Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep

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Another new tournament in Barry Hearn's Brave New World and, to the best of my knowledge, the first ever professional event to be staged in Brazil. It was meant to feature all the top pros and some local wildcards, but pretty much two thirds of the top 16 declined their invitation. :eyes Rather worryingly, since it starts tomorrow, no-one seems to know who the wildcards are yet, but I'm sure it will all run smoothly on the day. Here's the order of play from the World Snooker website: Thursday September 15 2pm Mark Selby v Stuart Bingham 4pm Peter Ebdon v Stephen Lee 8pm Jamie Cope v Igor Figueiredo 10pm Graeme Dott v Mark Davis Friday September 16 2pm Shaun Murphy v wild card 4pm Martin Gould v Ricky Walden 8pm Stephen Hendry v wild card 10pm Ali Carter v Steve Davis EDIT - I should add those are local times. Add 3 hours for the UK.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep And my ulterior motive for getting the thread up was to have a nibble at this price: 2pts - S Bingham to beat M Selby @ 2.72 with Betfair This just screams value to me. Yes, Mark Selby has been in ominous form this season with 3 tournament wins already, but he's flown to Brazil direct from Shanghai where he won a nerve shredding final 10-9 against Mark Williams. Selby always seems to be up for whatever tournament he's playing in, so I don't doubt his commitment here, but it's a tough ask mentally for him to roll up and play his best snooker when he's been on the road for the best part of a fortnight already. Snooker players aren't used to such long stints away from home yet and even in Shanghai, there were signs that Selby was tiring towards the end. Stuart Bingham won his maiden ranking event in Australia back in July and for me the price really underestimates his chances here. His mind was elsewhere in Shanghai, due to the birth of his first child, but he still pulled out an impressive 5-1 victory over Judd Trump before losing a scrappy match to John Higgins. Another overseas trip might not be too welcome right now, but at least he's had a week at home and Bingham is another player that can be relied upon to give his all in any tournament he plays. Selby is rightly favourite here, but I think the odds for what would be only a minor upset are just too tasty to ignore.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep Two outrights for me. 1pt ew M.Gould to win Brazil Masters 14/1 Ladbrokes (1/2 1,2) Martin Gould looks a little overpriced to me in what is a relatively open draw. The last time we had a competition with a line up like this was in the PTC Finals and he made it through to final of that competition which bodes well for us this week. Gould is a late invitee into the event replacing Mark Allen who was another high profile pull out. Gould has Ricky Walden in the opening round and then most likely Murphy in the quarter finals. Ali Carter could be a potential semi finalist but you wouldn't say either Murphy or Carter are in lights out form at the minute so there's no reason at all why Martin Gould can't come through the bottom half of the draw at the very least and at 14/1 I'm happy to take my chances that he goes better than that as well. 1pt ew S.Bingham to win Brazil Masters 16/1 Stan James (1/2 1,2) Stuart Bingham has a tricky opening match against Mark Selby out in Brazil but if he comes through that then the draw really opens up for him. He'll face either Peter Ebdon or Stephen Lee in the quarter final and then one of Jamie Cope, Igor Figueiredo, Graeme Dott or Mark Davis in the semi final. With the form he's in if he comes past Selby I expect him to make the final at the very least. He won in Australia earlier in the year coming through a tougher draw than that and with Selby possibly jaded from his exploits in Shanghai last week and the massive amount of travelling from there to the UK and out to Brazil I'd say Bingham isn't a lot worse than 50/50 to beat Selby so 16/1 is a big price which if he does come past Selby we could probably drop the 1 straight away. I'm definitely prepared to take the risk that Bingham beats Selby at this price.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep One match bet in this opening session. 4pts S.Lee to beat P.Ebdon 8/11 Coral I think this is a more than fair price on Stephen Lee who is forcing his way back into the top 16 taking on a Peter Ebdon who is plummeting down the rankings. Peter Ebdon still has only one win all season and that was against a guy who needed a wildcard into the Shanghai Masters so that's not a good form guide. The way Stephen Lee was beaten by Matthew Stevens in Shanghai was a bit of a concern but Peter Ebdon is unlikely to perform like Stevens did, certainly in the scoring department. Stephen Lee is astute enough tactically and he has been scoring pretty well during 2011 so I think he'll have too much for Ebdon in both departments and I fully expect Lee to prevail to the quarter finals from this tie.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep GL kev :ok Just realised that the time difference was wrong (blame the World Snooker site!) - Brazil is 4hrs behind, so today's matches will be at 6pm, 8pm, 12am, & 2am.

[MARTINLAURSEN]

Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep bit of a poor turn out from the players, quite disappointed really. However, Selby and Murphy are the clear tournament favourites and I personally wouldnt back anyone else other than one of them pair. So ill look at a different market, and one i fancy is stephen lee reaching the final. I cannot see odds as he's currently in action but a player that is starting to look a little more comfortable. I think the fact a lot of the big guns are missing will give him a bit of confidence and more self belief, that can apply to most players here challenging, but Lee has been on the circuit for many years and regularly in the top 32, and 16 once. When odds are available and i think there is value ill get in quick.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep Selby edged Bingham 4-3. :( From what I saw of yesterday's play, the table seems to be very slow (although Clive Everton described it as "exceptionally fast" in commentary - not sure which match he was watching!) and the play has an exhibition feel to it. I'm not saying the result is unimportant, and I think everyone was trying their best, but I got the feeling that the real competitive edge was missing. Playing in front of what looked like an audience of 2 people for most of the day probably didn't help that. As for today's matches, well the 2 wildcards are complete unknowns to me. There's a video of Sobradinho de Deus potting a few balls on YouTube (

) and he looks a pretty laid back character, but I doubt he'll have the beating of Shaun Murphy. Gould v Walden is a coin toss for me - Gould is in by far the better form, but if the table plays like it did yesterday I think he could struggle. Maybe Steve Davis is worth a punt against Ali Carter at 3.4 given the 1980s-style table conditions? I'll give it some thought, but at the moment I'm edging towards keeping my money in my pocket for today at least.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep I'm gonna have a go at the outsiders tonight. I think both are overpriced. 1pt N.Rodrigues to beat S.Hendry 5/1 Bet365 I think Noel Rodrigues is a big price at 5/1 to beat Stephen Hendry in this match. I think I would be a big price at 5/1 to beat Stephen Hendry in his current form which by his own admission is awful. In many ways this could've been an event which he could travel to and let his cue go without the pressure of ranking points and rankings and winning matches but then all of a sudden he gets the wildcard and a potentially dangerous wildcard at that. Noel Rodrigues won 3 of his singles matches at the World Cup in July and one of the frames he won was against Mark Allen which is no mean feat. He won't have any pressure on him in this match whereas Hendry will have all of it because he won't want to lose to a wildcard. We saw how well Figueiredo played last night and he couldn't even make the Brazil World Cup squad so there's reason to believe Rodrigues will be competitive in this match and competitive may just be enough to get the job done at a really nice price. 3pts S.Davis to beat A.Carter 5/2 William Hill Western Skies mentioned above about the slowness of this table and I agree with him and I agree that it may well favour the Nugget here with his best snooker coming in the 80's when the tables were a lot slower. In a way Davis would be overpriced even if this was on a quick table because Ali's been struggling healthwise recently. He pulled out of the Paul Hunter Classic after a relapse of his Crohns disease and he obviously wasn't at the peak of his powers in Shanghai when he went down to Mark King where he admitted he played terrible. It remains to be seen how much he wants to be in Brazil with a young family at home and some health issues. I watched Steve Davis in a couple of matches in the last 2 PTC tournaments and he was scoring quite well and looked like the matches he's been playing had done him some good. At 5/2 with conditions likely to suit and with his motivation probably being higher than Carter's I'll have a bet on the nugget in this one.

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Re: Snooker > Brazilian Masters > 15-18 Sep Ever seen a worse standard of snooker then this game? What a shell of a player Hendry is nowadays! :eek