UK Championship Preview

I was taken by Mark Selby’s performance yesterday – three centuries in his four frames against Donaldson. He is in the opposite half of the draw to Trump and has an easyish quarter with Ding and Robertson both a bit in and out. You know you’ll get application from him whatever happens and this could be his week. I also like the chances of Liang Wenbo at a price. By all accounts he is flying (in patches) – destroyed Murphy the other day (Murphy said he was buzzing) and beat Ding easily yesterday. So my two against the field are:

Mark Selby @ 12/1
Liang Wenbo @ 100/1

Interesting you should pick selby,i think he could go in round 1 against michael white,a young man who has great potential,4s a massive price for me.Will also be backing luca brecel to take out rickie walden @6/4,and a nibble @80s in the outrights.

Round 1 treble;
White bt selby@4s
Gould bt dott@5/4
Brecel bt walden@6/4

Outright
Luca brecel @80.

Bring it on!









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mark allen all the way,gutsiest player on the circuit

Michael White's form has actually dropped off in the last month or so.  He had the easiest possible draw to qualify for the UK (beat Steadman and Doherty) and has lost to Scott Donaldson (0-4) and the amateur Fraser Patrick (2-5) in the last week.  He won't beat Selby in round one.

i cant believe you are saying that selby has a good draw. he has a nightmare draw. he has the potential banans skin in r 1 but then he has to beat ding and robertson just to get to the semis, where higgins or allen will be waiting. if he wins he will have done it the hard way. you cant really back anyone from q4, surely. higgins simply has to be the call

Ding couldn't beat a pillow right now and Robertson was shocking in his most recent outing.  Selby's draw looks hard on paper but in my view it is easier than it looks.  And his price reflects the draw.  For the last two seasons he has been between a 6/1 an 9/1 chance for events.  You can get him at 12/1+ here.

Hardly call ken an easy draw!Watched the match and white was very impressive.Those PTC events can be taken with a grain of salt,always get strange scores.Selby for me has gone steadily backwards year on year,injury partly to blame.The cream usually comes to the top in this event but i would be in no rush to back the jester.Trump easily the most likely winner for me,with the thunder the next best.
Really looking forward to see how brecel handles the occasion.Some talent,maybe better than judd,and a lot younger.

Yep should be a great week, really looking forward to it.  And good to have a bit of interest on here too!

Very true,this place been like a morgue of late.Still rather it be the best of 17 right the way through,don't seem right,maybe im just turning into an old foegy!!

agree,should never have touched the UK format,hope they dont interfere with Sheffield

I always enjoy visiting Snookerbacker's site and reading through what he has to offer, so many thanks for that.

From the betting perspective, there are few players I consider backing in the outright for a trade - Wenbo, Maguire, Higgins and Walden. Whether I'm crazy or not you may ask. Higgins is the only one out of those I expect to win the whole thing or at least reach the semis. Maguire the dark horse even if he would have to overcome the not-so-fast play of O'Brien and then deal with either in-form Bingham or unpredictable Lisowski. It probably isn't the best choice as he would face Trump in the quarters but I think that if he gets there he might get a confidence boost and trouble Trump.

Whether I do back them or not, that's the question. I might just stick to what has been usually the profiting strategy - to back the underdog pre-match in almost all cases, regardless of what I know or don't know about the form of the players coming into each of those matches.

SELBY