The morning's play was of a good standard but it was slow, and with Pinches 9-8 up it had to be stopped to avoid over-running.
In a nail-biting finale, White looked to have got off the hook when Pinches blew a chance to clear up.
But White missed the vital brown and Pinches held his nerve to clear up to the pink and claim the biggest win of his life.
After a scrappy opening session on Monday, the pace did not pick up much when play restarted on Tuesday, although fortunately the quality did.
Pinches won the first two frames, the second after a nail-biting re-spotted black, to cut the deficit to 5-4.
White showed signs of normal service resuming with breaks of 120 and 74, but Pinches hit back with a superb 111 break to take a 7-6 lead.
He looked on course to make it 8-6 until bad positioning on the green let in White to take the frame on the pink and restore parity.
White conceded the next frame after failing to take advantage when Pinches' 58 break came to a halt, putting the Norwich player 8-7 ahead.
Both players looked nervous in the 16th, missing straightforward pots before White eventually took the initiative and the frame.
Pinches struck back to take the next frame 67-24 before the decision was taken to postpone the finale until after the afternoon session.
As it turned out, only one frame was necessary for Pinches to set up a clash with Stephen Hendry or Stuart Pettman.
Afterwards, White wondered if having won the Players Championship recently had worked against him.
"From shot one I struggled, it was a disaster," he said.
"I think having won a ranking event so close to this may have taken it out of me. I think I'm played out.
"I never got going and was all over the place. I tried but I was beaten. There is always a shock, this time it was me. But I'll definitely be back next year."
Pinches was happy to revel in the biggest win of his 15 year career.
"It wasn't a high standard at all, even down to the way I fell over the line, but a win's a win," he said.
"The crowd here love Jimmy, I couldn't believe the scream when he came out. I thought 'Am I really here?'.
"I've not got sponsors, so this should help. Beating him, here, on television; it doesn't get any better than that."
First round result:
J White (Eng) 8-10 B Pinches (Eng)
58-3 32-79 (53) 66-50 70-59 (52 White) 44-68 58-37 61-74 50-74 50-57 (re-spotted black) 148-1 (120) 0-76 84-33 (74) 0-111 (111) 67-52 10-58 (58) 54-15 24-67 44-79
