Snooker: The Welsh Open

Snooker is one of my favourite "day-off" sports.  When I'm not at work, there's nothing better than sitting back, feet up, cup of tea in hand reading a book or magazine with snooker on in the background.

In any first round competition, you're going to have fairly short priced favourites who should win.  Stars like Neil Robertson, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins et al, should all be progressing to the next stage, at least.  In these matches I tend to look away from the outrights, as a strong favourite in a 7 frame game will be too short.  The places to look are the handicap market, +/-1.5 frames are on offer for each match or also to the correct score market.

For my first round bets I chose to do a perm on the correct scores involving the two Tuesday evening games and the two Wednesday afternoon games.  Correct scores pay around 4/1 (5.0) depending on the score, and for the bet I would pick two scores from four matches, which results in 16 fourfold accumulators.  To win, each match must finish with one of the two scores chosen.  Games I class as tough games I have selected 4-2 and 4-3 victories, and easier matches 4-1 and 4-2.  It's rare to see 4-0 in these first round matches.

The selections are as follows and to 1pt unit stakes, the shortest priced return would be over 100pts profit.

Dott to beat Burnett - 4-1 or 4-2

Robertson to beat Bond - 4-1 or 4-2

Hendry to beat Perry - 4-2 or 4-3

Maguire to beat Greene - 4-2 or 4-3