Tuesday sees the start of a frantic end to the snooker season as the PTC Grand Finals begin at the Guild Hall in Preston, once the traditional home of the UK Championship and a welcome late addition to the venue calendar this season.
After this event has finished there is just a two day rest period before the China Open kicks off in Beijing. Following this and after a further two days off the qualifiers for the World Championship start, they finish on the 16th April and just three days later the big one starts at the Crucible. So it truly is wall-to-wall snooker from Tuesday right up to the point when we’ll know who is this year’s World Champion on May 5th. Time to get the ‘burn-out’ excuses ready for some?
This tournament of course is the culmination of the 8 European and 4 (ermmm) ‘Asian’ events (China holding 4 and the other 50 countries in Asia not holding any) which dominated the early season. The 28 top players from the European list and the 4 top players from the China list are now drawn together at this historic snooker venue to battle it out for the big prizes, with a tasty 100 bags of sand on offer for the winner.
Winner £100,000
Runner-up £38,000
Semi-finals £20,000
Quarter-finals £10,000
Last 16 £5,000
Last 32 £2,500
Highest break £2,000
Total £300,000
You can find the draw for the tournament (if you can’t read the poster above) here and it will be covered extensively on Eurosport. This is also a big event in deciding the jostling order for the World Championship, not just the top 16 order but also the rounds that a few lower down the list will start in. Matt explains all that and more here and my more simplistic excuse for an effort about the top 16 only and how this tournament will affect the seedings in Sheffield is here.
Double Trouble? 13/2 not to be beaten for the rest of the season.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is a best priced 5/2 favourite with Apollobet (he’s as short as 13/8 with Bet 365) who are also offering 13/2 on him winning both this and the World Championship, which I think is probably worth throwing a few quid at given the confident noises he’s been making lately about his form and general love of the sport.
I wouldn’t back him for the Crucible at his current odds but at least this bet gives you half a chance of collecting from a modest stake should he make it the procession that many are predicting in Sheffield, where he is obviously the man they all have to raise their standards to compete with.
He proved in Wales that best of 7′s aren’t an issue for him as he has before in PTC’s. I actually think this format really suits him and wouldn’t be surprised to see him pocketing the big cheque at the end. If he does, watch his Crucible price shorten even further, then you can lay a bit off if you are so inclined. If you want to take advantage of this price click here before they take it down – click the middle tab at the top ‘O’Sullivan PTC/World Championship Double’.
In terms of other outright betting on this, Ladbrokes had some gloriously hapless early each-way odds a few days ago which were swiftly corrected once the odds compiler had stopped sniffing glue. I know a few people got on some of these ludicrously high prices on the likes of Dark Mavis, Barry Hawkins, Liang Wenbo, Michael Holt and I dare say a few others. If any of them get to the final of this, he might be joining the ranks of the unemployed and zero hours contracts come the weekend. He’s had a shocker already to be fair.
There is one real belter in the first round as Robbo takes on the in-form Shaun Murphy and it’s just a shame for me that they haven’t extended the matches in the Grand Finals to the best of 9 rather than 7. It would have been a great time to pilot best of nines without the intervals to hurry play along a bit. 5 minute comfort break after say 6 frames I think would suffice, which would also mean that any one-sided matches would be over without the need for an interval. The best of 7′s add that extra element of uncertainty at this level which does generally dissuade me and probably lots of others from getting involved too much in the match betting.
That said, I reckon there may be a few nerves here from the less familiar venue players which might play into the hands of the bigger names who are more used to the big stage. Hopefully, the Guild Hall can bring a real sense of occasion and grandeur to this event and establish itself as a more permanent venue on the tour as a whole. I really hope the crowds turn out for this to justify the late switch as it’s great to have a major championship back in the North West of England.
Take a look at Dave Hendon’s five best ever Preston Guild Hall matches by clicking here, I sagged off school to go to the first one on the list with the late Snookerbacker Senior, I think I’m safe to divulge that now. Great days.
Here’s some bets and the match schedule for the first round.
Recommended Bets:
4 points on Ronnie O’Sullivan to win this and the World Championship at 13/2 with Apollobet (back it here)
2 points each way on Mark Allen at 10/1 with Stan James.
0.5 points each way on Marco Fu at 40/1 with Bet 365.
1 point on Neil Robertson at 14/1 with Corals.
3 points first round acca: Ding, Higgins, Trump, Wenbo, O’Sullivan and Allen pays over 11/4 at Apollobet.
Tuesday 25th of March – click on the match for Head to Head Stats
1pm
Ding Junhui v Ben Woollaston
Sam Baird v Anthony Hamilton
NB 2pm
John Higgins v Jimmy Robertson
Mark Williams v Lu Haotian
7pm
Shaun Murphy v Neil Robertson
Ricky Walden v Gerard Greene
NB 8pm
Judd Trump v Ju Reti
Marco Fu v Gary Wilson
Wednesday 26th of March
1pm
Stuart Bingham v Ryan Day
Liang Wenbo v Yu Delu
NB 2pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Scott Donaldson
Mark Allen v Jamie Jones
7pm
Stephen Maguire v Barry Hawkins
Joe Perry v Dark Mavis
NB 8pm
Mark Selby v Dave Gilbert
Fergal O’Brien v Michael Holt
You can view Apollobet’s match prices here, their quarter prices here and their outright prices here 