Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers

[kevshat]

The qualifying tournament for the German Masters begins on Tuesday morning and runs until Friday. As with all the events now World Snooker's live streaming will be in operation for the event so we will be able to watch a selection of matches. Those who don't subscribe can watch the matches on Bet365's live streaming console among others. Unlike in most major championship qualifiers everyone ranked 33-96 in the world enter in the first round here so there should be some decent bets to be had over the 4 days.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers I'm going to take 2 in the earlier matches on Tuesday. 4pts J.White (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Couch 11/10 Sportingbet Jimmy White is in decent form at the minute as we saw in PTC9 when he led Judd Trump 3-1 before Trump hit the turbo and reeled off the last 3 frames in no time. Given how well he went on to play that weekend it shows how well Jimmy is playing that he took him all the way. I saw Jimmy play both his UK qualifying matches and his scoring really impressed me and even though this is only over the best of 9 frames I can see the Whirlwind winning this match by 2 frames. Matthew Couch is having a horrible season. He's only won two matches since the end of June and has lost to some players worse than Jimmy White. His form and confidence must be pretty low at the minute even if he did beat Jamie Jones a few PTC events ago. Jimmy White wouldn't normally come into the qualifiers in this round where this is the round Couch would enter normally so that shows the gap in form and current ability between the two men so when all is said and done I would expect Jimmy to run out a winner here and a winner no worse than 5-3. 4pts Y.Delu to beat B.Pinches 10/11 Skybet Anyone who has followed me in the PTC events will know I've taken on Barry Pinches a few times. He's having an awful season and hasn't won a match since the Shanghai Masters qualifiers at the beginning of August. That's a long time to go without a win especially with the plethora of PTC events which have been since then. Yu Delu set his stall out for the season from an early stage. He beat Matthew Stevens in the Wuxi Classic right at the beginning of the season and went on to make 2 PTC quarter finals around that time too. In PTC8 a few weeks ago he proved that form was no fluke as he made it to the last 16 there. He almost qualified for the Australian Open where it took Ryan Day in good form to stop him so the youngster from China knows how to play these qualifying events and with his form and confidence high, in stark contrast to Barry Pinches who must be wondering if he's ever going to win again, I will take the Chinese player to make it into the second round of qualifying here.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Was hoping I'd know the results of those two to add a P/L going into tonights matches but that's not the case so I'll go with tonight's bets and stick up the P/L at the end of the night. I'm going with 3 this evening, one of which - Drago, is on the live streaming table. 4pts J.Jones (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Norman 5/6 Apollo Bet I quite like the up and coming Welsh player in this match. He's been in decent form this season with quarter final results in 3 of the 9 PTC tournaments as well as a win over Jimmy White in the recent UK Championships. He's a really strong scorer and they are the sort of players I like backing in these qualifiers where many of the players need various chances to win frames. Andrew Norman hasn't had the kind of season he would have expected and most of his wins have come against players you would expect him to beat as opposed to Jamie Jones who has two wins over Graeme Dott on his record this season to name but two. Andrew Norman will need to up his game quite a bit to cope with Jones here but I don't see it happening and think Jones will win this no worse than 5-3. 4pts M.Dunn to beat K.Maflin 5/6 Sportingbet In the past month or so I've taken Mike Dunn on quite a bit in the PTC events and things but that was down to his health issues rather than his form but he showed signs last week in Antwerp that his health and his form were coming back to some kind of normality when he beat Mark Williams and Jamie Cope. Kurt Maflin has popped up all season long with some gritty performances and has rarely gone down easily but when Dunn is playing to form he is considerably better than the Norwegian and would normally come into these qualifiers at lot further down the line. I think Dunn will win this if he shows the form he showed in Antwerp. 3pts T.Drago (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Wicheard 11/10 Blue Square Tony Drago is playing to a decent enough standard at the minute and he rarely loses to players around him or lower in the rankings like Adam Wicheard is. Up until the recent UK Championship qualifiers, Wicheard was on a long losing run and even in the UK's he only beat Paul Davison which isn't a massive boost for a deteriorating form book. Ordinarily Drago would be in a round or two after Wicheard in qualifying but given the nature of this particular qualifying event Drago begins at the same level as Wicheard but I think the Maltese man is playing well enough to not only win this and win it 5-3 at the worst.

[BIG X]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Great stuff Kev :clap :clap God knows what was going on in that last frame. :unsure

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Cheers mate. Barry Pinches matches often go like that :lol. Only the one winner from the five bets on Tuesday and that was the lowest staked one so a nice +11.74pt day to start the qualifiers off with. Going with 4 in the first two sessions on Wednesday which is the final day of first round matches. The first 3 are in the 10am session and Hamilton kicks off at 2.30. 4pts J.Wattana to beat P.Suwannawat 5/6 Bet365 James Wattana has had a decent enough season overall and I've seen enough of both this season to believe Wattana will win this all Thai battle. Suwannawat may well be a little daunted playing someone who is no doubt one of his idols. I saw Suwannawat play Jimmy White in the UK Championship qualifiers and while he showed glimpses of promise the amount of blacks he missed off the spot was incredible and he pretty much handed Jimmy that game. Even though Wattana is unlikely to win frames in one visit you can't afford to miss blacks off the spot against him. Passakorn Suwannawat had a decent win over Joe Jogia in the last PTC but his form still isn't what I would call great at the minute. James Wattana has already qualified for a major tournament this season when he came through the Shanghai Masters qualifiers and it was only two PTC's ago that he picked up a win over Mark Williams so the Thaiphoon remains in good form clearly. I think when all is said and done in this match Wattana will have too much for his younger countryman. 4pts N.Bond (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Pagett 10/11 Apollo Bet Nigel Bond will be out for a bit of revenge on Andrew Pagett in this match after Pagett beat him in a deciding frame in the World Championship qualifiers last season. Since then though Pagett has fallen away somewhat and isn't having a very good season at all really. He's won the odd game here and there, but in the main they've been matches you would expect him to win but he's lost some matches you would expect him to win too. Nigel Bond is another having an up and down season but the difference with Nigel is two things, firstly he's so experienced that he knows which events to peak for and which ones he can go easy in and secondly Bond is one of the better players in this round of qualifying. Normally he wouldn't be entering for another couple of rounds yet and that emphasises both how good Bond is and how much Pagett has fallen away in the rankings. Given Pagett's form over the course of the season I think taking Bond to win this and win it no worse than 5-3 looks a smart play particularly at the odds available. 3pts A.Mehta to beat L.Wenbo 7/4 Bet365 I'm going to have a small play on the Indian in this match. Regular readers and followers of my bets over the course of this season will know that Liang Wenbo is one who I like to take on when I can because the only consistent thing about him is his inconsistency. The one thing I always feel with Liang Wenbo is when his game is even 1% off he's in trouble because his aggressive approach leaves him wide open to beatings off good scorers. In Aditya Mehta he faces a good scorer here. Mehta has made 6 centuries this season already which is no mean feat given the level at which he plays at and which his ranking is at. He comes into this match off the back of an eye catching season which has seen him make it all the way to the final qualifying round for the Shanghai Masters from the first round, an event where it took Ryan Day to stop him and just last week he made a quarter final in the PTC in Antwerp and among his victims in that event were Matthew Stevens, Luca Brecel and Matthew Selt who are all good scalps. He also has wins over Ryan Day and Ali Carter in previous PTC's this season so he's very much someone who can play the game. Given that he comes into this match off the back of an excellent run in Antwerp and given Liang is likely to play right into his hands I think the 7/4 on the Indian is well worth a small play here. 4pts A.Hamilton (-2.5 frames) to beat D.Hogan 10/11 Apollo Bet Anthony Hamilton has been in good form for a while now and I fully expect him to win this and win it quite well. David Hogan is ranked down in 90th place in the world rankings and Hamilton is up at 34 and that's a big difference in terms of ability. It means that Hamilton would normally be coming in two rounds later than this. Hogan has been struggling to win matches in the first qualifying rounds of ranking events let alone win a match against someone two rounds beyond him in a normal event. In fact in total Hogan has actually only won two matches all season which isn't a great return for someone who has played every event. Hamilton made it to the quarter finals of the Shanghai Masters where he beat Ronnie O'Sullivan along the way and he also reached the last 32 of PTC7 which included a win over Neil Robertson so we know the Sheriff is playing well, he always scores heavily, that's one of the trademarks of his game, and so I fully expect him to have way too much for the Irishman here and I see the man from Nottingham, now based in London and practicing with Ronnie O'Sullivan I believe, to win this and win it no worse than 5-2.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Poor day so far. Will update the totals at the end of the day as the evening session starts soon. I'm going with 2 bets in that. 4pts L.Yan to beat A.McGill 5/6 Paddy Power Li Yan is going really well at the minute. He qualified for the UK Championships despite starting off at a lowly stage in the qualifiers and hasn't lost his opening match in any of the qualifying events this season. He's also beaten John Higgins, Mark Williams and Judd Trump in the PTC events this season and forced Neil Robertson to a deciding frame too so he's clearly another one of the Chinese youngsters with a huge future in the game. Anthony McGill made it to the semi final of PTC3 but he hasn't done much since then losing in his first or second match of each event since then and generally getting annoyed with his results as he's losing to players he should beat. Li Yan has no such frustrations though. In his run to the UK Championship a couple of weeks ago he beat Jack Lisowski and Fergal O'Brien which are a couple of good scalps and I think he'll open up his German Masters campaign with a win over McGill this evening. 4pts L.Brecel to beat J.Swail 5/6 Blue Square Joe Swail is another one who is having a horrendous season, something I've taken advantage of a few times already this campaign. He's lost his last 5 competitive matches and has only been past the last 64 of an event once. In those last 5 matches he's lost, he's won only one frame or less in three of them so it's fair to saw 'the Outlaw' is out of form. Luca Brecel has all the talent in the world but over the last few weeks he's added results to that talent too. He's made it to the last 32 of the last two PTC tournaments and his morale and confidence looks to be on the upturn. He's already came past a highly competent Daniel Wells in qualifying this week by a 5-1 scoreline which highlights how well he is playing and I think a repeat of that will see him past Swail this evening.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers That wasn't a nice day at all. Hamilton being 4-2 up and only getting the job done 5-3 and Li Yan being 2-0 up and losing 5-3 being the biggest disappointments. Only Wattana winning to show from a woeful Wednesday which returned -15.66 for an overall total now of -3.92pts. Hoping the form book is returned ahead of Thursday where there are five I like in the morning and afternoon sessions. 5pts J.White (-1.5 frames) to beat S.Carrington 4/5 Sportingbet Jimmy White came through his first match comfortably and he couldn't have asked for a better opponent to make it into the final qualifying round where he could set up a match against Peter Ebdon. White beat Matthew Couch 5-3 from 2-1 down and I would expect him to do a job on Stuart Carrington here too. Carrington's win over Joe Jogia in the first round of this event was just the second win he has managed this season so he can't be coming in with a lot of confidence this week. That win may well have boosted his feelings and coming through a deciding frame can often make a player feel good but he's going to have to up his game here because Jimmy White is playing pretty well. He scored breaks of 120 and 53 in his win over Couch which shows that he's playing well and scoring well and if he scores well here he should win this comfortably as Carrington isn't going to win many frames in one visit. Rather than take the 4/9 on Jimmy to win I'm more than happy to take him to win this no worse than 5-3 at a bigger price. I think he'll win this 5-1 or 5-2 but no worse than 5-3. 4pts S.Davis to beat R.Milkins 11/10 Sportingbet Steve Davis is playing some lovely snooker at the minute and I was a bit surprised he dropped three frames to Joe Meara in the first round here but the match got a bit bitty and scrappy which never helped matters. What I like about the Nuggets game at the minute is how well he's scoring. He made it into the semi finals of the PTC event in Warsaw and has flourished since then making it to the World Seniors final and qualifying for the UK Championships. Robert Milkins made it into the Shanghai Masters and performed well when he got their but his season has gone a bit flat in recent tournaments. He hasn't beaten anyone other than an amateur in the last four PTC events although he did qualify for the UK Championships. The key to this match will be if Davis can continue his scoring because Milkins does give chances. His fast, erratic style always lends itself to the wrong shot or a silly miss now and again and with Davis' safety game a given if he can take full advantage of the chances he is left I expect him to win this match and set up a meeting with Joe Perry in the final qualifier. 3pts S.Craigie (-1.5 frames) to beat D.Grace 11/10 Apollo Bet Sam Craigie is another player who has been making a name for himself on the circuit and he almost qualified for the Australian Open earlier in the season. He has wins over Dave Harold, Barry Hawkins and Tom Ford to his name in the PTC events this season which shows he's capable of beating good quality players. His 5-1 win over Jack Lisowski in the first round of the qualifying for the German Masters on Tuesday also shows he can play the game too. Craigie ran in breaks of 86, 103 and 84 in that match too. Before David Grace beat Mark Joyce on Tuesday, he only had one win over a professional since PTC3 which was back in August. That win came in the UK Championship qualifiers but he lost in the next round and I expect him to suffer the same fate here too. Craigie and Grace have qualifying history already this season with Craigie beating Grace in the opening qualifying round for the Australian Open. He won that match 5-1 and with the form he is in I expect him to win this no worse than 5-3. 4pts R.McLeod (-1.5 frames) to beat L.Song 11/10 Apollo Bet Rory McLeod is delivering a reputation for being slow and boring but nobody can argue with his form in the qualifying events where he actually plays a lot more fluently than he does when he gets to the events in front of the TV cameras. He's been one of the best non-TV players for a while and has already qualified for the Australian Open, where he beat Peter Ebdon when he got there, and the UK Championships this season. He also made the quarter final in PTC2 which shows he's more than competent at this level. Liu Song hasn't done a great deal this season. The only time he's won two matches back to back was in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers where he lost in the round he would normally face McLeod in. Song has already failed to qualify for Australia and the UK Championship and I think his German Masters hopes end here too. Rory McLeod is the best ranked player in the opening two rounds of this qualifying event and I expect him to live up to that ranking and win this no worse than 5-3. 4pts M.Dunn (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Wicheard 5/6 Apollo Bet I don't really need to add too much to what I wrote about both men in the first round. Wicheard cost me a bet in that round but Tony Drago missed a lot of shots in that match, something I don't think Mike Dunn will do in the form he is in. When he is fit and healthy, and the signs are very much than he is both again now, Mike Dunn is good enough to push the top 32 rankings and he showed that in his opening match against Kurt Maflin when he made a 147 on his way to a 5-0 win. Having been ill and missed some tournaments Dunn is playing catch up so he'll be double eager to win this match and the next and get back to another venue. Adam Wicheard hasn't done a lot this season but to be fair to him he did put in a 121 against Tony Drago but Drago does leave himself wide open when he misses shots. Mike Dunn is more tactically astute and he scores heavily when he gets the chances. He's another who I think will progress and do so without losing more than 3 frames.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Better afternoon. Will update P/L at the close of play as the evening session begins soon. 3pts A.Hicks to beat A.McManus 6/5 Skybet Andy Hicks comes into this match in decent enough form. He's beaten Mark Selby in two of the last three PTC tournaments and that's not easy to do. Until he beat Cao Yupeng in the first round here he hadn't won a qualifying match this season but having won that I fancy him to win this too. Alan McManus is having a really good season himself. He's made a couple of PTC quarter finals and is playing some good snooker but a lot of his wins have come against players you would expect him to beat, young players making their way in the game who can be bullied in the safety department. Andy Hicks won't be bullied in that department and he'll probably outscore Angles too. Hicks has played a match in the qualifiers this week whereas McManus had a walkover in the first round so Hicks could just be a little bit sharper early doors which makes the 6/5 look a touch of value to me.

[bouver]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Jamie Jones to beat Andrew Higginson 2.5 Paddypower Jamie Jones is getting an incredible price here. In my opinion this match should be evens at max, maybe even Jones as slight favourite. Jones saw off the dangerous PTC 3 winner Ben Woollaston and did it in fasion with some nice breaks and a cracking 137... He hasn’t qualyfied for a ranking event yet this season but i feel this is the time. Higginson lost 6-2 in the final qualifying round of the uk against Steve Davis and I saw Davis play today against Milkins and he couldn’t make a break above 20. He was awful. This is what Davis said after his match with Higginson: It was pretty nervy and horrible! It was a bit of an ugly one and while I think that I was all over the place, especially at the start, he was more all over the place. I wouldn’t say that it was a comedy of errors but we really struggled out there to get any fluency. But it’s quite a nerve-wracking match, not least because you want to get to the main event and also it should be easier for me having had one match.' So the bookies purely put Higginson a favourite based on expererience but if u go with current form and match rhythm and hoping Jones doesn’t choke completely , with these odds Jones is a must pick for me. I'm backing Jones with great confidence in this one! Adrian Gunnell to beat Marco Fu 2.62 Paddypower Gunnell has hit a nice veign of form qualifying for the UK championship with a 6-4 victory over Joe Perry and in this tournament wins over Sam Baird 5-1 and Jimmy Robertson 5-0. He is scoring very heavily and has the confidence to take Fu out of this championships. Fu’s form is quite a mystery as he is switching between good and bad matches this season. He has qualified for the UK with a hardfought victory over Hamilton but at these odds I always have to go with Gunnell as I see this as a fifty-fifty match. For me these are the two most interesting matches of the morning session. GL all!

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Better day on Thursday with 4 of my 6 bets winning giving me a 6.24pt profit on the day leaving me +2.32 overall. Taking two in the morning session on Friday. 4pts Y.Delu to beat J.Cope 11/8 Paddy Power Yu Delu looks a decent enough price to me. He's came through a couple of tough matches firstly beating Barry Pinches from 4-2 down and then winning against Alfie Burden in the second round and winning that quite well as Burden is no mug. Jamie Cope is having an awful season by his standards so far. He hasn't been beyond the 3rd round of a PTC tournament and he's lost in the first round of three of them and also lost his UK Championship qualifier earlier in the month to Joe Jogia which really doesn't do a lot for his confidence or his morale. I think Yu Delu could be advantaged by having a couple of matches on the tables this week already and given that we know he is playing well whereas it's hard to believe Cope is playing all that well I'll take the China youngster, who has done well on the tour this year, to make it all the way to Germany in this match. 4pts P.Ebdon to beat J.White 8/11 Skybet I like Peter Ebdon in this match. Although Jimmy White has gone well this season he still struggles when he comes up against the better players in the game and despite losing his top 16 place Ebdon is still a decent player. The one thing Jimmy will have going for him this week is the fact he's played a couple of matches but from what I've seen of those matches they've been a bit of a struggle even though he did put together a ton against Matthew Couch in the first round. It's hard to see this being a fluent match, they rarely are with Ebdon involved but I think that will suit Ebdon as he'll be able to get the conditions and the pace of the table quickly enough if he's playing plenty of shots. Ebdon didn't qualify for the UK Championship so he'll be eager to make up for that here. We've seen in the Premier League that Jimmy White can be outclassed at the top level and while Ebdon might not be at that standard he is close enough to it to allow me to believe it will be him booking his flights for Germany when this one is done and dusted.

[bouver]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers It's a pitty Jones didn't perform today. He had some chances. Luckily Adrian Gunnell made up for it so still some profit. For this afternoon i really like Dunn against King. Dunn has played some classy snooker this week as proves the 147. King wonders off in patches and i think Dunn will take full advantage of that.

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Nice start to the day with two winners this morning. Two more for me this afternoon. 4pts M.Dunn to beat M.King 5/4 Boylesports Mike Dunn has played some lovely snooker this week and hasn't lost a frame yet. As I said earlier in the week when his fitness and health issues are behind him he's a very good player and he has shown that this week not just with his 147 but a string of other frame winning breaks. Mark King is having a solid enough season and his ranking was given a real boost in Shanghai when he made the semi finals of the Shanghai Masters earlier in the season but his form has dipped slightly since then and given that he's never the most reliable in terms of winning frames in one visit then I think the way Dunn is break building this week he has to have every chance here. King will probably try and make this scrappy but Dunn has mentioned that on twitter so you feel he'll be prepared for it and whichever way the match pans out I think Mike Dunn can be the one booking his flights to Germany when this match is done. 4pts S.Hendry (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Wattana 10/11 Sportingbet Stephen Hendry showed in his UK qualifying match against Gerard Greene that he isn't worried about having to play in the qualifiers and even though his ranking has slipped and he's had a quiet couple of seasons he's still much better than Wattana as a player. James Wattana is having something of a rejuvenation this season but he still isn't clinical in terms of winning frames in one visit like Hendry is and that's why Hendry shouldn't fear these qualifiers too much. Now that he's in them though it's important he uses them for solid match practice and wins his matches to enhance his ranking so he'll be all out for winning this one. I think the Scot will win this as I think he'll have way too much for Wattana and I see Hendry winning this no worse than 5-3.

[bouver]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers I fully agree with your Dunn analysis, but your hendry bet is bit dangerous especially with the handicap...Wattana hasn't played bad this week and to win with two frames i'm defenitely not sure about that. GL though!

[PerryPFC]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers

I fully agree with your Dunn analysis' date=' but your hendry bet is bit dangerous especially with the handicap...Wattana hasn't played bad this week and to win with two frames i'm defenitely not sure about that. GL though![/quote'] This analysis would've been useful if it wasn't posted about an hour into the match when Wattana was 2-1 up!

[bouver]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers

This analysis would've been useful if it wasn't posted about an hour into the match when Wattana was 2-1 up!

It was 1-1 with hendry at the table :D Would have posted the same if i saw it sooner...dangerous to back hendry these days... Unlucky though!

[kevshat]

Re: Snooker: German Masters Qualifiers Small profit from the afternoon. One for the final evening of qualifying. 4pts R.Day (-1.5 frames) to beat A.McGill 4/5 Apollo Bet Ryan Day won his UK Championship qualifier 6-0 against Jamie Burnett and I expect him to win this quite comfortably tonight too. To be fair to Anthony McGill, who has had a decent return to form this week, he made a ton against Adam Duffy yesterday but he still conceded 4 frames to the youngster and I don't believe a repeat of that performance will be enough here. Ryan Day is a good qualifier in the main. His aggressive scoring and pretty solid safety when he needs to play it make him a match for anyone at this level and his experience is often crucial. Day isn't having a bad season. He's made a few PTC finals days including a quarter final in PTC2 and is in decent form. Coming into this week since making the semi final of PTC3 this is the first time Anthony McGill has won two matches in succession but I don't believe he'll win a third. I think Day will be too good for him here and I expect Day to win and expect him to win quite comfortably. I'll take the Welshman to win 5-3 at worst.