The
World Snooker Championship begins its Crucible play this Saturday as the top 16 play the sixteen qualifiers, who are concluding the final qualifying round currently
The draw for the top 16 seeds has happened, shown on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_World_Snooker_Championshipit is, i think, a lopsided draw
this is important because the market is e/w 1/2 1,2
you can, theoretically, identify a half lacking the depth of the other and try to pick a player to win that half
http://www.oddschecker.com/snooker/world-championship/world-snooker-championship/winnerthe bottom half is a monster
the third quarter has Ding and Higgins due to meet in the second round then Trump in the quarters
the winner of that quarter meets, assuming all goes to plan, Ronnie from the fourth quarter (and Mark Williams who has shown more appetite for the game in 2015 got the bad draw, ronnie in round 2)
the top half is a bit easier, though selby v maguire in the second round is a tough one for both players..then murphy in the quarters...then theoretically robertson in the semi's
the high seeds in the top half have lacked form most of the season
- selby struggled until he won in china recently
- murphy won the masters in january, but in ranking tournaments has only got past the quarters once
- Robertson won the wuxi early on but has only one quarter final since september
- maguire has two quarters and a semi, none since xmas
- allen semi final in the masters, two finals early on nothing since october
--
whereas the bottom half has players in form, and depth, the top half looks wide open to me
outright prices for the top half players are
robertson 6/1
selby 8/1
murphy 11/1
allen 28/1
maguire 33/1
50/1 bar
i can't see anyone bar those 5 getting to the top half semi. can you?
i was thinking that with the front three looking vulnerable on season long form (albeit they will have been looking to peak for the crucible, they still have to try to do well all season for rankings purposes, and by and large haven't), that the value has to be in taking Allen and Maguire e/w for the title and trying to get a run from one deep in the tournament
allen would have to get through robertson, maguire would have to get through selby/murphy but i think both offer a lot more value than the front three
thoughts welcome please.