The tournament started with eight qualifying groups of nine players each in round robin mode. The game distance was 25 points. The three best in the group qualified for the semifinals. There were also four places, which were awarded by lottery ticket and a lottery system. Thus 28 players qualified for the semifinals. There were also four seeded players. In the semifinals, four groups of eight players were formed. The game distance was 35 points. The ten best of the four groups played in the A final for places 1 to 10 to 40 points and the next ten best in the B final for places 11 to 20 to 35 points. Again, all games were played in round robin mode. All games were played without a push-button. With this game system, 16 players played 23 matches each.
His wife Ira Lee dedicated this tournament to Sang Chun Lee , who died last year . Sang Lee, as he was called in the USA, had done a lot for the American sport of carambola. In the last years of his life he mainly concentrated on his economic activities. With his friend Michael Kang he opened the Carom Café in the Flushing district of New York, where this tournament also took place.
The tournament started with a qualifying round in which 72 players participated in eight groups. Here the first three of each group qualified for the semifinals. In addition there were four seeded players and four players who were awarded by a lottery system. As in the qualification, the semi-finals were played in round robin mode. To get into the final group A you had to be placed in the top 10 of all groups. Here were the big surprises of the Dane Allan Jensen and the Mexican Luis Avila. Both were not necessarily to be expected in this world class field. In the final group B, in which it was only about places 10-20, the German Martin Horn showed his class, which he could not yet show in the semifinals, and won all nine matches and finished eleventh with a convincing performance. The final group A was largely dominated by the seeded players who were also able to occupy the first three places. The best impression was made by the Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl in the decisive game when he won against Semih Saygıner , who could have won the tournament in his favor, and secured a total of US $ 15,500 in prize money.