ronnie- will we see him before the world championship?

Too much of a narcissist and attention seeker,no doubt putting in 8-10 hours aday with new cue the 7/1 looks massive as i say every year,if he wins his furst round match he's automatically 4/1 and if seeds go out he goes shorter..Players like Trump Wilson probably burnt out as well,there's always ways to make money on him even if it's just fir a round or two..If he gets a good draw,which he invariably dues then obvious chances,i can see players like Trump using this flaw in dropping out of tiurnaments,Trump could play this game all next season dropping piut,they should make a limit that you have to play in the whole things a complete farce,or get all their ranking points wiped.

well, let me put it this way, he's currently 8/1 here on the exchanges for the WC and that should have another zero after it.

He can't play before the Crucible because he hasn't qualified for the remaining tournaments prior to that.

For the first time ever, I actually think there might be something in his "mental health" claims.  Seems he and Laila are done for good, and the house is up for sale.  It's probably hit him quite hard.

id rather back him with bookies at around 6/1 than the 9s on exchange,  eg theres a good chance bookies will refund stakes if he doesnt turn up,

It's actually a really interesting World Championship, and market, this year for once.

Several top players not currently performing, several dark horses who could perform at or very near top level. E.g. Jones, O’Connor, Lisowski.

Open I'd say, very open. Throw the darts.

I'm currently backing Murphy, Higgins, Robertson (former winners and can perform if it’s their year) and even a massive longshot on Lei Peifen - who has won an open event (Scottish).

Ronnie could either win or, lose first round, lose a 2nd round game from 6-0 up etc, not come out to play from 4-0 down, or not play at all. Price I'd make him about now would be 20s ish. Can’t be bothered to lay much though, tying up money.

Players like Trump and Wilson obv coud win it, but seem to be finding it tough at the moment. Selby is a lurker always, but always vulnerable too, so too short for me to back, similar with Allen there. They all seem like shortish but no-bet types.

i do like k wilson, and think the price of 15s on allen is tempting, reckon hawkins again could go really well at 40s , ill keep ding, higgins, williams on side as well, brecel seems to be coming into form,  love the WCHAMPS

Luca needs Bucketville conditions, which he's probably unlikely to get at the Crucible again, given the backlash the year he did win it.  Ironically, he would have absolutely loved those from this week and he didn't even take part (not sure why).

Zhao's undoubtedly the most interesting one in the market.

Very interesting yes Lat - not sure I can back a player with his lead up though. Poor prep to win a WC, and he's not even a massive price to do it.

Agreed.  I think that's what makes it interesting!  And he'll (I assume) have to go through all the Q rounds.

I think Wilson will grind his way to another semi final where he hopefully gets beat,think Murphy looks more relaxed than he has fur a decade and if he can play like he did in the masters i can't see hardly anyone beating him..Fiar chance Robertson and Allen as well,nice quiet seasons and fresh,Robertson almost has nothing to lose now as no one expects him to win.

Hopefully tighten up those bags as well like last year,i wanna see them all suffer..

Me too

Haven't seen a ton of snooker this year tbh, but i can't stop seeing this as the most open world championship ever. There's no single compelling candidate, not one with a big bunch of ifs all over his chances. Will have to do bit of legwork and find a few options, preferably at mid to low end of the market. Agree with lats, Zhao is one that catches the eye. I don't know if you'd call him value exactly, but can definitely see why his price is what it is, for all I've never particularly seen him as a horses for courses type on this track. It's all very compelling in its own way I guess. Big buckets (which I think might well happen) will throw cat further among pigeons.

Thegiggilo ,       good call on robbo , nearly 30s on here last few weeks

ahem, me first elis

sorry, yes great call

TBF Thegigg added somewhat to the explanation too. But I'm glad I was backing him before this 10-0 final win for sure!

If those bags are like the 2023 manholes,then Robertson could sluice through the field,we must be due an easy winner this year..

wilson v jones        trump v murphy

ronnie v jihui       selby v guadong

williams v zhang      higgins v hawkins

allen   v  ding       brecel v robbo         ive probably got this miles off, but as rankings stand and if all got through would my list be the 

                                             matches for 2nd round ?

As it stands, yes, but there's still £265k of prize money to be dished out before the seedings are settled, let alone what any qualifiers do in R32.

Robbo went above ding yesterday so he'd face Allen as per current seedings but as lats says, it's all significantly going to change, particularly if robbo was to win out this weekend. Wu still has (outside) chance of catching Jak for last seed.

thanks

wilson v jones        trump v murphy

ronnie v jihui       selby v guadong

williams v zhang      higgins v hawkins

allen   v  robbo      brecel v ding                 assuming everyone gets through 1rd , and if ronnie turns up
   
   top half              bottom half

ffs. got that wrong, how the heck has higgins gone to 3rd seed

Good interview from Ronnie here https://www.wst.tv/videos/9736c602-c06b-4278-8131-caf5f982841e

probably worth watching before piling into him to lift the title.

Ronnie: "I tried a new technique six years ago and I think it's completely stopped me from playing how I used to, and I don't know how to get back to somewhere near how I want to play."

Not sure what exactly he's referring to, but it's around 6 years he started working with Sightright so maybe it's a go at that. Age does have a habit of catching up with us all though, even the all time greats.

Morning gj - I hope you’re OK? It’s been a while. I’ve had problems trying to log on here for a while with a laptop and 2 phones - although, funnily enough I’ve had no problems getting on the exchange to place bets! I’ve finally replaced the laptop with an iPad, which hopefully will be paid for courtesy of Trump’s overdue 2nd world title! It’s surprising O’Sullivan has turned up given his thoughts in that interview. The 6 years comment is interesting, as I’ve not heard him make reference to it before but it ties in with him looking for answers as to why he has been struggling of late. I’m not sure he knows the cause and is still searching. It was a bit annoying to hear Hawkins has been practicing with him and offering him bits of advice, given Hawkins has a chance this year, for the 1st time in a while, given his recent form and the draw. I’d have taken O’Sullivan on with Carter, in normal circumstances, but with Carter struggling with his neck, I think I’ll settle for supporting Ali without a financial interest.

Just watched the video, and whereas usually in a Ronnie interview I'm thinking, his lips are moving, therefore what he's saying is purely for his benefit, I didn't get that this time.  8m 50s of him not touching his ear (a classic "I AM lying" tell) once, and only touching his face head maybe three times in total.

Glad to hear all is well gobe, i never really believed he'd be a no show but admittedly wasn't following the ins and outs of it very closely. No idea what to expect from him, just if he truly believes he can be the same player at 50 he was at 30 or even 40, i think he's maybe headed for trouble. Who can tell? From a not very solid base of conviction, i think there are a very high number of plausible outcomes this year, owing to so few carrying overly compelling claims, and Judd getting No.2 is certainly one of them. Whether he's value, I'm not sure, if you have faith in him, then I'd say he is. Have backed Allen for first time ever and i still dont have that much faith at all but that pretty much goes for all of them!

I did think he might miss this as he clearly hasn’t been right for a while, and given he doesn’t play until Tuesday, there’s still time for him to bale! I sided with Trump due to him having finally realised he was playing too much snooker during the season to be sure of being fresh here. I also felt it was a positive that he went out early in the tour championship after his morale-sapping defeat to Wilson the tournament before. I waited for the sendings to be confirmed as I was worried about him being potentially drawn against Allen or Robertson in L16 given his recent records against them (although Murphy is no gimme here). Allen has massively gone under the radar, and has been quiet for a while which will help him if he continues with his defensive approach, although he has been hinting at playing more positively.

You make a pretty persuasive case for Judd, I've definitely said before that he was prone to playing himself out by crucible time so less busier lead in seems like it should be a good thing. Bit like mcilroy winning Augusta, you'd think Judd winning 2019 would have freed him up to go on and do the repeat before now, but he still seems to carry some mental baggage when he comes here, for whatever reason. Think he should deal with Zhou well enough and be interesting to see how he approaches it in terms of composure, staying patient and controlling the match.

At least i haven't heard anyone tipping Allen unlike the past couple of years so I'll take that as a positive. I'm also not sure how that declaration to play positively would fare if he was to meet Zhao Xintong. I'd wager he'd use all his experience and "tricks" to unsettle him as much as possible. Jak just seemed to let him play the game he wanted yesterday which seemed crazy to me, like he had no plan at all to get him out of his rhythm. At one point Jak conceded a frame needing 3 snookers but with a red remaining and a decent chance to lay a good snooker. Couldn't understand that, not that it would have made a huge difference probably, but you don't just let the kid walk all over you.

Anyway, decent first couple of days i thought. Pockets playing tight along the rails which is always good to see!

He definitely feels the pressure here in a way he doesn’t elsewhere. He knows he needs to win at least 1 more World Championship, maybe more, to be considered a true great. He definitely has that internal pressure to succeed here, and there are times when he is too passive. His meek surrender to Jak Jones last year was a good example.

I agree about Xintong. Selby would have played for snookers, and even had he not got them, he would have slowed down Xintong’s momentum and rhythm. Allen v Xintong would be a fantastic clash should they meet, and I’d fully expect Allen to use all the ‘dark arts’ to attempt to keep Xintong at bay. I just hope Allen feels happy with his game, as his comments a few months ago after splitting with Lee Walker and about his need to find a better balance between attack and defence hinted at someone not happy with his game, and he has been relatively quiet since. He looked good in R1 though after an edgy start.

Really, I've no clue how allen will fare the deeper he goes in the tournament, never had faith in him as a front rank contender, just fell into him this time by a process of elimination and what i thought was a fair price for once. Himself and robbo seem to have gone through this tortuous process of playing this way or that way, never settling on anything, when really what's lacking is some mental key neither can quite unlock. Maybe Zhao could turn out to be a good draw for him, assuming he gets over Wakey first which could be tricky enough.

Always have that ? against Judd in my mind, looked fine yesterday but Zhou was never in the match i thought, had no belief he could win and I'm not sure there's much value in that for Judd beyond moving a step closer to his second title.

I notice Ronnie has bagged the R2 match with no morning session. His scheduled qf has one 10am slot. That would be 8 sessions with just one morning slot. How does he manage to do it?