[1] They then played seven shots on the black in a match similar to the 1985 World Championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis.

Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against the winner of the qualifying event, Andy Hicks (ranked 19), and Jimmy White (ranked 21), who was the wild-card selection.

Anthony Hamilton and Stephen Lee were making their debuts in the Masters.

The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: Winner: £145,000 Runner-up: £75,000 High Break: £16,000 Total: £535,000 In the preliminary round, the wild-card players played the 15th and 16th seeds:[2][3] [2][3] Andy Hicks won the qualifying tournament, known as the 1997 Benson & Hedges Championship at the time.

[4] Total: 20[5] Andy Hicks, Stephen Lee and Darren Morgan scored their century breaks in the wild-card round.