Snooker: PTC Events

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The PTC events which were introduced to the snooker tour last year have continued this year and the second one begins on Monday with there being a total of 12 tournaments in all. World Snooker launched their live streaming service last week so there's a chance to watch these events online. Bookmakers with live streaming service also have access to the coverage and because of that there's more interest with prices being put up. All PTC events have 128 runners and all matches are the best of 7 frames and money won in the 12 tournament qualifying series is added together at the end with the top 24 in the money list playing out the finals which we'll have a new thread for when the time comes. On the face of it with accessible coverage and more variety in prices and with each event having a pre-determined draw there should be some cash able to be made in these events :hope.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Ok the 2nd PTC event takes place between Monday and Wednesday and the way it works is the top half play down to the last 16 on Monday with the bottom half doing the same on Tuesday and then the last 16 onwards is on Wednesday with the tournament finishing on Wednesday night so whoever wins will play 7 matches over two days. 3 for me in this event. 1.5pts ew M.Williams to win PTC2 9/1 VC (1/4 1-4) Mark Williams arrives in Gloucester in decent form having made it to the final of the Australian Open which was an event he should have won really. The couple of weeks off won't have done him any harm and I think he comes here with a real chance. His draw is almost perfect really with only Jamie Cope a top 16 player at the start of the season, in his quarter of the draw. Williams won the opening PTC event of the season last year and was 6th on the overall money list so we know he takes these events seriously and when he turns up he turns up to win. He probably won't have seen a draw like this for many a while and if he turns up in decent nick then I expect Williams to go very well through the course of this event. We're paid out to the semi finals with the place money here and given the lack of big names in his quarter I think Williams is a fantastic each way bet in this event. 0.5pts ew D.Dale to win PTC2 80/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) Dominic Dale is another who is a big price here. The Spaceman is enjoying a very solid start to the season and having moved to Gloucester now he's on home soil in this event. Mark Williams ended Dale's run in Australia in the quarter finals but Dale should really have won that match having only been behind in the match after the deciding frame. Like Williams he's also won a PTC event last season so we know he has what it takes to win one of these things and although his draw is slightly harder with the likes of Selby, Murphy (they could both meet in round 2 so one will go early), Robertson, Trump and Allen (Trump and Allen also meet in round 2 if both get that far so one will go early) in his quarter, I think Dale is playing well enough to have a bit of a tilt at the title here. He's often a quick starter in matches and will be looking for as many ranking points as he can find to boost his ranking. At 80/1 and having qualified for the Shanghai Masters last week Dale is playing well enough to give us a run for our money here. 0.5pts ew T.Ford to win PTC2 125/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Tom Ford is another who is playing well at the minute although he won't want to see Stuart Bingham again in a hurry. Ford qualified for Australia and then beat Jamie Cope when he was there before being wiped out by Bingham in the second round. Bingham went on to win that event though so that was no bad result as it turned out. Bingham then beat Ford in the final qualifier for Shanghai last week but luckily for Tom Ford and his fans Bingham is in the other half of the draw in this tournament. Like Williams and Dale, Ford also won a PTC event last year and he finished 9th in the Order of Merit so these seem to be events which suit him. Ford made the 3rd round of the opening PTC event where he lost a deciding frame to Joe Perry who went on to finish runner up in the event so he's being beaten only by form players at the minute. For someone as confident as Ford is he hasn't got an overly tough draw. Top 16 players in his quarter are Graeme Dott along with Ding Junhui and Peter Ebdon who are scheduled to meet in the second round. If his form keeps up the way it has been Ford is more than capable of coming through that and giving us a real run for our money at 125/1.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Williams won his opening match 4-0 and Ford won his opening match 4-1. Williams plays Doherty in his second round match at 5pm while Ford plays the winner of Milkins vs McGouran at 7pm. Couple of the 5pm starts look overpriced to me based on this morning's matches. 3pts L.Brecel to beat A.Norman 6/4 Sportingbet Luca Brecel overcame Jamie Cope in the opening round this morning and while he didn't have to play well to win it's still a decent feather in the youngsters cap. Andrew Norman came past Joe Swail this morning which was a good result as well especially with Swail hitting a century in the match. Andrew Norman is probably rightly the favourite for this match but with a boost to his confidence and the fact that he's likely to get his fair share of chances in this match I'll take the Belgian youngster, who's had plenty of snooker in recent weeks with his World Cup exploits, to come through at a big looking 6/4. 3pts B.Woollaston to beat R.McLeod 6/4 Sportingbet Ben Woollaston had a good win this morning when he took out the improving Martin Gould. Rory McLeod had a comfortable win against a qualifier but he'll have his work more cut out here. Woollaston has shown some decent efforts in the qualifiers this season and showed his potential this morning. I always think McLeod is vulnerable to good scorers and Woollaston is definitely one of those. These smaller matches can't really suit McLeod because he isn't a player who can gain much rhythm because he's so slow and methodical. Someone like Woollaston should be more suited to this style of match and he's another who I think is overpriced in this one.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Snooker: PTC Events What happened to Dale, Kev? Can't find his name in any of the results?

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events He's in the bottom half mate so he begins tomorrow :ok.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Snooker: PTC Events Makes perfect sense... Thinking about it... There were a lot of big name players missing and you already mentioned the format :wall I see Williams lost in a decider but Ford makes it through!

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Yep. Ford's playing his last 32 match now. Live on the Bet365 streaming console. Looking like it's about to go 1-1 :hope.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Deciding frames haven't been kind with Williams and Ford both losing in them. Brecel won his match earlier but Woollaston lost so I'm currently -2.5pts for this PTC.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Dale was crap as well so -3.5pts going into the 3rd PTC of the season which begins on Friday. Might well be a bit more busy with match betting in this one too as we get into the season more. 3 outrights for PTC3. 1pt ew S.Bingham to win PTC3 25/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Stuart Bingham is in excellent form this season. We saw him win the Australian Open and I expect him to go from strength to strength having won his first major. He's qualified for Shanghai already and he's already been to finals day in the opening PTC of the season where he was a casualty of the eventual winner Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter finals. He didn't have a nice draw in PTC2 but he's got a much more favourable draw here even though Williams, Carter and Robertson are in this portion. He doesn't have to worry about any of them initially and I don't think he'll worry about them anyway given the form he's in. He's someone who has relished the PTC events and having been close to an ew payout in one of the events this season already I'll take him to go one better at least and secure the ew payout before targetting the title. 0.5pts ew M.Gould to win PTC3 50/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Martin Gould was another of Ronnie's victims on finals day in the opening PTC but we saw last year that these tournaments hold no fear for him and we also saw that he's very much one of the up and coming players in the game and that nobody particularly worries him in the game. Gould's clearly in decent enough touch after a strong start to the season and with ranking points up for grabs here with the cut off for York and Wembley approaching this is a week where Gould can go well. He's in the same section as Selby and Trump but Trump will do very well to play as well as he did last week and Gould doesn't fear anyone anyway. He's often seen in the business end of these things and 50/1 represents a decent price on a very capable player who is playing well. 0.5pts ew M.Campbell to win PTC3 125/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Marcus Campbell is another player who is coming back to form and what I like about him is he doesn't very often lose to players below him in the rankings which is perfect here. Being a Scot he almost has to have a good safety game, it's almost born into them, and he has but over the last 2 years or so he's added some decent scoring to his game and it's provided him with some solid results. He made the quarter final of PTC1 and was on course for finals day in PTC2 as well before Ding beat him in the final match of the opening day. There's no harm in losing that as Ding made the final of the whole event and was playing well. Campbell's in the same section of the draw as Gould and apart from Selby and Trump it looks wide open. Campbell has a good record in these events and at 125/1 I'll take him in this event in the hope he can come through a nice looking 3rd quarter.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events And the first match bet of this event. 4pts J.Wattana to beat M.Fu 7/5 Boylesports I think Fu is begging to be taken on here and we're getting a good price to take him on with as well which makes it all the more appealing. Marco Fu hasn't won a competitive match this season yet having not played PTC1 or Australia and then losing in his first match in the Shanghai qualifiers, a match he lost 5-1 to Jack Lisowski who ok Lisowski is one with plenty of potential but Fu would expect to win that if he's playing well, and then he lost his opener in PTC2 to a player not familiar to many. Fu won some frames in the World Cup but that's different to this. Wattana made finals day in PTC1 where he lost in the last 16 to Joe Perry who made the final of the event. Nevertheless it was good match practice for the Thaiphoon who has gone relatively well in the qualifiers too given how early he enters them. His game has found some improvement over the last 12 months and with winning momentum Wattana looks an excellent bet here.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Wattana lost 4-2 having missed the final black for 3-3. Bingham walked into Alan McManus off his tits so he's gone too but the other two are both into the second round. Annoyingly the World Snooker website gave the wrong draw out for the qualifiers so there wasn't much match betting around. Hopefully we'll get more this evening in the later rounds unlike yesterday. 3pts L.Highfield to beat S.Hendry 11/8 Betfred Liam Highfield made a bit of a stur when he took Ronnie O'Sullivan into a deciding frame in the last 16 of the last PTC and that subsequently led to the Rocket posting about him on twitter and labelling him one to watch which must be a real filip in the cap for Highfield. That was the 2nd PTC in succession where he's made the last 16 this season as he begins to gain experience on the Tour and allowing his ranking to rise because of it. You get the feeling Stephen Hendry is only playing these events because of necessity to protect his ranking rather than a real desire to play in them which probably isn't the right mindset to have. As a result he's only won one match in the 2 PTC's so far so with that in mind and with Highfield's confidence likely to be sky high I'll take him to continue making people talk about him by winning here.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events The match bets in this competition have been crap but I do have Marcus Campbell playing Barry Hawkins at 1.00pm for the 125/1 place money and if he wins that, with only Graeme Dott from the top 16 left in the tournament at the quarter final stage who knows what might happen from there.....

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Bookies have priced up the QF's which begin at 1. 5pts G.Dott to beat J.Jones 8/13 Paddy Power I'm surprised Graeme Dott is this price. Not only is he the better player but he's playing some really good snooker too. By all accounts he was clinical against O'Sullivan yesterday and then I watched his match with Stephen Hendry last night where he didn't miss a thing in a convincing 4-0 win and he's just hit 2 centuries, his 3rd and 4th of the event, in beating John Higgins 4-2 so he's clearly close to top form. Jamie Jones has done well to get this far but he's taken advantage of a weak section in the draw. His opponents have been Yu Delu, Andy Hicks, Jimmy Robertson and then this morning Matthew Selt. I'm not sure that is too difficult a run and Dott is very much a step up on that opposition. Dott will have seen the QF line up and realised this tournament is his for the taking if he keeps playing well. I see no reason why he won't carry on playing well so I'll take the Scot to win this one.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events No joy with Marcus Campbell who couldn't bring in the 30/1 place money. Dott won 4-0 though but I'm still -7.92 for this third PTC and -11.42 overall now. Hopefully the semi finals and final throw some bets up before we head to Germany next week for the 4th PTC.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events We've got the two finalists then. Graeme Dott vs Ben Woollaston. One for me. Final kicks off at 7. 5pts G.Dott (-1.5 frames) to beat B.Woollaston 4/5 Sportingbet Like Jamie Jones earlier, Ben Woollaston has taken advantage of a nice draw thus far. He's faced and beaten Rod Lawler, Kurt Maflin, Andrew Higginson, Ken Doherty, Alan McManus and Anthony McGill so far in the tournament and to make it to a final you'd settle to play that lot as there isn't a top 16 player in sight. Graeme Dott has played some real tough opponents and he's barely looked troubled. He's been hitting the ball really sweetly all event and this is his to lose now. He's used to playing finals of all qualities so being in a final won't worry him unlike his opponent and if he continues the form we've seen of the last two days then I expect Dott, who is scoring fantastically in this event, to win this and win it no worse than 4-2.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Dott couldn't keep that performance level up. In fact he was crap and lost 4-2. Back to -16.42 overall now.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events PTC4 begins tomorrow and it doubles up as the Paul Hunter Classic. Because this event is on Eurosport it's not available on the bookmakers live streaming or the world snooker live streaming console unless you are outside of Europe. I'll be away for most of the weekend but I'll go with 4 outrights before the off. 1pt ew G.Dott to win PTC4 20/1 Skybet (1/4 1,2,3,4) Graeme Dott played some top quality snooker last week and I think he's worth sticking with again with this tournament coming so soon off the back of that one. He's got O'Sullivan and Higgins in his quarter of the draw but he dispatched both of them last week so there's no immediate reason why he can't do the same again this week. Dott scored really well last week and against Hendry and Hawkins in particular he hardly missed a ball throughout the tournament. Dott is playing well right now and with this being good preparation for Shanghai I think he'll go well again this week. How well remains to be seen but I definitely think he's got one of these events in him so he's one of my main bets this weekend. 1pt ew M.Stevens to win PTC4 40/1 Skybet (1/4 1,2,3,4) Matthew Stevens probably has an extra incentive to win this week as he was Paul Hunter's best friend so winning this event would mean a lot to him and that in itself almost makes him a bet but the price also makes him a good bet. As it stands Stevens has Mark Williams in his quarter which could be why he's this price but I understand Williams is going to pull out of the event so immediately we have a bet at a price bigger than it should be. Robertson and Carter are also in Stevens' quarter but on his day Stevens can take care of them. We saw in the Premier League last week that Stevens is hitting the ball well and with that little extra motivation on his side this week he looks like a decent bet to me. 0.5pts ew J.Perry to win PTC4 80/1 Skybet (1/4 1,2,3,4) Joe Perry has a nice portion of the draw and I think he will be disappointed if he doesn't get to finals day at the very least. Shaun Murphy could stand in his way in the last 8 but he hasn't shown a great deal in these PTC events whereas Perry has already made the final in the first tournament of the season. That shows us that he's playing well and he's generally someone who goes well in the bigger venues and this is more like a ranking event venue than a normal PTC event one. Ding is also in this quarter but he's in the other half of it and has a couple of trappy opponents on the way through to finals day. Perry's route to finals day looks like a qualifier, Dale, Gunnell/Selt and then one of White/Fu/Cope/Mark Davis. That's the worst case scenario. I don't think he'll be too unhappy with that so I'll take Perry to have a good run this weekend. 0.5pts ew A.McManus to win PTC4 200/1 Skybet (1/4 1,2,3,4) Alan McManus went very well last week making the quarter finals where he only went down in a deciding frame to the eventual winner Ben Woollaston. Along the way he thrashed Stuart Bingham 4-0 with plenty of decent breaks and played some top notch snooker. He's another one of these players who appear to be having a bit of a comeback in their careers after spending time in the commentary box and if he plays like he did last week there's no reason why he can't win a couple of matches and get involved in the deeper end of the tournament. Mark Allen is the only top 16 player he could meet before finals day so while his section is competitive he's found an attackable part of the draw which could make 200/1 look big. I'll take a small punt on 'Angles' reproducing his good form of last week.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Ali Carter has pulled out of the event although he's still in the outright markets at the minute. He was due to be in Stevens' quarter so with him gone and Williams likely to go the draw is beginning to open up for Stevens before the event has begun. Sportingbet have put their prices back up since I posted. Annoyingly they go 125/1 for Joe Perry. Too late for me to take but it's there for anyone who has yet to bet :ok.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Nothing doing with the outrights in PTC4. -22.42 overall now. PTC5 begins in the morning and although I'm away on Saturday I'll be aiming to hit the event during Friday and Sunday and will kick off with a set of outrights to hopefully kick start things. 1.5pts ew R.O'Sullivan to win PTC5 10/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) This is a big week for the Rocket who has chosen not to go to Warsaw next week. That means this is the only chance he has of making sure he has enough ranking points to stay in the top 16 when the cut off is made for the Masters and UK Championship at the beginning of next month. He's drawn Mark Williams which isn't a help in the first round but other than that it's only an out of form Ding and a potentially jet lagged Shaun Murphy who would have a decent chance of stopping O'Sullivan getting to finals day. Ronnie has won the first PTC of the season and made it to the semi finals of the last one so he's treating these events seriously this year and I think he's the man to beat with his ranking needing as much protection as he can give it this week. 1pt ew N.Robertson to win PTC5 20/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Neil Robertson is going to be my outright in the 3rd quarter of the draw. He's in excellent form right now having made it to the semi finals of the last PTC tournament as well as the semi finals in Shanghai where he was unlucky to go down to Mark Williams. We've seen him extend that form into the Premier League already on Thursday night and I fully believe that we are going to get a sustained run of form from the Thunder from Down Under. This is a tough portion of the draw given that it contains the likes of Trump, Carter and Higgins but on this form I really believe Robertson will take a lot of beating even in an event of this nature where anyone can beat anyone. I don't think a tournament win is too far away for Robertson and wouldn't be surprised at all if it's this weekend. 1pt ew G.Dott to win PTC5 28/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Graeme Dott has already made the final of a PTC event this season when he went to the final in the 3rd tournament and he comes into this week off the back of a run to another final out in Brazil last week where he scored well and played solid snooker before he could get nothing going against Murphy in the final. I like what I've seen from Dott this year. He's always hard to beat but he's scoring really well this term which makes him even harder to beat and makes his early defeat to Michael Holt in Shanghai all the more difficult to work out although that was a week where not a lot went to normal logic. He's picked up a nice draw here with only Stephen Maguire in the top 16 in his quarter of the draw. If he continues to play as he has been doing then I expect a decent run from Dott over the weekend. 0.5pts ew B.Hawkins to win PTC5 80/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Barry Hawkins is a streaky player who you have to catch in the right mood but having made the semi final in PTC3 we know he's in good touch and can go deep in these tournaments. He's definitely found a nice section of the draw this week with Mark Selby the only genuine top 16 player in the quarter and he wouldn't meet him until the quarter final whereby we would be on Hawkins at 20/1 to beat him. Hawkins can be annoying in that he's one of those who can beat the best but lose to the worst but with him having a few mid range players this week along with Selby I'm hoping he'll keep his mind focused and produce some good snooker. If he does this 80/1 will look big.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events A few first round match bets for me. 5pts G.Greene (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Dunn Evs Apollo Bet 1pt G.Greene to beat M.Dunn 4-0 6/1 Apollo Bet Gerard Greene looks an excellent bet to win this 4-2 or easier. It's been quite well documented that Mike Dunn has been really struggling over the last few months with a kidney stone and having had one of those myself I know it has you in serious pain so I'm not sure bending over a snooker table is the perfect relief for it. He certainly isn't going to have been practicing too much in recent times and even if he was practicing I'd still fancy Greene to beat him. Gerard Greene is no world beater but he probably won't have to be. He's won a match in each of the PTC's but he hasn't beaten anyone of Greene's ability or ranking in them. With Dunn struggling healthwise I fully expect Greene to win this no worse than 4-2 but I'll have a small bet on him to win 4-0 too. 4pts A.Hamilton to beat S.Hendry 11/10 Skybet Stephen Hendry is under so much pressure in this match because he's another who isn't going to Poland so he really needs a good weekend if he's to be in the top 16 come the cut off for the Masters and UK's at the start of next month. He comes into the event in 20th place in the provisional rankings and despite a couple of wins in Brazil last week you get the feeling Hendry doesn't have much belief in his game at the minute. He could probably have done with Anthony Hamilton playing so well in China last week as he should have drawn a lot of confidence from that where he beat Stephen Maguire and Ronnie O'Sullivan along the way and scoring 6 centuries in the matches he played. He's always been a heavy scorer but there hasn't been a lot else to his game but when he's in good scoring form he can be really hard to beat because he can go a batch of frames without missing a ball. Hendry misses a few easy ones these days and if he does that here Hamilton will get rid of him. 3pts P.Ebdon to beat S.Maguire 7/5 Sportingbet I've yet to see Stephen Maguire play well this season and admittedly Peter Ebdon has struggled at the start of the season but there were signs last week in Brazil that he's just finding his game at long last, particularly the scoring element to it. If he scores well here then I would expect Ebdon to go close to winning if not actually winning. Maguire appears to be finding ways to lose at the minute and has always had a side to him that allows him to get frustrated quite quickly. Ebdon has frustrated the life out of the best in the past so Maguire would be quite an easy patient in that regard. As long as Ebdon has taken some confidence out of his trip to Brazil I think he'll have every chance in this match so he's worthy of a small bet at 7/5.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Greene won 4-3 :wall. Ebdon won 4-2 though and so it's up to Hamilton to secure the profit for the round. His match is live on Bet365 now. Currently 2-1 down.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Hamilton did win to bring home a 2.6pt profit for the session.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events A small bet for me in the 7pm matches. 1pt T.Thirapongpaiboon to beat S.Murphy 4/1 Paddy Power The Thai teenager is worth a bet in this match. He beat Mark Joyce in the first round and we saw last year he's a more than capable player when he has a decent run at the UK Championship so the 17 year old appears in good shape in his first PTC of the season. He hit a 147 in one of the PTC's last year so we know he's good enough to be competitive on the tour. Shaun Murphy struggled past an amateur this morning and he hasn't been beyond this round in a PTC yet and he's lost to some very low opposition in terms of their rankings so there's plenty to suggest Murphy is ripe for an upset here. Tiredness could easily kick in here too after all he's flown around the world for the last couple of weeks and then played the Premier League event in Motherwell last night before driving back after the event to be in Sheffield for this morning. He's got to be a bit weary and if he's below his best then his opponent looks a more than fair price at 4/1 to take care of him.

[RussP]

Re: Snooker: PTC Events

0.5pts ew B.Hawkins to win PTC5 80/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4)

Great shout mate, bloody unlucky indeed but no argument with an 80/1 place:clap:clap:clap

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Cheers mate. John Higgins had it in for me today beating Robertson in the QF's and Hawkins in the SF's before losing in the final :lol. +2.5pts for PTC5 outrights and +1.6 for the match bets so back to -18.32pts overall. Feel like a big outright isn't far away. PTC6 begins in Warsaw on Thursday :ok.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events PTC6 begins on Friday and it's all on Eurosport. Was hoping for more firms to offer outright prices hence why I've waited to put bets up but not to be so I'll take advantage of the prices at Skybet. As always in these PTC events I'll have a team of four outrights where I'll target each quarter. 1pt ew S.Lee to win PTC6 18/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) This is an important weekend for Stephen Lee with the rankings hitting the first cut point immediately after this tournament. Stephen Lee currently sits 15th in the provisional rankings and if he can remain in the top 16 beyond this event he will have secured a place in the UK Championship and The Masters. In order to guarantee his place, with a few players queueing up for his spot, he will need to go as far in this tournament as possible. He's probably got the draw to go far this week even though he could face last week's winner Andrew Higginson in the second round. After him there's nothing stopping Lee getting to finals day and as we've seen in the five events so far it's anyone's game from finals day. Lee is playing well these days, he's made the QFs in two PTC's this season so I'm happy to take him to go at least one further if not all the way this weekend. 1pt ew A.Carter to win PTC6 33/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) Having seen Ali Carter in the Premier League on Thursday night I think he's worth a punt at these odds. We saw last week how Neil Robertson played well in the Premier League and then continued that form in the PTC which followed it. He made the quarter finals in that event but there's no reason why Carter can't go further with a lot of big names missing this week. There's some key names in his quarter of the draw but Carter is a renowned tournament winner who shouldn't be 33/1 in a field devoid of the likes of Selby, Williams, Higgins and O'Sullivan. Although his draw could be easier, if Carter brings the form he showed on Thursday night to Poland with him then I would expect him to go very well over the weekend. 0.5pts ew J.Lisowski to win PTC6 50/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) Jack Lisowski made the semi finals in PTC5 last week and I see no reason why he can't at least emulate that performance if not go further given the weakness of the field out in Poland this week. Jack Lisowski is one of the up and coming stars of the game who I'm sure we will hear big things from this season and next before he establishes himself. Stuart Bingham is the only top 16 player in Lisowski's quarter and while he would be a second round opponent it's not a lot worse than a 50/50 match up that so there is definitely an openness to young Jack's section in the draw which if he plays the snooker he played last week, he can exploit to the full this weekend. 0.5pts ew D.Gilbert to win PTC6 100/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) David Gilbert made it to the last 16 of PTC5 last weekend but all the reports are that he was cueing very well and in the end only went down in a deciding frame to Jack Lisowski. I've not seen too much of Gilbert but from what I have seen he's a very nice player to watch when he's cueing well and he's capable of good results. Gilbert beat Ding Junhui last week and that was a result which leads me to believe he can go well this week. Not only will he be full of confidence from his wins last week but in his win over Mike Hallett he made a 141 break so he's scoring well too. Judd Trump is in his section of the draw but there isn't a lot else in this portion of the draw so at 100/1 I think Gilbert is well worth a chance this weekend.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events Stephen Lee got to the semi finals in Warsaw but made no impression on Neil Robertson when he got there. Annoyingly Jack Lisowski lost to Steve Davis in the quarter finals so a small loss for PTC6 which puts me back to -18.82 overall now.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events PTC7 begins on Friday. Apologies for the lateness of posting. Hectic week with so much going on plus I wanted to watch the Premier League on Thursday night for any clues. I'll go with four outright again. 1.5pts ew S.Murphy to win PTC7 12/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) Shaun Murphy is the overall champion in the PTC tournaments and if he is to make a successful defence of that title he needs to get a shift on in the last six events as he is currently 37th in the Order of Merit with only the top 24 qualifying for the finals week. Most of Murphy's better snooker has been in the overseas major events so far but there were signs last week in Warsaw when he made the quarter finals before losing in a deciding frame to eventual winner Neil Robertson, that finally his form could be converting to the PTC events too. Murphy is where you want to be in the draw this week which is the bottom half with the likes of Ronnie, Robertson, Williams and Higgins all in the top half of the draw so I expect him to do some damage this weekend. Judd Trump and Ali Carter are in his quarter but they are in the other half of it so Murphy will be at finals day long before meeting either of them. In fact his path to finals day looks quite a simple one with no top 16 player in sight before the last 16. At 12/1 Murphy looks like a good price and good bet to be the main bet this weekend. 1pt ew S.Bingham to win PTC7 25/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Stuart Bingham is in the top quarter of the draw but the nicer part of it as he wouldn't meet Ronnie or Higgins until the last 16 and we've seen in the first six events that if you get to finals day anything can happen. We've seen throughout the season that Bingham is in excellent form and that bodes well here too. Bingham was unlucky to lose to Jack Lisowski last week but he played well in both matches he played and if he brings that game to Gloucester with him this weekend I would expect him to go well. He's a very heavy scorer and his safety game has improved beyond recognition and I think it's only a matter of time before Bingham wins one of these. With a bit of luck and some good form it could easily be this weekend. 1pt ew G.Dott to win PTC7 33/1 Skybet (1/4 1-4) Graeme Dott has played as well as anyone in these PTC tournaments and I see no reason why he's 33/1 in this tournament even though he has Mark Selby in his quarter. He's in the bottom half of the draw which is undoubtedly the nicer part of the draw. Mark Allen would be a potential second round opponent but he's done nothing to speak of all season so I don't see that being too much of a problem. Ricky Walden's in good form but so are a few at this stage of the season. Dott is one of them, he's been in a final already this season and I think it's also only a matter of time before he wins one of these. 0.5pts ew J.Perry to win PTC7 80/1 Sportingbet (1/4 1-4) Joe Perry is in the top half of the draw but he showed in PTC1 that he can come through the draws in these events. He made it all the way to the final of that event, losing to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final but although he's in the harder section of the draw his path to finals day is a fairly smooth one if he brings the PTC1 form to the tables with him. Jamie Cope, Stephen Lee and Stephen Hendry are the dangers between him and finals day. Cope isn't playing well at the minute neither is Hendry while Lee might lose a bit of focus now he's officially a top 16 player again plus his run to the semis last week might have taken something out of him. If Perry gets to finals day it will get tougher but he's shown in his career he fears nobody and can beat them all so at 80/1 I'll pay my money and take my chances here.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events 4 match bets for the opening round on Friday. Some of these start at 9am. 4pts A.Higginson to beat M.Fu 5/6 Paddy Power I'm a little bit surprised Paddy Power can't split these two because Marco Fu hasn't begun the season too well although he did show signs of life at long last in Warsaw last weekend. The weekend before that Andrew Higginson won PTC5 and he beat John Higgins in the final so that was certainly no token win, he more than earned the win. He lost in the second round to Stephen Lee last week but Lee played really well all weekend there so that was no disgrace. The signs are that Marco's season might finally be getting going but he wasn't too far from being knocked out by Kurt Maflin in the first round last week before he went on to make it to the 3rd round before he lost to Matthew Selt. These two have met 3 times in ranking play since the beginning of 2010 and Higginson has won all three despite not playing as well then as he is now. I think he'll make it 4/4 on Friday. 3pts M.Selt to beat J.Lisowski 11/10 Paddy Power Paddy Power have this one the wrong way around for me. Jack Lisowski is a very talented up and coming player but like his stablemate Judd Trump was at the same stage, he's everything or nothing whereas Matthew Selt, another up and coming star, is a much more rounded player as he proved at the Australian Open when he beat John Higgins and Stephen Hendry before being edged out by Shaun Murphy. You don't beat Higgins in a best of 9 frame match if you are a mug. I watched a fair bit of Lisowski last week having had money on him outright and while he scored well in the main he left some chances for opponents too and when Steve Davis is knocking in 50's and 100's against you there's a sign that it's time to tighten up. Selt is playing some solid snooker this season. As well as the quarter final run in Australia, he's made finals day in three of the last four PTC events so he's playing well and for me should be favourite for this match so I'll take him to beat Lisowski. 3pts I.McCulloch to beat M.King 2/1 William Hill Ian McCulloch is a big price here. A couple of weeks ago in PTC5 he showed he still retains plenty of ability when he beat Tom Ford and Nigel Bond on his way to finals day. We know how heavy a scorer is when he gets the chance and King will give him chances, that seems to be inevitable. McCulloch used to do an offer in his exhibitions that if he didn't hit a century on the night he wouldn't take his appearance fee so he's very confident with his scoring. To be fair to Mark King he's in decent form but he always has trouble against heavy scorers, a point proved in China when Mark Selby beat him 6-0 in the Shanghai semis. King should win this but McCulloch is never a 2/1 shot here so I'll have a punt on the Preston potter in this one. 3pts L.Chuang to beat M.Campbell 11/8 Skybet Liu Chuang looks to be a bit underrated here. Last week in Warsaw he beat Martin Gould and Tony Drago on his way to finals day where he lost to eventual runner up Ricky Walden in the last 16 but he's playing good snooker. Marcus Campbell started the season off well and made the quarter finals in PTC's 1 and 3 but he hasn't been beyond the second round in any of the last three as his form appears to have taken a bit of a dip. With the form and confidence levels of these two going in opposite directions I'll take the China cueist to prevail in what may not be the most exciting match played in Gloucester this weekend it has to be said :lol.

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Re: Snooker: PTC Events 2 winners and 2 losers from the first round bets. One for the early second round matches. 4pts A.Hamilton to beat D.Dale 5/6 Sportingbet Anthony Hamilton had a really good win over Neil Robertson in the first round and with Mark Williams going out in the first round too Hamilton will see this as a chance to go deep this weekend. His win over Robertson wasn't overly surprising because the Sheriff is playing good snooker at the minute, as we saw in Shanghai and since then he's beaten Hendry and Murphy and only lost to Maguire in a deciding frame. Dom Dale went well earlier in the season when he made the quarter finals in Australia but he's been a bit quiet since losing in the last two PTC's to Joe Swail and Stephen Craigie. Maybe back on home soil he might improve again but he will need to because Hamilton has really refound his form over the last 6 weeks or so and given his strong scoring power I think Hamilton will be very tough to beat and I'll take him to progress to the last 32 from this one.