Invitational Tour Card Holders

World Snooker has decided that Invitational Tour Card Holders will now be able to compete in any ranking event – rather than only those where the number of entries is below 128 tour players.

The current Invitational Tour Card Holders are Jimmy White, Ken Doherty and James Wattana and going forward they will be given the opportunity to enter all ranking events.

Where the total number of entries including tour players and Invitational Tour Card Holders exceeds 128, a pre-qualifying round will take place.

The relevant number of players will be selected at random from those among the bottom 64 seeds (excluding wildcards) to play in the pre-qualifying round, with the winners progressing into Round 1 (last 128) at random. Tour Players can only be included in one pre-qualifier per season.

Winners of a pre-qualifying round will receive half of the Last 64 round prize money and this WILL count towards the prize money rankings, but this only applies to those players who then lose in Round 1. Players winning a pre-qualifying round and then winning further matches will be paid the prize money as outlined for that round in the prize money breakdown.