English Open

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The English Open gets underway today.

Lots of bets for me as usual in this event. It's a big event won by Selby last year. You'd have to say he's playing well enough to be involved again. I like a few in the top half. Bingham was tempting for me but he just lets me down far too much. I'll follow Gould again and chuck a few points at some big outsiders.

2pts E/W J.Higgins to win English Open 16/1 betfred
2pts E/W M.Allen to win English Open 18/1 unibet
1.5pts E/W S.Maguire to win English Open 50/1 unibet
1pt E/W M.Gould to win English Open 66/1 betfred
0.5pts E/W S.Donaldson to win English Open 80/1
0.5pts E/W M.Davis to win English Open 400/1 unibet
0.5pts E/W E.Slessor to win English Open 325/1 betfair
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I'll take Ash Carty to beat O'Donnell this morning. Carty beat him 6-1 the last time they played and has won both h2hs. I'll take lines after his display in the last championship league group. Hill and Clarke are still looking in nice form and I'm not convinced by Bingyu. I'll take a specultive punt on Ochoiski. I would take anybody to beat Ronnie at 18/1 in the 1st round of a tournament because if he can't be bothered he will just go for anything. Fair play.

2.5pts A.Carty to beat M.O'Donnell 13/10 bet365
2.5pts O.Lines to beat N.Saengkham 23/10 bet365
2.5pts A.Hill to beat C.Bingyu 13/10 bet365
4pts J.Clarke to beat A.Carter 13/8 bet365
1pt B.Ochoiski to beat RO'Sullivan 18/1 betfair

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2/5 then but +6.25pts on the night. Ronnie went 2-0 down and it looked very much on until he turned it on and won the next four back-to-back. 

 

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four I like today. All the underdog once again. We've had quite a few shocks or strange result in this event already. I fancy Davis to go deep in this contest and I'll take him to beat Daniel Wells. Two Chinese fellas Jianbo and Yang look decent prospects and they both players who are in sketchy form and worth laying in my opinion. Finally, Ursenbacher looked pretty good in the recent euro event and I'm giving him a chance against Dott.

6pts M.Davis to beat D.Wells 4/6 betfair
2.5pts Z.Jianbo to beat M.White 9/5 betfred
2.5pts A.Ursenbacher to beat G.Dott 21/10 betfred
2.5pts G.Yang to beat K.Filipiak 6/5 bet365
 

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Full house tonight. Looking at tomorrows 2nd round action :

I like Jamie Clarke as a player. Have backed him a couple of times recently and had him winning his previous round but I think Liam Highfield should be favourite against him. These two have never played before. Highfield won 4-0 against Mann but impressively he hit one century and 3 50+ breaks in his 4-0 win. Clarke was scoring very heavily in the European Masters but we've not seen him score well in the last couple of matches.

The other I like is Vafaei to beat Perry. Vafaei has beaten Perry in the last couple of head-to-heads. Vafaei beat Kleckers 4-0 in his previous round and has a decent start to the season whilst Perry hasn't been at his best recently. Finally, I'll go for an accy with 4 players I think has solid claims but at odds I wouldn't normally bother with.

5pts L.Highfield to beat J.Clarke 11/10 bet365
4pts H.Vafaei to beat J.Perry 6/4 bet365
2pt accy - S.Akani / K.Maflin / T.Ford & M.Holt 6/1 betfred

English Open +23pts
Snooker 2020 bets +197.5pts

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* the accy is available at 7/1 with bet365

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small loss of 1pt. Rather annoyingly I had Jak Jones tipped up to beat Lisowski but got rid last minute. Was also close to tipping up Woollaston to beat Bingham but hey ho! Round 2 will be complete in the next hour or so and I'll then have a look at the 3rd round.

English Open +22pts
Snooker 2020 bets +196.5pts

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32 players remain in the English Open and by the end of play tomorrow night we will be down to just 8. Winning players will have to play twice tomorrow, once in the morning/lunch time and then again in the evening.

There's very much a few "50/50" type matches in the line-up and a couple of nice priced outsiders too. The first I like is Jamie Clarke to beat Vafaei. I went against Clarke in the last round and looked pretty silly as he romped a 4-1 win over Highfield. I had Vafaei to beat Perry and he obliged but he was quite fortunate that Perry missed a few easy shots and he's going to have to up his game to win this one

I think it's worth having a punt on Hallworth against McGill. McGill has been lucky enough to get two byes in a row now. First, a bye from Sam Craigie and then Oliver Lines. Oliver Lines would have had a good event this week I'm sure. He basically got kicked out of the event because his dad had Covid. Harsh. Hallworth has been excellent this week and beating Bingtao after dropping a 3-1 lead to 3-3 was character building. One century and 4 50+ breaks in that match. McGill will be coming into this without any real game time here and Hallworths price looks tasty.

In the outright picks I still have Mark Davis going strong although i was hoping he wasn't going to meet Neil Robertson tomorrow. If he can get past Robbo then that half of the draw is wide open. Higgins also looking good and if he can get past Ding tomorrow night then he only has Ronnie and Trump to beat. Ha!

5pts J. Clarke to beat H. Vafaei evens bet365
2.5pts S. Hallworth to beat A. McGill 12/5 betfred
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1pt accy - Grace / Ding / Clarke / R. Williams 16/1 paddypower (money back if one leg loses)
1pt longshot  - Ursenbacher / Grace / Clarke / R. Williams / Hallworth - 55/1 bet365

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Nothing yesterday. Quarter-finals today. John Higgins still going strong as an outright pick. He takes on Jak Jones today and the winner will take on Kyren Wilson or Judd Trump. It's that match that I like today and I fancy Kyren Wilson to come through it. Judd has been 3-1 down a couple of times now. Kyren Wilson was actually somebody I was going to tip up for this event pre-tournament but the odds wasn't good enough. 

4pts K.Wilson to beat J.Trump 7/4 betfair