Any player making two maximum breaks during this season’s Triple Crown Series will be rewarded with a massive £147,000 bonus.
This new initiative applies to the 2023 MrQ UK Championship, the 2024 Masters, and the 2024 Cazoo World Championship.
A player who makes two maximums (either a 147 or 155) in either the qualifying rounds or the final stages of those three tournaments will earn the huge bonus.
WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “There is nothing quite as exhilarating in snooker as a maximum break, those moments bring us to the edge of our seats.”
“And we’re making that achievement all the more special this season during our Triple Crown events.
“We’d love to see at least one player make a 147 at the MrQ UK Championship which would give them two more tournaments to chase the bonus.
“Last season we saw maximums from Kyren Wilson and Mark Selby at the Crucible – imagine the thrill if there was an extra £147,000 on the line!
“The skill level in snooker now is higher than ever and we expect this new prize will give the players extra motivation to go for maximum breaks.”
The bonus would be awarded in addition to the high break prizes for the individual events.
Up to three players could win this bonus, for example if three different players each made two 147s then they would each win £147,000.
If one player makes six maximums, he would bank £441,000.
The counting events are:
– MrQ UK Championship: November 18-23 (qualifying rounds) and November 25 to December 3
– The Masters: January 7-14.
– Cazoo World Championship: April 8-17 (qualifying rounds) and April 20 to May 6.
For many years, there was a £147,000 bonus for making a World Championship maximum break at the Crucible Theatre.
Stephen Hendry was the first player to earn the jackpot for his 147 against Jimmy White in the semi-finals of the 1995 World Championship.
Ronnie O’Sullivan (1997 and 2003) and Mark Williams (2005) also pocketed the enormous prize, before O’Sullivan and Ali Carter shared a £147,000 pot at the 2008 World Championship.
The last time it was dished out was in 2009, when Hendry was awarded the large sum for his second Crucible max.
However, the prize was taken away in 2011 – with maximums becoming more commonplace, it became harder to insure against it happening.
In 2023, Mark Selby won £40,000 for compiling a first ever 147 break in a World Championship final.
This new incentive, though, will certainly add a bit of extra excitement to what are already the calendar’s oldest and most prestigious events.
Featured photo credit: WST
It will understandably be a tall order to pull off this feat and secure a bonus that eclipses many of the first prizes in snooker. Only six players have compiled multiple 147s in Triple Crown events during their career:
5 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (3 World and 2 UK)
4 – Stephen Hendry (3 World and 1 UK)
2 – Ding Junhui (UK and Masters)
John Higgins (World and UK
Neil Robertson (World and UK)
Mark Selby (World and UK)
No player has made one in all three events.
Robertson and Selby the only two to have compiled one in a Triple Crown final.
A tall order but not impossible. O’Sullivan did it during the 2007/08 season.
While Hendry had two in 1995 but not in the same season.
Dave Hendon said, on commentary, that Trump, Selby and Higgins are the only players to have appeared in all 11 editions of this iteration of the Champion of Champions.