The 2022 World Pool Championship, taking place at Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes from Wednesday, 6 April to Sunday, 10 April 2022 will see a new format for the first round, following an increase in total prize fund.
The group stage will be replaced with a Double Elimination Stage as a view to standardise the Nineball multi-table events where double elimination exists to identify the Last 64 field. The tournament will return to Single Elimination at Last 64 stage.
The Nineball World Rankings will structure and seed the event. 64 players will be seeded as follows:
- 40 off the 2022 Nineball World Rankings
- 24 determined by the Nineball Rankings Committee
New Structure for Days 1 & 2
Round 1 (Day 1 – Wednesday 6th April)
Seeded 64 will play unseeded 64 with the with winner progressing to Winners’ Qualification and Losers going to Losers’ Round 1
Winners’ Qualification (Day 1 – Wednesday 6th April)
64 winners from Round 1 face off to make Last 64 for a guaranteed $1,500.
32 Losers go to Losers’ Qualification
Losers’ Round 1 (Day 2 – Thursday 7th April)
The 64 losers from Round 1 face off to move into Losers’ Qualification
Winners progress to Winners’ Qualification whilst Losers are eliminated
Losers’ Qualification (Day 2 – Thursday 7th April)
32 Losers from Winners’ Qualification meet 32 Winners from Losers’ Round 1
32 Winners move into Last 64
As part of Matchroom’s commitment to the global recognition of Nineball as the primary discipline of pool worldwide, the World Pool Championship will see prize money increase from $250,000 to $325,000 with the winner now taking home a record $60,000, the largest winners’ cheque in Nineball.
Tickets are on sale now to get up close and enjoy action across all 17 tables from only £20 for the day and £100 for the whole week.
For the first time, fans can also enjoy the VIP experience for the semi-finals and final for only £150 with canapes on arrival, free programme, a two-course meal between the sessions plus an open private bar for ten hours along with a premium front three row seat to soak in the action.
I might have to make a come back.
It was not suggested that it was the biggest ever check in nine-ball, which was about $180,000 at the Japan Open close to twenty years ago, which was won by Efren. Coincidentally, Efren also won the biggest prize ever paid in eight-ball, earning $500,000 at IPT Reno in 2006.
This is good news. World 10-Ball this month is already $60,000 to win and so now the top 9-Ball prize matches it.
Look at what we've got going on in Vegas this month
(1) A $30K added WPBA/Predator/CSI Pro Billiard Series Women's event with entrants including Kelly Fisher, Alison Fisher, Jasmin Ouschan, Kristina Tkatch (hopefully I guess...) Angeline Ticoalu, Margaret Fefilova (hopefully), Jen Barretta, etc...
(2) US Pro Billiard Series event --now expanded from 128 to 196 players (that was last week -- 183 signed up now) -- prize fund of I think around $125K --signed up are virtually all the top European and North American Pros plus the following Asian players: Ko, Ko, and Ko; JL Chang, Biado, Corteza, Yu Lung Chang, Garcia, Kun Lin Wu, Oi, Yukio Akagariyama...
(3) World 10Ball Championships [1. $60K, 2 $40K, 3. $20K, 4. $20K....]
Together these are over $400,000 in prize money over a 10-day span at the same venue on the same tables
These are good times for pool, and more people than ever will make a satisfactory living from pro pool than ever before.
In addition, as you've noted, so many of those that have rarely competed in the past in America are coming to play in tournaments here and it's great for Americans who follow the sport. When we get back the elite Asians, many of whom sat the last two years out due to COVID (Xiaohuai Zheng, Anton Raga, Ko Pin Yi, Ko Ping Chung, Liu Haitao, Wu Jiaqing, Kevin Cheng, JL Chang, YL Chang, et al), it will be even better.
Let the good times roll. This looks like a banner year in our sport.