The top snooker players in the United States are about to assemble in California as they dream of capturing the 2010 United States National Snooker Championship.

The Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California, will host the Championship from July 2-4, with the reigning champion, Ahmed Aly El Sayed, hoping to become the first player to successfully defend the title since Tom Kollins won the fourth of his five titles back in 1999.

The format for this year's Championship will be an initial group phase, with the qualifying placed players advancing into the knockout phase of the event.

Each group will contain a seeded player with all other players drawn into the groups at random. As the defending champion, Aly will be the top seeded player, and he will be heading a large contingent of players from the New York City area making the journey out west which includes the number two and three seeds, Jian Qiang Wang and Raymond Fung, respectively.

Ahmed Aly pictured with the trophies after capturing the 2009 United States National Snooker Championship

Fung was the most successful player on the United States Snooker Association (USSA) Tour earlier this year, and so will travel to California with the confidence to finally capture his first National Championship title.

The former Champion and last year's runner-up, Ajeya Prabhakar of California, is the number four seeded player, and he will be hoping that he can change his fortunes around after two defeats earlier this year in USSA Tour event finals.

The USSA looks forward to bringing together players from all across the United States for yet another fantastic festival of snooker, and would also like to thank the Tweeten Fibre Company for being an official supplier to this year's Championship.