Thursday 13 September 2012

Selby far too big at 10/1

Premier League Snooker continues tonight and you can read my preview for sportinglife.com here



Mark Selby - has greater understanding of the variables than the other Premier League players

Premier League Snooker continues tomorrow from the Sands Centre in Carlisle where Shaun Murphy takes on Stuart Bingham followed by John Higgins up against Mark Allen.

Murphy has impressed in the last few weeks. He wasn't disgraced in his league opener going down 4-2 to Ding Junhui and then in PTC3 last weekend in Gloucester he reached the last four.

His opponent Bingham - who reached the last 16 in Gloucester going down 4-1 to the eventual winner Rod Lawler is full of confidence too and looks very comfortable at the table. The Essex player is certainly not frightened to win anymore and has shaken off his reputation for bottling it - largely due to his Australian Goldfields Open win last year.  He could spring a bit of a shock here so the 9/4 Boylesports is worth a small wager - albeit with caution.

The second match of the night is difficult to call too. Higgins chose not to play in the season's two opening ranking events and hasn't impressed in the two recent PTC's. However even though his past league form is largely disappointing his experience under the shot clock should tell against first timer Allen. But we need to be wary of getting heavily involved in both matches so we'll pair the Scot up with Bingham in a small double which pays almost 8/1 with Boylesports.

In the outright betting Mark Selby is worth backing despite suffering a heavy defeat in his league opener last week to Neil Robertson. The Aussie played well but in the early part of the match Selby was faced with two or three very tricky safety shots when it's sometimes difficult to be precise about how the cue ball will react on these one night tables. What you need is to get in early and pick up on any subtleties and nuances with the table while leaving yourself easy shots - this puts you at a slight but significant advantage. 

Selby is in great form though after retaining his Paul Hunter Classic title in Germany last month and events under time pressure reward scientific understanding as well as technical skill at the table. The Jester has now been pushed out to a 10/1 chance outright (general) which should be taken.

No comments: