Mark Allen made a successful start to his bid to become the first player to win the 9Club Shoot Out on multiple occasions as he beat Ross Muir in the opening round in Leicester.
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Last year, Northern Ireland's Allen became the first top-16 ranked player to lift the trophy at the event which has been ever-present on the calendar since 2011. A unique set of rules, with all matches lasting a maximum of ten minutes, takes players out of their comfort zone, but Allen is renowned for his calmness under pressure and in recent seasons he has a better record in deciding frames than any other player.
He enjoyed a comfortable win over Muir by a 68-0 scoreline with top break of 45. Allen told Eurosport: "In this format, anyone can lose at any time. It's good fun, you have to embrace it, try to play the right shots and enjoy it. It changed my season last year. Pressure comes into it, some of the lower ranked guys are going to feel it when the money goes up later in the tournament."
Robert Milkins came out on top in the most exciting finish of the opening session, beating Irish 14-year-old Joe Shannon in the last few seconds. Shannon led 42-1 but missed chances to close it out and Milkins recovered with rapid breaks of 20 and 24 to lead by three points, and was able to run the clock down.
Last year's English Amateur Champion Paul Deaville was one of two amateurs to progress to the last 64 as he narrowly edged out Jonas Luz 23-20. Austria's Florian Nuessle was the other, knocking out Dean Young.
Aside from Allen, three more former Shoot Out champions negotiated round one as Ryan Day beat Matthew Selt, Anthony McGill saw off Sophie Nix and Hossein Vafaei got the better of Julien Leclercq.
Round one runs until the end of Thursday.