that, and nothing from the eleventh on, for both players. Rematches stay fun to play, but nobody can climb the board by beating the same account over and over.
AI Recommender
Recommend is on the practice table only. Press it and the engine runs the real physics on a large pool of candidate shots, scores them on the balls they pot and the position they leave, and ranks the best lines. It isn't a rule of thumb: it's simulating the table. When you need snookers, it looks for safeties that can get you back into the rack.
- Candidatesthe strongest shots, best first. Pick one to load its aim, power and spin, then check the preview before you play.
- Lookaheadhow many shots ahead it plans. 1 is quick, for "what's the best pot from here"; 3 builds run-out lines but takes longer.
- StyleSafe, Balanced or Attack. See below.
- Auto-playkeeps recommending and playing on its own. Watching it clear a difficult rack shows you lines you wouldn't have spotted.
Comparing two candidates is the fastest way to learn why one leave is better than another.
Your account
An account is optional: everything on the table works without one, including live online matches. Make it yours shows what signing in adds.
Signing in
Open Account from the main menu or the side dock. There is no password.
- Google or Facebook — Continue with Google or Continue with Facebook. You're sent to that service to approve, then brought back signed in. The same email on both is one account. On the iPhone app you can also Continue with Apple.
- Email code — Continue with Email and enter your address. A 6-digit code is emailed to you; type it in, or let your device fill it from the message, and you're signed in. Resend code if it doesn't arrive, or Use a different email to start again.
Online, signed in
A guest is listed as Guest; signed in, the scoreboard and the match offer use your display name. A rack between two signed-in players is rated, so when someone is looking for a game, a signed-in player is offered it before a guest.
To play signed-in players only, turn off Allow guests under Online in the Play panel: guests are then never told about your search or paired with you.
Medals
The Medals panel is your trophy cabinet. A rack can unlock a medal as it ends.
- Your recordracks, wins, highest run, balls potted, days played and your current streak.
- Medalswhat each one asks, and how close you are.
Player profiles
Click a signed-in player's name — on the scoreboard, in recent games, under Account → Rating, in the players list, or on the leaderboard — to open their profile. You need to be signed in to open someone else's. A guest, the computer, or a pass-and-play name has no profile.
It shows their rating on each board, their medals, and the score of every rated rack, whether or not it was posted to the leaderboard. Load more brings older games. Follow is the same follow as in the players list.
Your photo starts as the one from the account you signed in with. A country flag sits beside names on the scoreboard, the profile, the leaderboard and the list of live matches. Yours is detected for you; change it when you first sign in or under Account → Leaderboard.
The Ambassador badge
Post about CueSim on social media or a pool forum, with a link back to us — a clip of a great shot works best. Then open Spread the word in the Account panel and Send for review with the link to your post. Once it's approved you get the Ambassador badge, which shows on your profile, next to your name on the scoreboard, and on the leaderboards.
Phones and tablets
Everything works by touch. What's different from a computer:
- Moving the view — pinch to zoom and drag with two fingers to pan, in place of Look mode.
- Panels — on a phone held upright they're tabs along the bottom that open as sheets. Turn the phone sideways, or use a tablet, for the side dock.
- TV picture-in-picture — tablets only; a phone's screen is too small.
The app
CueSim is also an app for iPhone and Android. Get the app on the main menu, and the links in About, take you to the store. In the app, updates download in the background and install the next time you open it, so a rack is never interrupted. About → Version history shows whether one is downloading or ready, and what's new in the version you're running.
On the iPhone app, signed in with notifications on, you can press Find opponent and leave the app. You stay in the search, and a notification tells you when someone takes the game, with a short window to come back and play.
Feedback and support
Ideas, bugs and questions all have a door:
- Feedback on the main menu — ideas, bugs, feature requests, or anything that feels off. No account needed. Leave an email if you'd like a reply, or tick Send anonymously.
- Reddit — r/snookersim. Chat with other players, share your best breaks and suggest features. The Reddit button on the main menu goes there too.
- X — @SnookerSimX. The same link is on the About screen. Feature requests, bugs, or tag your shot videos.
- Email — [email protected] for anything you'd rather send directly, including permissions and commercial use.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Take shot | Space |
|---|---|
| Skip the walk-up camera | Space — at the start of a rack or a re-rack |
| Aim / Look / Object ball | A · L · O |
| Cycle camera view | C — Aim → Overhead → TV |
| Add / remove rest | R |
| Add / remove spider | Shift+R |
| Aim (Aim mode) | ← → — hold to accelerate |
| Elevation (Aim mode) | ↑ ↓ |
| Side spin | Shift+← → |
| Top / back spin | Shift+↑ ↓ |
| Move selected ball or prop | ← → ↑ ↓ |
| Power | + / − — hold to accelerate |
| Move camera (Look mode) | ← → ↑ ↓ |
| Orbit camera (Look mode) | Shift+← → ↑ ↓ |
| Undo / Redo | ⌘/Ctrl+Z · ⌘/Ctrl+Shift+Z · Ctrl+Y |
| Deselect / close dialog | Esc |
Watching a rack replay
| Play / pause | Space or K |
|---|---|
| Shot back / forward | ← → |
| First / last shot | Home · End |
| Stop watching | Esc |