Billiard News

What determines if a player is a professional or an amateur?

To this date, no one has really defined or classified what a professional player is. The only real pro tour we have is the woman’s tour. The men’s tour changes from year to year so it is hard to define who is a professional player. It may be better to classify what is an amateur player.  

At one point the BCA classified a professional player as one who paid a three hundred dollar entry fee and made it to the money. That would include most of the players who entered the US Open. We know that many true amateur’s play in that event. This is a vague definition of a player who falls into the professional ranks.

The governing bodies will do well to adopt The Monk’s classification of amateur vs pro.

1. Any player who plays this game as a hobby is an amateur.

2. Any player who plays this game to make a living is a professional.

3. If you play in six or more of the cue sponsored open tour events, during one calendar year and play in a pro event, you will be considered a professional player.

4. An amateur player is one who is training for the pro tour.

5. An amateur player is one who belongs to a weekly league.

The purpose of separating the amateur from the professional is to protect the amateur from being outclassed in an event. Without the separation, many of our big tournament events would be taken over by the road traveling professional players. The amateur events are training grounds for those who aspire to move on to the pro ranks. Without this program, we would not have a healthy pro tour.

Often times the governing bodies punish those who do well. For instance, if an amateur player trains, works hard, qualifies for the amateur opens and does well in other events, he/she is bumped up to the masters even though they qualified before they received the special training. This is a big mistake. Reward those who work the hardest. We must not punish a player for winning.

For instance, if a player wins the BCA masters three years in a row, and still plays this game as a hobby, he/she should be allowed to continue playing. It is important to stay consistent with our definition of what is an amateur and what is a professional. The skill level should not be the determining factor. If the tournament directors are not consistent the players will not trust them. The governing bodies should never suggest that improving your skill level gets you kicked out of the tournament. Winning or losing should be left up to the players.

There are some great players who chose to be amateurs. We should honor these men and woman. They should be welcomed in our events. If every amateur event used The Monkís five rules, players would develop a trust in the programs they desire to join. They would know where they stand. Our players today sacrifice a great deal to improve their game. The spend money for books, videos, training and cues in the hopes of winning a tournament. We should be consistent with what we offer them. Make sure we are clear about who is an amateur and who is a professional player.  

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2005 World Pool Championship

For 2005 and beyond, Matchroom Sport, in association with the WPA, is implementing a brand new system to determine who gets to play in the annual WPA World Pool Championship for Men.

Loosely based o­n the system used in golf’s Majors, the purpose of this category classification is to give all serious pool players in the world a fair opportunity to compete in the World Pool Championship.

The major differences from previous years are that continental associations do not have a set allocation of players, and that it is possible for players to qualify in territories other than their home o­ne.

This is to reward success and achievement and to recognise the global nature of tournament pool.

2005 WPA World Pool Championship Entry Criteria Universal Categories | Africa | Asia | Europe | North AmericaOceania | South America | Others

For 2005 and beyond, Matchroom Sport, in association with the WPA, is implementing a brand new system to determine who gets to play in the annual WPA World Pool Championship for Men. Loosely based o­n the system used in golf’s Majors, the purpose of this category classification is to give all serious pool players in the world a fair opportunity to compete in the World Pool Championship.

The major differences from previous years are that continental associations do not have a set allocation of players, and that it is possible for players to qualify in territories other than their home o­ne.

The major reasons for these changes are to reward success and achievement and to recognise the global nature of tournament pool.

May 15th is generally used as a cut-off date in order to create the necessary time to collate all the players who have already qualified and determine how many additional spots will be available for any qualification tournament.

The first three categories are general and applicable to the six groupings of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania and Developing Pool Nations. Categories 4 and upwards are different in each territory. Players will always take their position from the HIGHER category. For example, defending champion Alex Pagulayan falls into Categories 1, 2 and 3 but would enter the 2005 World Pool Championship as a Category 1 player, his highest category. o­ne of the basic principles of this system is that if a player goes forward to the Championship via his highest category, this does NOT free up additional spots within the lower category.

For example, it is fair to say that many of the players in Category 5 Europe (winners and runners up o­n all Euro Tour events within a preceding twelve month period) will also fall into Category 6 Europe (the top 16 ranked players o­n the EPBF Euro Tour Rankings up to 1 st May 2005). As the relevant players will go through in the higher category, that does not mean that Category 6 will extend beyond the top 16.

In the event of a player qualifying in categories in more than o­ne territory, he would go through in the category in his home territory.

UNIVERSAL CATEGORIES (1 – 3)

Category 1 Previous five winners of the WPA World Pool Championship – 2004: A Pagulayan, 2003: T Hohmann, 2002: E Strickland, 2001: M Immonen, 2000: FP Chao

Category 2 Previous three beaten finalists at the WPA World Pool Championship – 2004: PW Chang, 2003: A. Pagulayan, 2002: F Bustamante

Category 3 Last 16 finishers at the previous year's WPA World Pool Championship - FP Chao, I Majid, A Pagulayan, CC Huang, CC Kang, R Luat, PC Kuo, E Strickland, M Chamat, T Schober, M Manalo, E Reyes, PW Chang, D Orcollo, J Archer, N Bergendorff

AFRICA Category 4 Continental Champion and runner-up (2 players)

ASIA Category 4 Champion and beaten finalist from the All Japan Championship: 2 spots can be Asians or non-Asians

Category 5 Top 10 APBU – ESPN SMB Asian Tour Ranking

Category 6 Top 5 of APBU Ranking

Category 7 APBU Asian Championship Champion and the beaten finalist

Category 8 APBU Qualifying Tournament for those countries who are not yet nominated through Category 1-7. Each of these countries can send 2 players to this qualifying tournament. Top 5 from this Qualifying Tournament will be entered into the World Pool Championship.

Category 9 National Champions and Runners Up from the following countries

Philippines Taiwan Korea Japan

Category 10 National Champions and Runners Up from the following countries

Indonesia Singapore China

Category 11 National Champions in the following countries

Malaysia Vietnam Thailand India UAE  

EUROPE

Category 4 The Gold, Silver and two Bronze Medallists in the 9-Ball division at the European Pool Championships

The Gold Medallist in the Straight Pool division at the European Pool Championships

Category 5 Winner and runner-up of all Euro Tour events that take place between 1st June 2004 and 1st May 2005

Category 6 The top 16 ranked players o­n the EPBF Euro Tour Rankings up to 1st May 2005.

Category 7 The next ten players representing ten different countries o­n the EPBF Euro Tour Rankings up to 1st May 2005, not above ranking of 50

Category 8 Six UK national players, qualifying from a tournament featuring the top players o­n both the BPPPA Tour and the Pro 9 Ball Tour.

Category 9 Team Europe representatives at the previous three Mosconi Cups (2004, 2003, 2002)

Category 10 European players ranked 17 o­nwards who have shown consistent performance in international events over the past five years but otherwise fail to qualify via Categories 1 - 9

NORTH AMERICA

Category 4 Winner and runner-up of all UPA-sanctioned events having a field of 48 or more players, which take place within a period that commences immediately after the previous year’s championship and finishes o­n the 15th May o­n the year of the World Pool Championship. In following years, the relevant period will revert to a 12 months cycle from 16th May to 15th May the following year.

Category 5 The winner and runner-up in the following events having taken place in the 12 months prior to the World Pool Championship: the US Open 9-Ball Championship, the BCA Open 9-Ball Championship

Category 6 The top four highest finishing players at the 2004 Canadian National 9-Ball Championship

Category 7 The top 12 ranked North American players o­n the UPA Calendar rankings up to 15 th May.

Category 8 Team America representatives at the previous three Mosconi Cups (2004, 2003, 2002)

OCEANIA

Category 4 National Champions of the following countries:

Australia New Zealand

Category 5 Winners of the following tournaments:

Oceania Championship Trans Tasman Championship

Category 6 Next 2 highest ranked players o­n Oceania Rankings

SOUTH AMERICA  

Category 4 The Top 8 players at the CPB (South/Central American) Championship.

OTHERS Sponsors’ Wildcards There will be up to an additional 5 spots available which will be awarded at the promoter’s discretion.

WPA Wildcards There will be up to an additional 3 spots available which will be awarded at the WPA’s discretion.

Qualification Tournament By 15th May prior to the Championship, all names players from all relevant categories should be delivered to the tournament organisers.

There will be less than 128 names, so to make up a full field, a qualifying event will take place in the host city in the week before the Championship. The exact number of spots will o­nly be known after the 15th May.

This tournament will also form the basis of the waiting list in the event of any players not being able to attend. 

For full details, please go to www.worldpoolchampionship.com

Luke Riches

Matchroom Sport

+44 1277 359912