Mark Williams, the defending Masters champion and 2003 World Snooker Champion, was the number 1 seed. Places were allocated to the top 16 players in the world rankings. Players seeded 15 and 16 played in the wild-card round against Neil Robertson (the winner of the qualifying event in the Welsh town of Prestatyn during December 2003), and Ding Junhui, who was the wild-card selection. All matches were played to the best of 11 frames, up until the final which was played to a maximum of 19 frames.