Snooker: AG Challenge Championship at Wanganui East Club this weekend

Paul Briggs was the 2017 champion and came runnerup last year.

There's $4000 in the pot and 20 premier snooker players want the biggest share of it as the fifth annual AG Challenge Trophy tournament gets underway at the Wanganui East Club tomorrow morning.

Qualifying matches on the club's four tables will be held tomorrow, with the players then going into the Flight, Plate and Championship sections on Sunday.

Now having four tables instead of two, this will be the second year the club has invited 20 players, after running a 16 man competition in the first three tournaments and using the tables at the St John's Club for their plate competition.

The championship playoffs will be a best of five frames, with the rest being best of three.

All three former champions are returning this year.

Wairarapa's Jack Lemon won the inaugural tournament in 2015, while coming runnerup in 2017 and making the Flight section final last year, beaten by Whanganui's Willie Matthews.

Steve Robertson, who has been ranked top 5 nationally, has won the tournament representing two towns – claiming it in 2016 when he still lived in Hamilton and again last year after he had moved to Whanganui.

Paul Briggs was the first Whanganui-based player to win the tournament in 2017, and lost the final to Robertson last year, 2-1.

Play starts at 8am.