quite staggering that Joyce is approaching nearly £500,000 career earnings without having played at the Crucible.

Bad draw for Ding and Jack. Carter looked pretty on it last week, not the best match up for jack i think.

If Maflins in form, then selby have his hands full there. Wakelin & Lyu have chances. Ronnie & judd done alright, robbo too.

I don't want to put a downer on it but I assume if anyone tests pos for covid they have to drop out?
If I back someone due to play say on weds and they test pos for it earlier, do I lose my money?
TIA

Ronnie dropped a whole point since the draw. No way i he could ever lose to a crucible rookie first round of course

Allen, selby, smurph all sub 1.3, very short  Gilbert round 1.4 mark short too.

The 2021 Embassy World Snooker champion 9/10 to beat Ricky Walden

daq and betway refunded on trump , betfair didnt

i actually laid trump in that masters  on here and had a back with the 2 i mentioned, so was a real nice bonus for me

It'll be an ever better price when he takes out the 6 times World Champion in R2 gj

Have you had a look yet gj? It's a funny draw isn't it? The 'big 5' - if I can call them that - appear to have avoided the really dangerous qualifiers. Lisowski must be fuming at the draw, even as a seed he's had bad draws here.

I've had a nightmare trying to get on the forum over the past couple of days - it kept telling me to log in, when I clearly had! I've changed my browser now, so hopefully I'll be OK now?

Osullivan will be 7/2 saturday morning then after that match will be 3/1..

I can't wait for this to start

i really do like bingham, its a toughie on sunday, but what a match, arguebly the best 1round tie ever at the crucible, if he gets through this , he can definetly beat even ronnie in this 1st quarter, like ritchie i cant wait, and its great that the crowd will bet there, and the same faces , the coventry fan, the 2 men that always sit together, one is an aussie, ( met then few years back ), , not sure how the hell you can have a full capacity in here though, and   crowds not allowed into eg racecourse, mind boggling sense , , .

I think there's decent value in 8 matches having now run the numbers.

Mags has had an up and down season, but his numbers have been very good since Jan 1st, and he can still mix it with the best.  He's comfortably outscored Jones across both the season as a whole and since then.  They've met only once, way back at the Aussie Open in 2014, where Jones ran out a 4-0 winner.  On the numbers, this is the game with the clearest daylight other than Judd v Highfield of the whole of the first round.  Mags has to be a play at 1.6+.

Dave & Wakelin's numbers are v similar for the season, but Wakelin's are far superior since Jan 1st.  Wakelin too big;

While conscious that one swallow does not a summer make, Cabby played the best snooker I've seen from him since here two years ago in his final qualifying match.  Kyren still a worthy fav, but Cabby at his best has better prospects than the 3/1 poke he looks like being, especially since Kyren's been a bit hot and cold of late; 

Tubbs has had a poor second half of the season, and his scoring has dropped off a cliff.  You could argue that means he comes here fresher than most, but he has a well-documented love affair with Rasson tables and has been quite critical of conditions anytime he's had to play on a Star/Strachan table.  Lyu, while posting inferior numbers over the season as a whole, is comfortably leading the way since January.  He does have a losing 2-0 H2H record to overcome, but he's currently posting the best numbers of his career; 

Baz is rightly fav (slightly better scoring across the season), but the last three times these two have met (including here in 2015), all three matches have gone to deciding frames, Baz winning two and Selt the other.  Selt's playing as well as he ever has right now and IMO is too big; 

There's very little between the numbers for MJW and Craigie.  MJW's current brand of snooker can be devastating, but it can also be reckless.  Sam's game is much more measured and assured.  They've only met once (WST aside) way back in 2015, where MJW ran out an easy 4-0 victor.  Craigie is definitely playing well enough to take advantage if MJW is missing, which he could well do; 

Shon's outscoring Mavis both across the season as a whole and since Jan, but there's not a huge amount in it.  Mavis is scoring better than he has since at least 2015.  Lifetime H2H is 5-4 in favour of Shon, albeit only three times since 2015, Mavis leading 2-1 in that time frame.  Shon the right fav but a bit too short for me; 

Selby has been scoring heavier than Kurt across the season as a whole and since Jan, but there's not a huge amount in it.  Selby's had a much poorer second half of the season, and Kurt comes here in decent nick after making it through the qualifiers.  They've played three times, including here (their last meeting), but not since 2015.  Selby just edged that match 10-9.  Selby can be vulnerable in first rounds of events, and Kurt will have good memories of last year.  Selby the right fav, but 4/1 is an insult to Kurt.

See you tomorrow!

Cheers Lat, I'll have a couple of quid on some of those. The price that confuses me is Bingtao, been trading steady 25-30 fair enough.
He ends up drawing Gould, which is potentially tricky, checked his outright price and it's barely flickered, check the match odds and he's 4/7 eh?
If Bingtao is 4/7 what price would some of the bigger priced seeds been against Gould? Williams/McGuire 8/11? 4/5? Evens

or we could have the most soporific of potential finals in the pikey vs the jester

a treat so sumptious that catching Covid would feel like a blessing

Lats, am with you totally on kurt. Whether he can match last years performance is debatable, but no way should selby be so short against him. Kurt is 33 to win that quarter, will probably have to have a bit of that even though I've mjw in that section. I think Lu is underestimated there as well.

Gobe, do you really think Q2 is the toughest? I think they're all about even tbh. If you'd avoided the big 3 in the betting, I'd say you've done ok tbh.

Been looking through the  specials markets and not much leaping out. 10s for a ton every frame not appealing, can remember this bet being done at much bigger prices and never landing.

Total frames line is generally over 85.5. Was hoping it might be a couple lower but i think it will land and will probably play it.

Triad money coming in for Ding..44 >  36

I think the 2nd quarter is definitely the toughest. If you're Selby or Higgins - I think you'd swap places in the draw with O'Sullivan, Trump or Robertson. I can't have Ding, Bingham, Maguire or Jones - so who will beat O'Sullivan in that section? For me, it's McGill or no-one, and 50% of people will expect Walden to beat him!

There were rumours that there was something amiss with Maflin before the World qualifiers, I'm not sure what - but whatever it was (if it was anything) it didn't seem to affect him. He will be a good test for Selby, but I wonder if a crowd being present swings the balance even more in favour of Selby. I agree regarding Kyren - maybe he has a bit too much mental baggage this year, but even though each round of the draw looks potentially difficult, I think he'll be happy with it. I don't think he approaches a match with Robertson or Trump with any fear, and I'm not sure that is always the cases against O'Sullivan, Higgins and Selby. Of course, he's got to win 2 matches first, before that mindset even comes into play.

Oh, OK, I see what you mean about where you would want Williams placed. He wouldn't be afraid of Higgins or Selby for that matter. I thought The Hawk would beat Wilson a couple of years ago, and Wilson dug in and come from behind. In a way, that match was a microcosm (I'm not sure that's the right word) of The Hawk's whole career. Lots of promise, but somehow he just manages to miss out. I can forgive The Hawk for last year's performance though, and Ali's defeat in the qualifiers, as they are primed for a spring campaign.

In other news i see Cao Yupeng back on tour after coming through the chinese qualifiers. Got sick of waiting for ronnies breakaway tour so decided he'd have to go back the conventional route. Damn good player.

I didn't know Cao was back. He was very useful, and who knows where he'd be in the rankings now, had he not been banned. He got a lighter sentence for co-operating didn't he? You could argue that Quinten Hann was harshly treated when you compare the 2 'crimes'.