Snooker players from all around the United States are gathering at Q Ball Snooker & Pool in Houston, Texas, for this year's United States National Snooker Championship from August 30 - September 2.

The Championship will get underway tomorrow morning at 11am local Central Time, which starts two days of round robin group matches, with the top-four placed players from each of the groups advancing into the single elimination round of 16 phase commencing Sunday morning, with the Champion being crowned on the Labor Day afternoon.

All of the players have been drawn into four Groups, and each of those groups contains one of the seeded players according to performances over the previous three Championships.

New York City's Ahmed Aly Elsayed (pictured above) is defending the title he won on the Memorial Day holiday last year, and so he is the number one seed placed in Group A where he will be going for a fifth win which will equal the record of titles won by Tom Kollins.

Number two seed is the 2017 Champion and last year's runner-up Raymond Fung, who has traveled from Brooklyn, New York, to take his place as the seeded player in Group B.

The Californian two-time Champion Ajeya Prabhakar, who has been a beaten semifinalist in the past four Championships, is in Group C as the number three seed.

Laszlo Kovacs has earned the right to be the number four seeded player in Group D, and the New Yorker will be hoping this year to at least make the semifinals of the Championship for the first time.

Alan Morris, the Executive Director of the United States Snooker Association (USSA), said: "The USSA is pleased to have the opportunity to stage the Championship at Q Ball Snooker & Pool, of which earlier this year hosted a very successful Pan American Snooker Championship.

"I would also like to thank Mr. Syed Hassan for his continued support toward the United States National Snooker Championship, and to wish all of this year's competitors an enjoyable Championship experience."

The 2019 Champion and runner-up will receive automatic selection to represent the United States at forthcoming international snooker events.