Players Championship 2018

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We've had lots of smaller events last few weeks/months in which Day has won them both. Now we have the top 16 (in terms of money earnt) battling it out, starting tonight.

In the top half, we have Ronnie and to be honest, there isn't too nobody in this half I think will test him so I will look in the other half for a potential winner. I think Kyren Wilson has every chance of beating Murphy tonight, Murphy isn't in the best of form at the moment. He lost to Greene 4-0 and was all over the place whenever he got in in that match and then he withdrew from the Gibraltor tournament with a back/neck problem. With Wilson in decent form recently he has every chance.

Based on that and being in Wales and a nice looking draw I will be taking the following two.

2.5tps E/W M.Williams to win the Players Championship 18/1 William Hill
2pts E/W K.Wilson to win the Players Championship 33/1 Ladbrokes

 

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We can see Murphy is struggling, but Wilson was terrible so I will be looking at Higgins/McGill in that match on Friday but today we have four matches. Outright pick Williams faces Bingtao and I fancy Williams to see that through. Day would be good value against Selby but he has won 2 tournaments in a row and despite Selby being bang out of form, I think it looks a dodgy one that match. I will look at the evening games later but for the afternoon

6pts M.Williams to beat Y.Bingtao 4/6 bet365
Williams has beat Bingtao 2 out of the 3 matches and although the last was a decider in the final, I think he will win this slightly easier today. Bingtao is a future champion I would imagine, but he isn't quite there yet and lacks the cutting edge when the frames get scrappy and needs some good defensive play. Williams to win here 6-3/6-4.

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5pts N.Robertson -2.5 frames to beat L.Brecel 11/10 Paddypower
1pt N.Robertson to lead 3-1 after 4 frames 9/4 Paddypower
Luca's form this year must be a big worry for him. He's been beaten easily alot this season and to weak players. Hammad Miah, Georgiou, Mike Dunn & O'Donnell have all beaten him easily and that's a huge worry for a player who should be top 16 on talent.Robertson won the only h2h with these two 4-0 but it was a while back. Robbos form has picked up since he got fully back into the game after his wifes personal mental issues and I think he can start his campaign here with a bang.

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5.5pts J.Higgins -2.5 frames to beat A.McGill 8/11 Paddypower
2.5pts J.Higgins Highest break/Most 50+ breaks/Win the match Evens Paddypower
Higgins really seems to have McGills number in this match-up. He's beaten him on multiple occasions and 
I just get the feeling this will be another routine win for Higgins, who could go far this week. Higgins
to win 6-2/6-3.

4pts S.Maguire to beat J.Trump 7/4 Betway
2pts Neither player to win 3 consecutive frames 4/1 Paddypower
Trump normally beats Maguire when these two shape up, but based on the form of Trump, I am going to back
Maguire here. This very much has the Selby Vs Day feel to it and I'm hoping for a similar result in that 
form beats talent. I'm also thinking this one may swing abit so am going to take the 3 consc frames bet

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5pts O'Sullivan -2.5 frames to beat Ding 11/10 Skybet
Wow! Pure sh*te today. Mixed with some typically rubbish luck. Tonight, I will take Ronnie on the handicap. I just think he is playing too well and Ding didn't really pull up any trees in his last round match. 
 

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5pts J.Trump to beat N.Robertson 4/5 Ladbrokes
I will go for Trump today. He started the match against Maguire in the best form of the week really and beat Maguire, who played pretty well himself. Robertson gave away 2 frames against Brecel. Literally gave them away, and alot of what he went for went wayward until he went 2-1 down. These 2 have a fairly close h2h but the last match was 2 years ago and both players were different players then. I am taking Trump here to win 6-3/6-4.

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So tonight's match is abit of a quandary for me. I have Williams on the outright, but yet there is far too much value on Ryan Day winning the match. I get the feeling that tonight it will go one of two ways and that is Williams edging it or Day winning it easily and based on that, I am going to take Day on a handicap. Whoever wins this match has a great chance of making the final with Murphy carrying an injury and McGill not playing that great.

3pts R.Day -2.5 frames to beat M.Williams 10/3 Bet365

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Happy to see Williams win that one. I'll take the 3pt hit for that. Looking at today's matches:

4pts A.McGill to beat S.Murphy 6/4 Ladbrokes
0.5pts A.McGill to win 6-1 22/1 Paddypower
I think McGill probably has the edge here. He certainly has a good head-to-head after beating Murphy in the last couple of the matches but also ofcourse, Murphy has his issues with his neck. One thing Wilson didn't do was play good defensive snooker. He let Murphy in far too much and was awful. McGill looked to have that part of his game sharp in the win over Higgins. Higgins helped, but I think the value ofcourse, is with McGill. Very tiny stake on 6-1 as there is a price boost with Paddy. I do not think it's going to be this one-sided, but if the neck is an issue, who knows.

 

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The ginger troll strikes again. 

5pts O'Sullivan -1.5 frames to beat J.Trump 4/5 Skybet
I reckon Ronnie turns up tonight. Let's face it, even though he didn't look like he could be bothered in the first couple frames Vs Ding, he still managed 3/4 centuries. Last time these played Ronnie win with ease, and I fancy a similar kind of result. Most I see Trump getting is 3/4.