Snooker shoot-out

Snooker shoot-out
Tournament status
Ranking tournament:	since 2017
Minor ranking tournament:	-
Invitation tournament:	1990, 2011-2016
Current tournament dates
Defending champion:	Michael Holt
Attendees:	128
Venue:	Watford Colosseum, Watford
Prize money (total):	£ 171,000
Prize money (winner):	£ 50,000
Frames in the final:	Best of 1
Records
Most wins:	Darren Morgan Nigel Bond Barry Hawkins Martin Gould Dominic Dale Michael White Robin Hull Anthony McGill Michael Georgiou Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Michael Holt  (1 × each)
Highest Break:	139 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (2019)
Venue (s) on the map
Stoke-on-Trent Blackpool Reading Watford

The snooker shoot-out is a snooker tournament that was first held in 1990. It was - until 2016 - an invitation tournament for which there were no points for the snooker world ranking list. In the 2016/17 season , the tournament was upgraded to a ranking tournament by doubling the number of participants from 64 to 128. This means that the prize money - from round 2 - also counts for the snooker world rankings.

mode

The 128 best players in the snooker world rankings compete against each other in a knockout system . There is no seeding list, so each round is drawn anew. Only one frame is played in each round per pairing (limited to 10 minutes), whereby the player with the most points is the winner of the frame and goes into the lottery pot for the next round.

regulate

• The winner of the lag can decide whether he or the opponent starts with the first shot.
• During the first 5 minutes, the players have 15 (until 2012: 20) seconds per shot ( shot clock ).
• During the second 5 minutes, the players have 10 (until 2012: 15) seconds per shot.
• If a player does not play a push in the given time, this is a 5-point foul .
• After each shot, a ball must fall or any ball must touch a board, otherwise it is also a 5-point foul .
• After each foul, the opponent has the ball in hand on the entire table.
• The player who has the most points after 10 minutes wins.
• If there is a tie after 10 minutes, a play-off follows the blue ball, which is on its touch-down mark. The cue ball is played once per round and per player from the " D ". The player who won the lag at the start of the game can decide who plays first. The winner is the player who records a hole success in a round in which the opponent makes a failed attempt. Flukes do not count as a hole success here.

history

A similar tournament was held in 1990, but not continued in the following years. While the rules were based on the normal snooker rules , only a single frame was played in each round. Best of 3 was only played in the final .

After Barry Hearn took over the chairmanship of the World Snooker Federation in 2010, there were again many new tournaments in the main tour calendar , including the shoot-out. Since 2011, the tournament has been held annually as a three-day tournament, usually at the end of January. In the first few years the tournament took place in the Circus Arena of Blackpool Tower , which in the 1950s had already hosted the snooker world championship several times . In 2016 the snooker shoot-out moved to the Hexagon in Reading , the venue for the Snooker Grand Prix in the 1980s and 1990s . In the course of expanding the field of participants, the venue was changed again. The event has been held at the Watford Colosseum in Watford since 2017 .

Trivia

In contrast to regular snooker tournaments, heckling, comments, chants, conversations between spectators and players, frenetic applause from the scene, and sometimes the rush of the players around the table are just as much part of the ritual as La Ola (wave of spectators) when playing the yellow one Balls, boos when playing the blue ball, etc. The referee does not intervene and does not warn the audience to calm down. Emotional reactions of the players are not frowned upon either (e.g. showing the fist). The regular work clothes of the players and the referees are replaced by polo shirts. The players have the same color, with their shoot-out ranking number on the sleeves, their name on the back and the text "#Clock is Ticking" above. The referees are given shirts with the same pattern but of a different color and all have "REFEREE" instead of their names. The pattern of the shirts stays the same every year, only the colors change.

winner

year	venue	winner	Result	finalist	Main sponsor	season
International one frame shoot-out
1990	Stoke-on-Trent - Trentham Gardens	Darren Morgan	12: 1 1	Mike Hallett	-	1990/91
Snooker shoot-out
2011	Blackpool Tower Circus	Nigel Bond	58:24	Robert Milkins	Caesars Casino	2010/11
2012		Barry Hawkins	61:23	Graeme Dott	Party poker	2011/12
2013		Martin Gould	104: 000	Mark Allen	Betfair	2012/13
2014		Dominic Dale	77:19	Stuart Bingham	888casino	2013/14
2015		Michael White	54:48	Xiao Guodong	betway	2014/15
2016	Reading - The Hexagon	Robin Hull	50:36	Luca Brecel	Coral	2015/16
2017	Watford - Watford Colosseum	Anthony McGill	67:19	Xiao Guodong		2016/17
2018		Michael Georgiou	67:56	Graeme Dott		2017/18
2019		Thepchaiya Un-Nooh	74: 0	Michael Holt	BetVictor	2018/19
2020		Michael Holt	64: 1	Zhou Yuelong	BetVictor	2019/20

¹ frames here, otherwise points

swell

1. ↑ worldsnooker.com: Indicative Prize Money Rankings Schedule 2016/17 Season. (PDF; 145 kB) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , June 3, 2016, accessed on February 2, 2017 .  
2. ↑ worldsnooker.com: Snooker Shoot-Out 2017 - Competition Rules. (PDF; 105 kB) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association , January 10, 2017, accessed on February 2, 2017 . Rules on worldsnooker.com ( Memento from June 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )  
   
3. ↑ History of the tournament on Chris Turner's SNOOKER ARCHIVE. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 13, 2012 ; Retrieved February 2, 2011 .