A snooker player will notice that the head ball in the photo is a red instead of the pink.  Where I first played snooker, "house rules" required a red to be spotted first.  Minor rules deviation didn't lessen the level of competition or enthusiasm. By the way, the logic as explained by the manager was that it would reduce the wear and tear on the 6 because people who broke with hard open breaks off the head ball would eventually crack the ceramic/clay balls of that time. By rotating reds to the front by virtue of random spotting, the damage would be minimized.