David Gilbert won Group One of the Championship League after coming from behind to beat Ryan Day in the final in Coventry.
Gilbert qualified from a tight group of seven in fourth place with four wins from his six matches.
In the semi-final the Englishman overcame Mark Davis 3-1 with the aid of a brace of century breaks, as Day pipped table-topper Anthony McGill 3-2 in the other last four clash which included a tournament-high 135 from the Welshman.
The final also went the distance as Gilbert fought back superbly from 2-0 down, aided with a further ton of 121, to prevail 3-2.
With the triumph, Gilbert moves forward to the Winners’ Group in March, in which overall victory and a Champion of Champions berth are at stake.
Gilbert said: “I scraped through the group and Ben Woollaston could have put me out earlier today, so I was a bit lucky to get through to the play-offs.”
“I have never qualified for Winners’ Group before so that will be nice. Hopefully I can get a run in that because there is some good money on offer, and a place in the Champion of Champions.”
In total, the 35 year-old pocketed £6,200 over the two days of place in an event which is played behind closed doors at the Ricoh Arena but streamed online as it’s aimed at the bookmakers’ market.
In the qualifying groups, there is £100 on offer for each frame won during the round-robin phase and a further £300 per frame notched up at the knockout stage, while Gilbert earned an additional £3,000 for emerging victorious in the final.
Beaten runner-up Day, losing semi-finalists McGill and Davis, and fifth place Matthew Selt all move forward into Group Two which takes place on Wednesday and Thursday.
They will be joined by newcomers Neil Robertson, Mark Williams and Michael White as Ben Woollaston and Robert Milkins, who placed bottom of Group One, are each eliminated from the competition.
