World Straight Pool Championship

src: www.insidepoolmag.com

The World Straight Pool Championship, or the World 14.1 Tournament if no world championship is on the line, is a pocket billiards (pool) competition, that has been held annually in New Brunswick, New Jersey, since 2006. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, Willie Mosconi won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. In 1933, Mosconi competed in the Billiard Congress of America (BCA) World Straight Pool Championship. He nearly won the title but lost in the final to Erwin Rudolph It is the current global professional title for straight pool (also known as 14.1 continuous), and is organized by Dragon Promotions, in part to restore the game's popularity in the United States. Though billed as a world championship, the tournament in some years (including 2009, 2011 and 2012) has not been sanctioned by, or recognized as a world title event by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) . The WPA in turn has not recognized any of the World 14.1 winners from 1912 onwards even through the golden era of Willie Mosconi, Steve Mizerak, Luther Lassiter, Ralph Greenleaf and numerous other legendary players. Although the World 14.1 and all its champions are vastly recognized by the media, fans, pool historians, and professional players themselves. The 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 event were WPA-recognized. The 2013 and 2014 events were sanctioned by the ABP Association of Billiard Professionals founded by multi-world champion Johnny Archer.

Video World Straight Pool Championship

Format

All 64 players are divided into 8 groups where they play in round-robin format. Each match in this round is a race to 100 points. The leading 4 players in each group proceed to the next round.

The games of the Last 32 round are played in double-elimination format until 16 players remain. Matches are extended to races to 150. The games in the Last 16 round are played in single-elimination format, and matches are extended, to races to 200. The finals match is further extended to a race to 300 (with a half-hour break occurring when a player reaches 150).