A few weeks ago Rory McLeod, who reached the last 32 in this year’s UK Championship, won the whole Masters Qualifying Event and received a wild card to the Masters tournament at Wembley next year.

The second wild card was announced today. Jimmy White, who won both the World Series of Snooker in Prague and the Sangsom 6-Red Grand Prix earlier this year, has been chosen by World Snooker. White gave up his place in the UK Championship qualifiers to join the reality tv show, I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, where he finished third.

The Masters is an invitational tournament where the world’s 14 best players are automatically qualified for the last 16 stage while those in spots 15 and 16 will have to go through a round against the wild cards. McLeod will play against Mark Williams and White will take on Mark King on Sunday 10th January 2010.

One of the favourites to get the Masters wild card this year before White was announced was this year’s Shanghai Master’s finalist, Liang Wenbo. However, World Snooker picked White because of his immense popularity among snooker fans, especially in London where the tournament is going to be held.

Jimmy White won the Masters in 1984 9-5 against Terry Griffiths.