RONNIE O'SULLIVAN has potentially trousered £42K for racking his 14th career 147 at the Fuhua China Open - assuming no-one else racks one during the rest of the tournament.
The Rocket, 42, last made a maximum in the UK Championship back in 2014 - four years ago.
His first maximum was way back in 1997 when he rocketed to the perfect 36 pots in five mins and 20 seconds for the fastest 147 in snooker history at that year's World Championship.
That's what gave him the nickname the Rocket.
His break in this tournament some 21 years on came in his second round match with England's Elliot Slessor, a player who had beaten him earlier on in the season in one of the Home Nations events, so it wasn't a shock as such.
However, with the five-time ranking event winner losing in China, he still will be the main man to beat at the World Championships this month at the Crucible in Sheffield.
Maximum Men
So far there have been six 147s this season.
The other five were made by:
Martin Gould
Kyren Wilson
Cao Yupeng
Liang Wenbo
However, Slessor went on to beat O'Sullvian comprehensively 6 - 2 as he went into the interval 4 - 0 up on the Rocket.
The maxi came in the fifth frame after the interval.
O'Sullivan's five ranking titles this season include;
The UK Championship
The Shanghai Masters
The English Open
The Players Championship
The World Grand Prix
The China Open is the final ranking event before the World Championship later on this month and will determine who is seeded as the top 16 going to the Crucible with the rest slogging it out at the English Institute of Sport having to win three matches to qualify for snooker's Holy Grail.
Maximum money
As it stands now, Ryan Day will be going to the qualifiers and Mark Allen will be seeded as a top 16 player meaning he doesn't have to qualify for the tournament.
Scotland's Stephen Maguire will also be heading to the EIS in Sheffield for the qualifiers.
There was also a shock exit for Shaun Murphy, a runner-up at the Players Championship last month, who was hammered 6 - 0 by Chris Wakelin.
The Magician didn't manage to make a break over 50 - but Wakelin's highest break in the match was 85.
For the maximum the rolling prize was:
£35,000
And the highest break was £7,000.
The maximum is the 137th in snooker history with the first official one made in 1982 by retired six-times World Champion Steve Davis at the Lada Classic.
O'Sullivan leads the number of all-time maximums with 14 - three more than retired Stephen Hendry.
Trailing way behind that is John Higgins on seven in third place.
Ding Junhui has six.
O'Sullivan's first maximum break in 1997 trousered him £147,000 - more than what the runner-up pocketed which was 126K!
Now though, maximums have a more modest prize fund, and are based on a roll over system where the prize is rolled over to the next tournament if one isn't made.
