Snooker: UK Championship Qualifiers

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The qualifiers for the UK Championship are ongoing for the next few days and with two of the matches in each session being live streamed the potential for betting is a lot easier and these qualifiers are no longer the unknown quantity from a betting point of view that they once were. There's two I like the look of tonight. One on the streamed table and one not. Streamed table first. 3pts J.White (-1.5 frames) to beat P.Suwannawat 6/5 Sportingbet I'm going to have to have a small bet on the Whirlwind on the handicap in this match as I feel the price is too big for Jimmy to win 6-4 or easier. Passakorn Suwannawat come through a pretty routine first round of qualifying last night when he beat Irishman Joe Meara 6-0 but he really wasn't up against much in that game and this will be a lot tougher for the Thai. If Jimmy White was coming into the event cold then I might have had second thoughts but he hasn't he's been playing in front of good crowds and under the TV lights in the competitive World Seniors over the weekend where he scored really well and his safety game in the main was good too. In a way I feel it could favour Jimmy that the format has changed to best of 11 for the tournament this year as opposed to the best of 17 it has been in previous years because he can maintain enough consistency over this length of match. Jimmy White has impressed me on the occasions I've seen him this season and although this is a tricky match for this stage of qualifying I expect the Whirlwind to take a step nearer to York with a win here and a win which is no worse than 6-4. 4pts D.Gilbert to beat J.Swail 9/10 Boylesports I like what I've seen from Dave Gilbert this season too. He's got some really good names on his record in the PTC events, better names than Joe Swail too in the form of Judd Trump, Jamie Cope, Ding Junhui and Jimmy White. He's also beaten Dave Harold and Mark King on his way to making it all the way to the Australian Open where he troubled Mark Williams before going down 5-2 in the end. Importantly though he's been scoring well which is half the task for Gilbert and he has 8 centuries for the season so far. Joe Swail is having a bit of a struggle at the minute, as so often happens to be the case with the Ulsterman before he'll go a couple of tournaments where he plays really well and makes the latter stages of an event. Swail hasn't won many matches all season and he's lost in the first round of qualifying for both major tournaments so far this season. He's also lost in the first round of the last 2 PTCs to players I'd call inferior to Dave Gilbert. Given that he's the form horse and he's had a match on the tables in coming through his first qualifier against Aditya Mehta 6-5 last night I'll take Gilbert to win this one.

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Re: Snooker: UK Championship Qualifiers They both won for a 7.20pt pick up. Tuesday's qualifiers begin at 12 noon and I'll take two in that session. I like the look of Pengfei and Woollaston too but I'll stick with these two. 4pts M.White to beat L.Wenbo 11/10 Sportingbet I really like what I've seen of Michael White. He's picking up a reputation of being a heavy scorer and his 6 frames which he won against Barry Pinches on Monday were all won with breaks of 50 or more which emphasises his scoring. Liang Wenbo struggles against heavy scorers because his game is all or nothing and when he misses he opens himself right up to be attacked. That's when he's playing well let alone when he's been playing poorly like he has so far this season. Michael White made the semi final in one of the PTC events recently so his confidence will be sky high and Monday showed his form is good so he should really be a bit shorter than this if not favourite if it was priced up by form. I'm happy to take the Welshman here. 4pts X.Guodong to beat M.Dunn 10/11 Bet365 I'm really surprised that bookmakers don't have Xiao Guodong favourite in this match. Mike Dunn has barely won a match in recent times and has been having health problems too with a kidney stone which affected the amount of time he was able to practice and his mobility during tournaments. I believe that is behind him now but his form has shown no signs of an immediate return. Xiao Guodong has been having an excellent season. He reached the semi final of a PTC event earlier in the season and the quarter finals of two others and in those PTC tournaments he has a 4-1 win over O'Sullivan to his name in the last tournament having beaten Peter Ebdon in the first round and a 4-0 win over Judd Trump in an earlier PTC so this Chinese kid can definitely play. As with a lot of Chinese players these days, Guodong is full of confidence and scores heavy when he's in the balls and I expect him to be too good for Mike Dunn here.

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Re: Snooker: UK Championship Qualifiers Guodong won 6-0 and White won 6-2 so another 8.04pt pick up there to put me +15.24 for these qualifiers. I'm taking two tonight. The session begins at 7pm. I'll also have a watch of Jimmy's match on the live stream so I might have an in play bet there too at some point in the evening. 5pts A.Hamilton (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Joyce 5/6 ApolloBet Anthony Hamilton is playing some really good snooker at the minute and if he keeps going this way his place in the top 32 will be a given. In the last couple of months the Sheriff has beaten Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Shanghai Masters and has wins over Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy in the PTC tournaments so he's definitely back in good form. Mark Joyce shot to prominence in this tournament last year where he made the quarter finals but hasn't done a whole lot since and he had a real battle against Rod Lawler last night which won't have helped him in terms of playing fluent snooker. When Hamilton is in good form he scores very heavily and that makes him hard to beat at this level because quite a few of the players need a couple of chances or more to win the frames. The Sheriff doesn't and I'm confident he wins tonight and wins this no worse than 6-4. 4pts A.McManus (-1.5 frames) to beat P.Lines 10/11 ApolloBet Since he stepped into the Eurosport commentary box Alan McManus has been in great form on the tables. I'm sure it wasn't his commentary which has helped his form, it's more the amount of matches he can now play and the solid dosh he can earn in the latter stages of his career. And earning dosh he has been doing. He's been to two quarter finals of the PTC tournaments and he has a 4-0 win over Stuart Bingham and 4-1 wins over Shaun Murphy and Ken Doherty on his record in those events. Peter Lines hasn't done a whole lot this season. He did beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in a PTC tournament but having heard what the Rocket thinks of them I'm not sure even that's much of a form guide. Lines beat Robin Hull last night which was a fair win but a top break of 66 suggests it was all a bit of a struggle for him. Angles is always a tough player to beat but when he's playing well he often knocks a few runs together and I think he can go through to the final qualifying round of the UK's with a win here and one which is no worse than 6-4.

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Re: Snooker: UK Championship Qualifiers Slight profit on those thanks to Hamilton coming through a struggle. +15.40 for the qualifiers now. Final day of qualifying on Wednesday. Not a lot I fancy in the afternoon really. The Hendry and Davis matches are on the streaming tables. I might have a watch of the Davis match and maybe have a play if he starts well. So just the one for me now to begin with. Will hopefully find some others in the evening matches. 4pts B.Woollaston to beat M.Campbell 6/5 Sportingbet Ben Woollaston is having the best season of his career this season. He's already won a PTC event this season and he reached the quarter finals of another one out in Killarney. He's brought that form into this week as well with a good win over Michael Holt on Tuesday with runs of 67, 118 and 63 to prove how well he's playing. He won that match 6-3 and I can see this being just as comfortable. Marcus Campbell began the season well with a couple of early PTC quarter finals but it's all been a bit of a struggle for the gorilla lookalike from Scotland. He's only won one competitive match since August and that was only against a Polish amateur out in Warsaw. Given the form of the two players I'm a little bit surprised that Campbell is the favourite for this match let alone as clear a favourite as Sportingbet have him here. I think Woollaston has every chance in this match and I'll take him to book a place against Matthew Stevens in York in the UK Championship main event next month with a win here.

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Re: Snooker: UK Championship Qualifiers No joy with Woollaston. Going with 3 tonight. Bit late so will keep write ups short. 4pts F.O'Brien to beat L.Yan 8/11 William Hill Fearless Fergal is playing well so far this season especially on the PTC circuit and I expect him to have too much for the talented up and coming China player Li Yan here. Yan doesn't get to this stage very often and generally when he comes up against this sort of level of playing he is found out. Fergal beat Li in PTC6 and he can repeat that here tonight. 4pts A.Hamilton to beat M.Fu Evs Boylesports Anthony Hamilton came through for me in the end last night and I'm prepared to give him a go again tonight. Marco Fu is in a real rut right now and has shown no real semblence of form all season. In these qualifiers is often pays to back the man with momentum over the one who is struggling and the way their careers are going it won't be long before Hamilton is above Fu in the rankings. The Sheriff for me here. 3pts J.Burnett to beat R.Day 13/8 Blue Square Jamie Burnett played well last night and he's more than capable of going to the next level as we saw in the Shanghai Masters last year. Ryan Day has struggled so far this season but has shown signs that his form might just be coming back in recent weeks. Even so I'm not so sure Burnett should be as big as 13/8 here. He knocked in a couple of decent breaks last night against a dangerous Tony Drago. Day hasn't played a match for a while so Burnett should have a slight advantage in that regard. There will be a genuine upset in tonight's matches and I think Burnett could be the provider of it.

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Re: Snooker: UK Championship Qualifiers Disaster of a day really with all 4 bets losing, Hamilton from 5-4 up and 55-1 up in the decider as well :wall:wall. +0.40 for the qualifying section from this tournament which is a shame after what was in the main a good week.