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Your not looking at rankings wrong at all, just forgetting that ronald is top seed as defending champ!
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so who is #2 seed or whats the 1-16 for crucible?
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#2 seed for the cruce will be judd
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ah right,yeah robbo and ronnie in same half of draw then along with ding,allen,higgins and maguire
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Robbo will move up to 3 after he finishes this off. In same half of draw as judd.
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yeah he's playing well
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The seeds line up for Sheffield as follows:
(1) R.O'Sullivan v Qualifier (16) A.McGill v Qualifier (9) Ding Junhui v Qualifier (8) S.Maguire v Qualifier (5) J.Higgins v Qualifier (12) M.Williams v Qualifier (13) M.Allen v Qualifier (4) M.Selby v Qualifier (3) N.Robertson v Qualifier (14) J.Lisowski v Qualifier (11) B.Hawkins v Qualifier (6) K.Wilson v Qualifier (7) S.Murphy v Qualifier (10) Yan Bingtao v Qualifier (15) D.Gilbert v Qualifier (2) J.Trump v Qualifier Just 19 to go. |
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Very even draw this year i think. Usually get a softer half but looks fairly evenly spread down the field. Probably go for judds draw over ronnies at a push but it's marginal enough really.
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foulds gave allen a shout at a price on itv last night,could easily come through that quarter,trump and ronnie to win their quarters will be a popular banker double
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cheers for that gobelins
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Here's a really interesting interview with N.Robertson, which explains how he's been feeling and why he's missed some events this season. I'm not sure exactly when it took place, but it is very recent. You'll need to copy the link into your browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HCDHXYviHM |
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that hair is absolutely terrible isnt it !
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good interview,probably should have more than one world title by now,playing as well as ever but you need luck and the best player doesnt always win
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Interesting stuff gobe. Particularly the bit where he says he's tended to get done in the past by players grinding him down. I don't know how that would apply to rob milkins though, who's beaten him twice. Milkins has never ground anyone down in his whole career. Or fu or Holt for that matter. They're just players he shouldn't lose to, full stop.
That said, robbo is a good lad and certainly wouldn't begrudge him a second title. May be mentally in a good place so definitely thinking he's got a big chance this year. No more excuses about conditions or bad tables. |
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MJW's played some unbelievable balls-out snooker today - hardly missing a thing. Definitely too big at 50.
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Lot worse bets than mjw i reckon. Was considering it a couple of weeks back when he was around 70-75 i think but didn't pull the trigger. When you consider the price of the likes of butcher and allen, there's nowt wrong with it at all.
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Actually i see that butcher has understandably drifted now he has to qualify, he's twice the price of mjw. Not too long ago it was almost exactly the other way around.
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Seems I spoke too soon about today! MJW loses from 2-0 up and quite a few up in the third
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But, yeah, he's still quite a bit too big, by my reckoning.
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gj - I took a look at those 2 Robertson defeats to Milkins, and after the first of them Robertson said it was the best safety he'd faced all season, if not ever! And, there were lots of tight frame scores. Milkins said himself that a lot of his improved form, that season, was down to his improved safety play. Maybe this defeat contributed to Robertson's belief that he needed to have a better safety/all-round game to compete at The Crucible. Let's face it Rob Milkins isn't exactly renowned for his tactical excellence is he? In the 2nd match, Robertson played poorly, and had changed his tip just prior to the match starting. Since his defeat to Selby in last year's Crucible QF, Robertson has repeatedly spoken about playing the game on his own terms, and not being drawn into long tactical exchanges. In previous World Championships, I've always felt that if Robertson didn't get away in front early on, he could be drawn into these long tactical exchanges - which is why I was surprised he pulled away from Wenbo and Hawkins the way he did last year - although, in fairness, Robertson was flattered by both winning margins. He was very positive throughout the Tour Championship last week, and his absence from lots of events since The Masters, whether partially or fully through how he was feeling mentally looks a big positive for him now.
I do agree that MJW still look over-priced, but that is one incredibly tough-looking quarter. |
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not played on snooker for most of the season but fck me i am going heads down on a match in qualifiers waiting for more money to come up on here
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Since his defeat to Selby in last year's Crucible QF, Robertson has repeatedly spoken about playing the game on his own terms, and not being drawn into long tactical exchanges.
That's the key right there i think. I think he's been saying it for longer than a year tbh, it's not as easy to do as to say. We can talk about milkins or whoever else it is that beats him, end of day it's more about robbo himself and his retreat to a negative mentality that is to blame. It's not his opponent who forces him to play all those negative safety shots that do nothing but hand the initiative over almost every time. If he avoids that, like he's been doing in tour champs, uk etc, then he's got a serious chance. I still believe there's a chance he'll relapse into old ways. The crucible has a habit of doing that, but we'll see. As for milkins, have to say rob is one of my favourite guys on tour, top bloke and awaits willing to speak his mind, guessing he's racked up a nice collection of fines by now. Also, can be near unplayable when he hits his stride which is all to rare but great to watch when he does. Should have made top 16 and won tournaments, bit of a wasted talent like tom ford. |
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That's the conundrum with him I suppose. Like you, I can't help but think he'll probably revert to type at some point when he's put under the cosh. But, he looks in a good place now and maybe he won't feel that self-imposed pressure at Sheffield quite as intensely this year. At the Tour Championship it looked like he felt he could play with freedom, but will he be able to keep that mindset when it gets tight or his opponent is on top at The Crucible? I wonder.
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yes gjohn , he said this before last world champs, for me he and selby want to play the perfect shot all the time, rather just get on with it, 2 weeks to go
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I thought Hendry would be favourite against White
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Think it would be a bit of a shock if hendry won,whites still capable of knocking in 50s every frame given chances, i can see hendry having a couple of big breaks but missing loads of easy balls,you wouldn't wat to stake your life on it but if white plays well and hendry doesn't he could win easily.
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I know it’s only the first round of qualifying, but I have to admit to been quite excited at the prospect
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ive got butterflies
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There's some truly horrific matches in this first qualifying round. I was really excited about today until I looked at the line-up last night...
As for Jimmy being capable of knocking in 50s every frame when given chances, he's made 1x 50 in every 5 frames played over the course of this season, ie exactly the same as Hendry made against Selt (who was brilliant on the night). Not saying Hendry will win, but Jimmy isn't all that. |
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7 to go
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bingham 110s, , im having a bit more i think
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Just 5 to go now elis, and Ballrun steps up to the plate today. He'd be the qualifier none of the seeds want to draw, if he makes it - but given his current form, he's got to get there first.
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yes , cant wait
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big match tomorrow, bingham 1/2, v brecel 13/8 365.
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bingham came down from 100s to 70s after yesterday, so if he wins tomorrow itll be in the 30s id say, and to think that i backed him at 40s end of january
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great win for bingham yesterday, cant wait for saturday morning, draw 11.00 this morning , ronnie v bingham to open ? or even ronnie v carter ?
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someone mentioned on another thread, where are all these new kids on the block that hearn and davis keep going on about, agree , most of these 32 are nearer 50 than 30 ,
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Was playing around looking at the numbers across the whole season v since Jan 1st last night.
On that, Jamie Jones should be the rag (and by a distance), followed by Joyce, Liang, Kurt & Highfield. Perhaps no real shocks there. The next one is slightly surprising, though: Tubbs! Dave's numbers are pretty consistent across the year, but they're way off what those at the head of the betting have been doing. At the other end of the spectrum, Judd leads the way, followed by Big Boy (slightly surprising to me because he hasn't seemed to play very well since his Masters win), Ronald, Shon (!), Lyu (!), Robbo, Mags, Ding (who always scores well but tends to do far call results-wise), Ali, JB, LTT, Wakelin (!), 2Pt/Kyren. Spots 4-14 are covered little more than by a decent-sized horse blanket, though. So seeds I reckon the qualifiers should be looking to draw are Selby (definitely vulnerable first round and scoring well into the second half of the field since Jan), Tubbs (not played well this year and doesn't like Star tables) & Dave (who even on his best form is likely to find a few too good). And a couple of rags who could give you a run at big prices are Lyu & Wakelin. Think there's value in Mags & (though to a lesser-extent) Shon. Not sure I'll be back in time for the draw itself, but I look forward to seeing who's got who! |
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Was hoping to see a market up for the draw and how often rob says "that's brutal." I'd have the spread at 15.5.
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Ronnie v captain
Allen v joyce 2 potential grudge matches anyway and sure there must be at least one other involving selt. |