The World Straight Pool Championship is a

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky po ...

competition, that was held up until the game of Nine-ball became popularized in America. It was the most prestigious straight pool tournament up until the early 21st century, tournaments like the

American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship The American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship is a prestigious professional straight pool (also known as continuous 14.1 pool) tournament held in the United States since 2014. It is organized by promoter Peter Burrows. Format The tournament has be ...

and the European Pool Championship 14.1 that are still held annually, have gained prominence in recent years. During the tournament's early years, it was the only global professional title for straight pool (also known as 14.1 continuous). The event was revived in 2006, in part to restore the game's popularity in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The World Straight Pool Championship was held in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 and was sanctioned by the

World Pool-Billiard Association The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) is the international governing body for pool (pocket billiards). It was formed in 1987, and was initially headed by a provisional board of directors consisting of representatives from Australia, Americas ...

(WPA), until ending in 2010, and with it the tournament's history of nearly 100 years. Ralph Greenleaf &

Willie Mosconi William Joseph Mosconi (; June 27, 1913 – September 17, 1993) was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1956, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For mo ...

are the most successful players having both won the tournament on 19 occasions. The oldest player to win the tournament is Irving Crane at 59 years old at the time of his victory. The youngest player to win the tournament is Ralph Greenleaf at 20 years old at the time of his first victory.

Format

In the modern format of the tournament, all 64 players are divided into 8 groups where they play in round-robin format. Each in this round is a 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 A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimin ...

format until 16 players remain. Matches are extended to races to 150 points. The games in the last-16 round are played in

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

format, and matches are extended, to races to 200 points. The finals match is further extended to a race to 300 points (with a half-hour break occurring when a player reaches 150).

Winners

In 1910, Jerome Keough invented the game of Straight pool. ;Sanctioned World Championship events

World Straight Pool Championship

Top performers

* In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by first name.

Dragon 14.1 Tournament

In 2009, Dragon Promotions created the Dragon 14.1 Tournament.

Notes

References

{{Cue sports nav World championships in pool New Brunswick, New Jersey Sports in New Jersey Recurring sporting events established in 2006 Annual sporting events