1987–88 snooker season

The 1987–88 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played between 29 June 1987 and 15 May 1988. The following table outlines the results for the ranking and invitational events.

New professional players
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association had introduced a play-off system to restrict the number of entries for professional tournaments, other than the World Championship, to 128. A total of ten amateurs, being the World Amateur Champion, the English Amateur Champion, and the eight players (excluding otherwise-qualified players) finishing highest in a play-off series, would be considered for professional status.

For 1987–88, six-play offs between those amateurs and the lowest-ranked professional would have been necessary to keep to the limit of 128. The English Amateur Championship winner Antony Harris accepted a place on the professional tour, but World Amateur champion Paul Mifsud declined. Existing professionals Bert Demarco, Mike Hines, Paddy Morgan, Bernard Bennett and James Giannaros, rather than participate in the play-offs, opted to accept "non-tournament" status, which would allow them to enter only the World Championship. This meant that Gary Wilkinson, Martin Clark, Jim Chambers, Derek Heaton, Robert Marshall and Eric Lawlor took their places on the tour. Maurice Parkin took non-tournament status after losing 1–10 to Steve Meakin in a play-off.

Official rankings
The top 16 of the world rankings, these players automatically played in the final rounds of the world ranking events and were invited for the Masters.