Tour Championship

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We finally get into a tournament where you can settle down and play snooker instead of playing a "first to 4" bingo match. The Tour Championships get started at 1pm today and the first match is John Higgins taking on Xintong. I think from a tournament perspective, Trump couldn't ask for a better draw :

Xintong/Higgins
Trump/Brecel
O'Sullivan/Williams
Robertson/Allen

However, at a massive 25/1 I just think Brecel has to be taken. Trump isn't playing at his best right now and whilst I think his game will improve for this, 25/1 on Brecel beating Trump. Higgins and Robertson or whomever in the final is a big price. The other that I will take is Neil Robertson. He has lost a few shorter format matches recently, but I do get the feeling he was saving himself alittle for this event. Allen has his own problems at the moment and has just lost out on the 150k prize with John Higgins. Ronnie looks disinterested in the shorter format and may raise his game but I think all in all, I'll take a bet on Robbo with a small each way bet on Brecel and hope for that to be our final.

4pts N.Robertson to win Tour Championship 7/2 paddypower
1pt e/w L.Brecel to win Tour Championship 25/1 paddypower

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today's match then is Xintong taking on Higgins. It's so hard to know what we're going to get with Xintong. He could go out there today and blow Higgins away and win the tournament or he could go out there and get whitewashed. Higgins beat Xintong 6-2 at the Masters, and whilst Xintong may have the upper hand in shorter framed events, I would fancy Higgins in the longer format and especially in the early stages of the tournament. I think he wins with a few frames to spare.

5pts J. Higgins (-1.5 frames) to beat Xintong 4/5 paddypower
4pts Higgins to make 3 or more century breaks 9/4 paddypower