A washing machine with a balancer to counterbalance unbalanced load produced during rotation of a drum and a control method thereof. The washing machine with a balancer to counterbalance unbalanced load produced during rotation of a drum perform a ball distributing cycle of seating masses in a groove in the balancer before rotation of the drum possibly producing unbalance as in the spin-drying cycle begins to efficiently maintain balance of the drum, and a laundry untangling cycle of evenly distributing the laundry in the drum. Accordingly, vibration and noise may be reduced during the spin-drying cycle. In addition, in retrying the spin-drying, the ball distributing cycle is restricted based on the rate of rotation of the motor at the moment at which unbalance is sensed. Thereby, delay in cycle time in retrying the spin-drying cycle may be prevented.