Players Championship

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We go straight into the Players Championship. Missing the reigning champion, Neil Robertson. All abit strange really but here is the line up :

Allen vs O'Connor
Brecel vs Lisowski
Carter vs Trump
Milkins vs Ford
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K.Wilson vs Yuelong
Ding vs G.Wilson
Selby vs Murphy
Day vs Wakelin

Ofcourse after a long week and weekend of snooker at the Welsh Open, both Rob Milkins and Shaun Murphy are going to feel tired but to be fair, it's only 2 and half hours down the road from Llandudno to Wolverhampton, and in my opinion, both have half decent draws. The bottom half is particulary open. Day is not playing good enough and so in my mind, the winner of Selby/Murphy probably plays Kyren Wilson in a semi-final. I think they beat him, too. Ding is the one who I have a bit of a feeling about but at 8/1 no thank you!

I think Shaun is worth sticking with. I would go with him and Selby really but 6/1 on Selby is too short right now. His form is abit up and down to say the least. In the top half alot will depend on Mark Allen. He was brilliant other than the loss to Milkins and in all likelyhood it was the knowing that he would win alot of money and how much he needed it. However, again, is 11/2 a good price for him to beat Brecel/Lisowski and then Trump/Milkins and then Selby/Murphy. Debatable.

I can't be touching Brecel or Lisowski and so I want somebody at the top from those other 4. It's hard to know what happens with Milkins in this event. It's so rare that a players goes and wins and then goes and does it again or continues the form. Especially when the player isn't a name at the top of the seeds. I think Tom Ford is worth a chance this week. Made a semi-final of this event back in 2012 and hasn't qualified for it since 2015. His form at the German Masters was good. He beat Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski there before going out to eventual champion Ali Carter. If he beats Milkins, who could well be hungover then he will likely face Trump. He has won the last 2 head to heads against Trump and Trump isn't even hitting any form right now.

Part of me wants to add Milkins again purely because nobody in this field screams at me as a likely winner. If I had a gun to my head I would say Allen but I'm going for value as always.

2pts S.Murphy to win Players Championship 12/1 betvictor
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1pt e/w R.Milkins to win Players Championship 33/1 paddypower
1pt e/w T.Ford to win Players Championship 40/1 paddypower
0.5pts e/w C.Wakelin to win Players Championship 80/1 paddypower

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I'm going to have one bet for tonight. Chris Wakelin has been in good form recently. prior to that Shootout win he had qualified for the 6-red World Championship and beat 4 players along the way. Decent players too such as Gary Wilson, Yupeng and Mertens. He won that Shootout and then has won 5 from 7 after that, with a deep run at the German Masters and beating Robertson (lost to Milkins) and then losing out on the Welsh to Gilbert. Gilbert played well in that match though (1 century, 2 50+ breaks in a 4-2 win)

All in all in 2023 he has played 11 matches and won 9. If you count the Shootout it's 18 played and 16 won.

He plays Ryan Day tonight and I'm just not convinced by Days form. Started the year great and got to the last 16 of the European Masters before that elusive ranking win. The British Open. Beating Mark Allen in the final. Since then though it's just gone abit flat. Early exits at the NI Open, COC, UK Championships and even when he has gone abit further he hasn't beaten any players of note. He has also lost to the likes of Zhengyi, Woollaston, Craigie. Out in R1 of the 6-red to Fraser Patrick 6-2, r1 of the German Masters to Michael White and then r1 of the Welsh to Carrington.

The 6/4 on Wakelin looks a good bet. +1.5 is evens knocking about.

4pts Wakelin to beat Day 6/4 paddypower