Snooker Shoot Out: How to watch, schedule and tournament draw? Who’s playing? Is Ronnie O’Sullivan playing?

The most fast paced and frantic event on the snooker calendar returns this week.

The Shoot Out sees every match lasting a maximum of 10 minutes, with a shot clock of 15 seconds for the first five minutes and just 10 seconds for the last five.

There’s plenty of crowd involvement and guaranteed drama across four action-packed days.

Chris Wakelin is the defending champion and he will start things off this week when he faces Pang Junxu in the opening match.

Read on for everything you need to know about the 2023 Shoot Out, including who’s playing and the schedule…

The tournament starts on Wednesday, December 6 and finishes on Saturday, December 9.

It will be played at the Swansea Arena for the first time.

Chris Wakelin will be defending his title in a 128-player field.

He will be up against strong competition that includes Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Kyren Wilson, Ali Carter, Hossein Vafaei, Stuart Bingham, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty.

Women’s players Reanne Evans, Rebecca Kenna and Mink Nutcharut will also be competing.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump will not be playing the 2023 Shoot Out.

World champion Luca Brecel is also absent from the Shoot Out.

The first-round matches will be played across Wednesday and Thursday.

The second round will be contested on Friday, with the rest of the action, including the final, on Saturday.

Play starts at 13:00 UK time each day.

• Wednesday, December 6: First round
• Thursday, December 7: First round
• Friday, December 8: Second round
• Saturday, December 9: Third round, fourth round, quarter-finals, semi-final, final

All the matches at the Shoot Out are played over one frame lasting a maximum of only 10 minutes and under the demanding constraints of a shot clock.

The key rules are as follows:

• Each frame lasts a maximum of 10 minutes
• Shot clock stops players wasting time
• First five minutes of frame = 15 seconds per shot
• Second five minutes of frame = 10 seconds per shot
• Five-point penalty (or value of pink or black if attempted) for failing to play shot within allocated time
• Players must hit cushion with any ball or pot a ball with every shot
• All fouls give opponent ball in hand
• Similar to pool, players lag for break-off with white played from the baulk line off the top cushion
• Nearest to the baulk cushion wins the lag
• Blue ball shoot-out settles tied matches with players aiming to pot blue off its spot from within the D to a top pocket
• Flukes do not count on final blue

• Chris Wakelin v Pang Junxu
• Joel Connolly v Jiang Jun
• Lyu Haotian v Liam Davies
• Joe Perry v Alfie Davies
• Ali Carter v Ross Muir
• Andrew Pagett v Barry Pinches
• Shaun Liu v Ishpreet Singh Chadha
• Ryan Thomerson v Elliot Slessor
• Ricky Walden v Iulian Boiko
• Alexander Ursenbacher v Ashley Hugill
• Zhou Yuelong v Stuart Carrington
• Graeme Dott v Sean O’Sullivan
• Andy Hicks v Martin O’Donnell
• Rod Lawler v Oliver Sykes
• Lukas Kleckers v Stuart Bingham
• Ken Doherty v Matthew Stevens
• Mark Allen v Ben Woolllaston
• Michael White v Mohamed Ibrahim
• Allan Taylor v Oliver Brown
• Xing Zihao v Xu Si
• Mark Davis v Baipat Siripaporn
• M Phetmalaikul v Mostafa Dorgham
• Cao Yupeng v Sydney Wilson
• Rory Rthor v David Gilbert
• Dominic Dale v Fan Zhengyi
• Duane Jones v Jenson Kendrick
• Andy Lee v Joe O’Connor
• Kyren Wilson v Daniel Wells
• Louis Heathcote v Xiao Guodong
• Liam Pullen v Yuan Sijun
• Florian Nuessle v Ian Burns
• Jimmy White v Zak Surety

• Hossein Vafaei v Riley Powell
• Adam Duffy v Jack Borwick
• Leone Crowley v Jackson Page
• Tian Pengfei v Martin Gould
• Stan Moody v Rory McLeod
• Liam Highfield v Si Jiahui
• Oliver Lines v Ma Hailong
• Muhammad Asif v Zhang Anda
• Ryan Day v Anton Kazakov
• Jimmy Robertson v James Cahill
• Andrew Higginson v Julien Leclercq
• Dylan Emery v Wu Yize
• Steven Hallworth v Jamie Jones
• Sanderson Lam v Haydon Pinhey
• Mark Joyce v Rebecca Kenna
• Shaun Murphy v Bulcsu Revesz
• Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Liu Hongyu
• Himanshu Jain v Robbie Williams
• He Guoqiang v Hammah Miah
• Peng Yisong v Ben Mertens
• David Lilley v Reanne Evans
• John Astley v Victor Sarkis
• Dean Young v David Grace
• Jordan Brown v Gary Wilson
• Ashley Carty v Jak Jones
• Long Zehuang v Tom Ford
• Anthony Hamilton v Mink Nutcharut
• Ahmed Aly Elsayed v Noppon Saengkham
• Alfie Burden v Aaron Hill
• Andres Petrov v Jamie Clarke
• Robert Milkins v Liam Graham
• Matthew Selt v Mark Williams