Snooker players from all across the United States are about to assemble in New York City for the 2011 United States National Snooker Championship from June 30 - July 3.

The Championship is making a return to the Prince Snooker Club which held the most prestigious snooker event in the United States for the first time back in 2009.

The reigning champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed will be back to defend the title he won last year at the Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California, and is going for his third successive National Championship victory after winning the event in 2009 at his first attempt.

The format for this year's Championship will be an initial group phase of round-robin matches, 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 number one seeded player and play in Group A.

The defending champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed pictured in action during the 2009 United States National Snooker Championship at the Prince Snooker Club Photo © SnookerUSA.com

Group matches will be played over the first two days of the Championship and be over the best-of-three frames, with all knockout rounds up to and including the quarterfinals being played over the best-of-five frames on the third day, and the best-of-seven frames semifinals and best-of-nine frames final being played on the last day of the Championship.

Some notable players competing are the five-times United States National Snooker Champion, Tom Kollins, who will be making the journey from Chicago, and also the 2000 Champion, Ajeya Prabhakar from California, who had a very successful campaign on this year's USSA Tour and was the runner-up in this event at the Prince Snooker Club two years ago.

There will however be several players making their debut appearance in the Championship so the USSA hopes to see some good performances from those new players to the event.

The Prince Snooker Club is a private members' club, however the proprietor of the club, Mr. Tommy Chen, will kindly allow all non-members who wish to come and witness this great event the opportunity to do so for the duration of the Championship. Entry to watch is free.

Prince Snooker Club
6322 20th Avenue
Brooklyn
NY 11204

The closest station on the New York City Subway is 20th Avenue on the 'N' Broadway service.