The Snookerbacker Blog

Where has all the magic gone?

PTC11 continues this morning and after yet another 147 yesterday and commentators at pains to dispel the ‘myth’ that this is anything to do with the pockets getting bigger (apparently Mike Hallett gets emails about it, he reads them but can’t respond to every one as he’s a busy man)  it seems that some of the magic is getting a little lost these days from what once was seen as an incredible achievement.

It was Ding again that achieved this feat for the second time in three days and this time the whole thing was caught on camera and you can watch it again here. Dom Dale very nearly had one in his match against Shaun Murphy later in the day missing the final red, it seems that the decision not to place big prize money on the max anymore has averted a financial crisis at World Snooker akin to the banking collapse that has left the world on the brink of destruction because of those greedy bankers.

Anyway, Ding also managed to qualify for Finals Day tomorrow where he will face Anthony Hamilton. The other names to make it were Martin Gould, Michael Holt, Matthew Stevens, Simon Bedford, Stephen Maguire and Dark Mavis. By my reckoning Mave needs to win two more matches tomorrow to overtake Ronnie in the rankings and leave him scrambling around in the qualifiers for a bit. I wonder can he overcome the jitters that have plagued him in the past when faced with the chance to enter the elite band of men? He’s got a tough draw and will have to beat Mags and possibly Ding to get there, but Ronnie is still not safe.

I haven’t had a bet on this for a couple of days so I thought I’d look for an acca over at Apollobet and I can’t see any of the four selections losing so I’ll go with a 4 point acca on Selby, Walden, Day and Trump which pays just on 11/8 with them.

For anyone that missed my interview Bazza yesterday it’s here. There are those that believe that the whole thing is fabricated, all I will say is that I’d be pretty stupid to do that and risk the legal wrath of the big man. Wouldn’t I?

As ever Apollobet will be pricing up the matches throughout the day.

Click here to view the prices at Apollobet and click the banner below to take advantage of their opening offer to new customers.

After a 3.30am finish to the qualifiers for PTC12 last night the action gets underway at 9am this morning for the start of PTC11.

My preview for this final event before the Xmas break can be read here. As ever you can keep up with the scores on the live scoring here. There is also live streaming which you can access via some bookmakers websites or through the World Snooker Live Streaming channel which you can sign up for by clicking here (assuming you meet the strict territory criteria).

As ever Apollobet will be pricing up the matches throughout the day.

Click here to view the prices at Apollobet and click the banner below to take advantage of their opening offer to new customers.

Tweeting away.

It’s Day 2 of PTC12 over in Sheffield  to see who will have a trip to Germany to look forward to in the new year. Through to the last 16 so far are Mike Dunn, Mark Allen, David Grace, Martin Gould, Ricky Walden, Xiao Guodong, Dave Gilbert and Joe Perry.

Both maximum men Matthew Stevens and Ding Junhui were knocked out, a bit of a friends of the blog clash saw David Grace continue his recent run of form to book his place on the plane. Ding blew out tamely to Ricky who continues to motor along in the general direction of the top 16.

The fact that Mark Davis didn’t make Finals Day now makes it more likely that Ronnie will hold onto his top 16 place, but Ricky and Mark could still do damage in the final event so he’s not quite safe yet. Ron himself has been very busy on Twitter over the last few hours and his banter with Mark Williams is reaching new levels, long may it continue. Ronnie is also looking for a buyer for his houseboat if you have a spare few grand lying around, he might even entice you to buy with a home made chicken stir-fry.

Prices on the matches today are updated constantly at Apollobet. An interesting match at 11am sees Stephen Hendry take on Ben Harrison who I know is very highly rated by some. Anyone that fancies Ben to cause an upset can back him at 5/2. But I am going to stick with a 1 point treble on Jack Lisowski, Jamie Jones and Adrian Gunnell which pays 4/1 at Apollobet. 

I would not rule out some of the outsiders there in the first rounds and Gary Wilson, Ian Burns and David Gray are all players at decent odds who are not without a chance in their matches. 

Click here to view the prices at Apollobet and click the banner below to take advantage of their opening offer to new customers.

9/1 favourite, but is he naughtied out?

It’s hard to know whether you are coming or going this week. After the hullabaloo of Judd’s UK win and all the excitement of his Naughty Snooker we are back to the Academy in Sheffield and already in PTC12 we have seen two, yes two, maximum breaks in that on day one alone.

But what we still need to resolve is PTC11, which starts on Saturday and plays to a finish on Finals Day on Monday. This is your last chance to add to the Christmas coffers and this one has a few players competing, including Judd himself, who aren’t playing in PTC12.

First thing I will say about PTC12 is that a lot of the big name players are condensed together in the draw with one notable exception, that being Trump, who resides at the bottom of the draw with very little in the way of challenging opposition around him until at least the Quarter Final stage. But will he be ‘up for it?’, well he usually is in the PTC’s and the chance to add even more money to the Christmas box by winning here might be just the ticket. He is a worthy favourite for this given his draw and for me will only need to play to 75% to make Finals Day. He is 9/1 to win it at Apollobet and I’d suggest that anyone with a stray fiver looking to upgrade their Iceland turkey to a full on organic hand-reared bird should get on. Judd is the Team SB Captain for this one.

Up at the top of the draw the second round could see a humdinger of a tie between Robbo and Smurf. Given that Robbo has the tougher first round match against the slippery Dominic Dale and Smurf needs the points more than Neil does I will make Shaun my second pick of this one at 16/1 with Apollobet.

In the next section of the draw I will take a chance with Liang Wenbo at 66/1, who is slowly beginning to look like the player we all know he can be. He is another that can make Finals Day courtesy of a half-decent draw.

The consistent Graeme Dott at 28/1 is my next pick. If he doesnt win a PTC this season he will wonder why as he’s almost a constant on Finals Day and can do it again here. I will then stick with Michael White at 125/1 to see off more experienced opposition around him and finish Team SB for this penultimate (or not whichever way you look at it) PTC with one of my big winners from PTCs past in Fergal O’Brien aka The Ferginator. His lower price of 50/1 reflecting the chance he has to make Finals Day again here.

I’ll put some match bets up on Saturday morning for when it starts. Good luck if you are getting involved and don’t do the kids Xmas present money, well, at least not all of it.

Everything you need to know about PTC11 is here.

PTC11 Recommended Bets: 2 points win Judd Trump at 9/1, 1 point win Shaun Murphy at 16/1, 0.5 point each way Graeme Dott at 28/1, Fergal O’Brien at 50/1, Liang Wenbo at 66/1, 0.25 each way on Michael White at 125/1. 

Click here to view the prices at Apollobet and click the banner below to take advantage of their opening offer to new customers.

Congratulations to Matthew Stevens who completed a 147 maximum break in the final frame of his 4-0 win over Michael Wasley in PTC12. It’s the fourth maximum in the last month following on from Mike Dunn, David Gray and Ricky Walden.

Well done to Matt, I think I am right in saying that is his first competitive 147. Even more of an achievement if he hasn’t changed that tip yet….

Wins £2.50 and a Selection Box for the max

And no sooner is Matthew preparing to open his selection box than none other than Ding Junhui does exactly the same in his opening match. They will now have to arm-wrestle for the Curly Wurly.

They're all at it!

We'll have to wait until January for normal service to resume

PTC12 starts tomorrow and a full explanation as to why that is when PTC11 starts on Saturday is here. There will be three rounds of this played with one half of the draw playing down to 8 players tomorrow and the other half playing down to 8 players on Friday. The 16 qualifiers will then be Germany bound in January.

This for me illustrates the lunacy of the PTC scheduling. It is clear and I think probably acknowledged at the top that the PTC format needs tweaking and I would be very surprised if it remained the same next year. This event was due to be played entirely in Germany but because the original venue had a floor that resembled a ski-slope it was decided to hold the qualifying event in the UK. This is a huge disappointment to readers of this blog as it means that they will only get to see one German girl instead of three, but it’s not too long until the German Masters so don’t get too upset.

Anyway, this is the last chance for players to get into the top 24 of the PTC Money List which you can click on here, to make the Grand Finals which were won last year by Shaun Murphy, who currently lies outside of the coveted top 24.

It is also interesting for fans of Ronnie O’Sullivan, in that there are chances for Stephen Lee, Mark Davis and Ricky Walden to overtake him in the main ranking list at the next revision and dump him out of the top 16 and into the qualifiers. Ronnie has decided not to enter these events, a decision that was taken before he lost in the last 16 of the UK, which may explain his very downbeat mood after losing to Judd even further. Anyone that thinks Ronnie isn’t bothered about his ranking is living in cloud cuckoo land.

So who am I going to look to in terms of outright bets in PTC 12? Of the shorter prices I think the two that stand out are Ding Junhui and Stephen Maguire. Ding has been largely anonymous in these events all year and has only played in four of them, assuming he bothers to turn up in this which you would imagine he will as he lives close by, perhaps this will be the one he wins. Maguire is obviously playing well lately and can generally be relied upon in these to make the most of decent draws, he has one here and if he continues to play as he has been should make the plane to Germany.

Last years Grand Finals Runner-up Martin ‘money’s no object’ Gould up at the top of the draw always gives his all in these and is another I will back again as a member of Team SB in this. I’ll also take a punt on Ben Woollaston, a surprise winner of PTC3 at this venue and a very solid player, to beat MJW in the first round and go on from there to Finals Day. To make up the team I will take a chance on two 100/1 shots in the fast improving Welsh breakbuilding machine Michael White and Chinese improver Li Yan, who both have live chances to make Finals Day and possibly even kick on in front of the large crowds from there.

It’s interesting that the likes of Selby, Robbo and Judd haven’t entered this one, particularly seeing as they have entered the event that starts on Saturday. Perhaps if the changes to PTC12 were announced earlier and the deadline extended for entries they might have changed their mind and played the qualifiers, but as it is we’re left with a somewhat depleted field for this one, which is a shame as I’m sure the German hosts will put on a show for the 16 qualifiers.

You can view the full draw for PTC12 here.

In terms of a match bet tomorrow, the bet below pays bang on 3/1 at Apollobet and you could do a lot worse. All prices are with the undisputed kings of PTC betting, Apollobet.

Recommended Match Bet for PTC12: 2 points accumulator on Mark Allen, Stuart Bingham, Dave Harold, Xiao Guodong and Ricky Walden pays 3/1 at Apollobet.

Outrights for PTC12: 2 points win on each of  Ding (10/1) and Maguire (12/1). 1 point each way on Gould at 22/1, 0.5 points each way on Woollaston (80/1), Michael White (100/1) and Li Yan (100/1).

(Remember if you are backing in the outright market the main event is in early January)

Click here to view the prices at Apollobet and click the banner below to take advantage of their opening offer to new customers.

This is just to clarify the 32 names that will be contesting the SWSA leg. I am aware that I have been in touch with a number of others but despite reminders I am afraid entrance fees were left unpaid. I have a reserve list of two (does that constitute a list?) at the moment should anyone withdraw from the event. But if your name isn’t on this list I’m afraid that Essex is your only chance to qualify.

SWSA Players:  

James Burrett, Marianne Williams, Callum Lloyd, Ryan Causton, Ricky Hong Chin, Kashif Khan, Ben Harrison, Marc Harman, Nick Pearce, Sydney Wilson, Tom Doggett, Thomas Goldstein, Kyren Wilson, Michael Wasley, Paul Mount, Craig Scotford, Gavin Lewis, Martin O’Donnell, David Gray, Jamie Clarke, Ricky Norris, Matthew Day, Phil O’Kane, Sean Hopkin, Jack Morgan, Brandon Winstone, Steve Winstone, Andy Neck, Gary Weeks, Neal Jones, Gareth Allen, Antony Parsons.

Just a quick note to inform everyone that all 32 places for Monday 30th January at the South West Snooker Academy are now filled. In the event of any withdrawals from the event I am building a reserve list, but in the meantime I will hopefully be making the draw Live on Twitter early in the New Year. You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

There are still places available for the final qualifying event in Essex on Friday 10th February for anyone that still wants a crack at the title. If you want to enter either click the Paypal link on the sidebar or email me at snookerbacker@hotmail.co.uk for further details.

It's the last chance to make the Grand Finals

The snooker just keeps on coming thick and fast and rather confusingly PTC12 starts tomorrow before a ball of PTC11 has even been struck. Let me explain…

PTC12 will play it’s first three rounds over the course of Thursday and Friday to qualify for the Last 16 event which will take place in Munich in January, with me so far?

Then on Saturday PTC11 starts and plays to a finish on Monday, so from tomorrow we have wall to wall action on the baize over in Sheffield as we near the end of this marathon set of events. I have listed the matches that you can look forward to below and as ever the PTC pioneers when it comes to betting are Apollobet who have priced a lot of them.

Just be careful if you are backing the outrights that you are selecting the correct tournament, as if you are looking for some extra cash for Xmas it may be best sticking to PTC11 rather than 12, remember that 12 will be playing to finish after the turkey is done and the New Year revelry is over.

I will be posting up a full preview of PTC12 later today and will include some match betting. Remember that Apollobet price up match handicaps as well as match highest breaks so there is plenty to get your teeth into.

Following this I will post up a preview of PTC11, I will then have a lie down as my head will be a total mush of absolute confusion.

Click here to view the prices at Apollobet and click the banner below to take advantage of their opening offer to new customers.

Thursday, 15 December
9.00am
1 Ben Woollaston v Mark Williams 
2 Mike Dunn v David Singh 
3 Liang Wenbo v Aditya Mehta
4 Andy Hicks v Duane Jones
5 Mark Allen v Stuart Carrington 
6 Barry Hawkins v Oliver Brown
7 Mark Joyce v Chen Zhe
8 Joe Swail v Lucky Vatnani

11.00am
9 Stuart Bingham v Sam Harvey
10 Matthew Stevens v Michael Wasley 
11 Anthony McGill v David Grace
12 Gary Wilson v Jamie O’Neill
13 Nigel Bond v Scott MacKenzie
14 Jimmy White v Ross Higgins
15 Matthew Selt v Reanne Evans
16 Martin Gould v Martin Ball

1.00pm
17 Gerard Greene v Gareth Allen 
18 Ricky Walden v Liu Song 
19 Dave Harold v Mitchell Mann
20 Ding Junhui v Brandon Winstone
21 Simon Bedford v Sam Baird
22 Xiao Guodong v Matthew Couch
23 Michael White v Greg Davis 
24 Tom Ford v Robert Milkins

3.00pm
25 David Gilbert v Michele Battaglia 
26 Peter Linesn v David Morris 
27 Luca Brecel v Michael Leslie
28 Stephen Lee v Sam Craigie
29 Joe Perry v Stephen Craigie
30 Robbie Williams v Kacper Filipiak
31 John Higgins v Steve Ventham
32 Mark Davis v Hans Blanckaert

5.00pm Round 2
65 WINNER OF MATCH 1 v WINNER OF MATCH 2
66 WINNER OF MATCH 3 v WINNER OF MATCH 4
67 WINNER OF MATCH 5 v WINNER OF MATCH 6
68 WINNER OF MATCH 7 v WINNER OF MATCH 8
69 WINNER OF MATCH 9 v WINNER OF MATCH 10
70 WINNER OF MATCH 11 v WINNER OF MATCH 12
71 WINNER OF MATCH 13 v WINNER OF MATCH 14 
72 WINNER OF MATCH 15 v WINNER OF MATCH 16 

7.00pm
73 WINNER OF MATCH 17 v WINNER OF MATCH 18
74 WINNER OF MATCH 19 v WINNER OF MATCH 20
75 WINNER OF MATCH 21 v WINNER OF MATCH 22
76 WINNER OF MATCH 23 v WINNER OF MATCH 24
77 WINNER OF MATCH 25 v WINNER OF MATCH 26
78 WINNER OF MATCH 27 v WINNER OF MATCH 28
79 WINNER OF MATCH 29 v WINNER OF MATCH 30 
80 WINNER OF MATCH 31 v WINNER OF MATCH 32

9.00pm Round 3 (8 winners qualify for Germany)
97 WINNER OF MATCH 65 v WINNER OF MATCH 66
98 WINNER OF MATCH 67 v WINNER OF MATCH 68
99 WINNER OF MATCH 69 v WINNER OF MATCH 70
100 WINNER OF MATCH 71 v WINNER OF MATCH 72
101 WINNER OF MATCH 73 v WINNER OF MATCH 74
102 WINNER OF MATCH 75 v WINNER OF MATCH 76
103 WINNER OF MATCH 77 v WINNER OF MATCH 78
104 WINNER OF MATCH 79 v WINNER OF MATCH 80

Friday, 16 December
9.00am
33 Graeme Dott v Adam Wicheard
34 Marcus Campbell v Peter Ebdon
35 Li Yan v Thomas Wealthy 
36 Craig Steadman v Daniel Wells
37 Dechawat Poomjaeng v Paul Davison
38 Michael Holt v James McGouran
39 Steve Davis v Liam Monk
40 Jamie Cope v Phil O’Kane 

11.00am
41 Ken Doherty v Andrew Pagett
42 Adam Duffy v Shane Castle
43 Stephen Hendry v Ben Harrison
44 Liam Highfield v Scott Donaldson
45 Ryan Day v Jamie Gibson
46 Kyren Wilson v Christopher Norbury
47 Fergal O’Brien v Stuart Wood
48 Marco Fu v Alfie Burden

1.00pm
49 Tony Drago v Rod Lawler
50 Allister Carter v Barry Pinches
51 Jamie Burnett v Zhang Anda
52 Stephen Maguire v Ricky Norris
53 Rory McLeod v Stephen Winstone
54 Anthony Hamilton v Ian Burns
55 Alan McManus v Adrian Gunnell
56 Jimmy Robertson v David Gray

3.00pm
57 Jack Lisowski v Andrew Norman
58 Joe Jogia v Mitchell Travis
59 James Wattana v Kurt Maflin
60 Shaun Murphy v Ashley Wright
61 Jamie Jones v Ian McCulloch
62 Jak Jones v Matthew Day
63 Mark King v Oliver Lines
64 Andrew Higginson v Dominic Dale

5.00pm Round 2
81 WINNER OF MATCH 33 v WINNER OF MATCH 34 
82 WINNER OF MATCH 35 v WINNER OF MATCH 36
83 WINNER OF MATCH 37 v WINNER OF MATCH 38
84 WINNER OF MATCH 39 v WINNER OF MATCH 40
85 WINNER OF MATCH 41 v WINNER OF MATCH 42
86 WINNER OF MATCH 43 v WINNER OF MATCH 44
87 WINNER OF MATCH 45 v WINNER OF MATCH 46
88 WINNER OF MATCH 47 v WINNER OF MATCH 48

7.00pm
89 WINNER OF MATCH 49 v WINNER OF MATCH 50
90 WINNER OF MATCH 51 v WINNER OF MATCH 52
91 WINNER OF MATCH 53 v WINNER OF MATCH 54
92 WINNER OF MATCH 55 v WINNER OF MATCH 56
93 WINNER OF MATCH 57 v WINNER OF MATCH 58
94 WINNER OF MATCH 59 v WINNER OF MATCH 60
95 WINNER OF MATCH 61 v WINNER OF MATCH 62
96 WINNER OF MATCH 63 v WINNER OF MATCH 64

9.00pm Round 3 (8 winners qualify for Germany)
105 WINNER OF MATCH 81 v WINNER OF MATCH 82 
106 WINNER OF MATCH 83 v WINNER OF MATCH 84
107 WINNER OF MATCH 85 v WINNER OF MATCH 86
108 WINNER OF MATCH 87 v WINNER OF MATCH 88
109 WINNER OF MATCH 89 v WINNER OF MATCH 90
110 WINNER OF MATCH 91 v WINNER OF MATCH 92
111 WINNER OF MATCH 93 v WINNER OF MATCH 94
112 WINNER OF MATCH 95 v WINNER OF MATCH 96

The last 16 onwards of PTC12 will be played on 6-8 January 2012 at the Event Forum, Fuerstenfeldbruck, Munich.

PTC11 will be played from Saturday to Monday.

Following the UK Championships I have now had a chance to update the Boylesports 300 Tipster Table. Judd Trump’s win earned him and his followers 400 points and there were big scoops too for followers of Mark Allen (250) and Ricky Walden (200), the only other three figure players were Neil Robertson (100) and Marco Fu who earned 125 points courtesy of his Quarter Final finish. Players such as John Higgins and MJW are yet to earn a point for followers. Last year’s champion tipster Deco is picking up where he left off and heads the table by an impressive 350 points, but with Germany, The Masters and the China Open to go things could change very quickly.

The updated latest standings are here

Remember the prize is £300 worth of Crucible bets courtesy of Boylesports. It’s all to play for.