The Masters 2011

syngindub

Venue: Wembley Arena
Date: 9-16 January
Sponsor: LadbrokesMobile

Current Holder Mark Selby looking to defend his title.
The Draw is as follows

________________

First Round - Best of 11

Sun 1330: Mark Selby (Eng) v Mark King (Eng)

Wed 1900: Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Jamie Cope (Eng)

Mon 1330: Mark Williams (Wal) v Ding Junhui (Chn)

Mon 1900: John Higgins (Sco) v Graeme Dott (Sco)

Sun 1900: Ali Carter (Eng) v Peter Ebdon (Eng)

Tue 1900: Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Marco Fu (HK)

Tue 1330: Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) v Mark Allen (NI)

Wed 1330: Neil Robertson (Aus) v Stephen Hendry (Sco)

clonadlad

Why the hell is Ronnie always on during the day.
Only exciting player to watch.

syngindub

That O'Sullivan V Mark Allen looks like a great match also. Wouldn't be surprised at all to see Mark Allen beating him. He played some great stuff in the UK championship. Depends what Ronney shows up really.

zack01

Always been a big favourite of mine this event, I'll be at it from the semi's right through to next Sunday night. A few players bang in form after this weeks Championship event such as O'Sullivan and Williams, but if your looking for a good bet with value it would be no harm to have a punt on Ali Carter he should be a decent price after the usual favourites.
Starting Sunday afternoon can't wait!!

Paully D

Looking forward to this.

Selby's my tip at 13/2.

Tin_Cup

King looking good Vs Selby.

syngindub

Mark King gone 5-4 in front. Selby has it all to do.
Selby looks under a bit of pressure but he has the game and fighting spirit to turn this around.

bluefinger

Selby's gone.

King played well but was given enough chances in the last two frames.

Paully D

Selby :mad:

bluefinger

Paully D wrote: »

Selby :mad:

who's your next tip?

Ebdon grinding Carter down by the looks of it. Nice guy but horrible player.

bluefinger

wow. uncharacteristically open play from Ebdon, allowing Carter back in. 5-5.

zack01

Ebdon wins 6-5!

Sorry fellas, hope you didnt back Carter!

syngindub

jaysus i won't be visiting this forum for tips anyway !!
well i'll go for Mark Williams today and to win the tournament.

snooker_news

I'd except Mark Williams to beat Ding Junhui too, despite being so close in the World Snooker rankings Williams has an excellent record again Junhui, including beating him in the final of the 2010 China Open

http://www.masterssnooker.com/mark-williams-v-ding-junhui-match-preview/2011/01/10/

bluefinger

snooker_news wrote: »

I'd except Mark Williams to beat Ding Junhui too, despite being so close in the World Snooker rankings Williams has an excellent record again Junhui, including beating him in the final of the 2010 China Open

http://www.masterssnooker.com/mark-williams-v-ding-junhui-match-preview/2011/01/10/

couldn't disagree more. although mark's one of my favourite players I reckon ding will put a halt to williams recent run of good results.

Setun

Should be an interesting match today, I'd fancy Williams although you can never really write off Ding.

I'd agree with zack, this is possibly my favourite event of the year - many of the best matches I've seen were during the masters. There's always a great atmosphere at it.

snooker_news

I'd put some money on it then, the odds are in your favour. Whoever wins, it should be an entertaining match

Setun

An interesting, but fairly scrappy, match. I didn't bet, but one mistake from Williams and the chances are he's out. The one thing that would put me off betting on Williams is his consistency - it's very random at the moment. He'll pull off a series off beautiful shots, and stuff up positionally out of nowhere. In his defence he's had a fairly poor run of the balls today though.

FlawedGenius

Mark Allen is playing great and due a big win. He was 20/1 when I backed him, think its a great price. Ronnie will be tough to beat but if he beats him his odds will be halved at least.

syngindub

Currently Higgins 3-4 Dott
don't think the music is any use during the breaks either

snooker_news

Haha......yeah, the music must be irritating. It's not at all the right atmosphere for it and it can't help the players focus. I'm all for revitalising snooker but playing some abysmal music between frames isn't a step in the right direction. If golf dropped in popularity they wouldn't start installing PA's around each tee and green.

bluefinger

Dott playing well. Dark horse for the tournament?
Every favorite so far has lost.

zack01

Higgins out, that's four of the top seeds gone!! I wonder can Ronnie be bothered to win this week ??

snooker_news

Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Mark Allen should be an interesting match. In the UK Championship O'Sullivan was knocked out in the first round by Stuart Bingham who made it to the quarter finals before being knocked out by Mark Allen. While you can usually count on a performance from O'Sullivan for big events such as The Master, Mark Allen is due a good run of his own, and it wouldn't be the first big upset of the tournament if he did win.

TimeToShine

Working during it, absolutely disgusted.

fryup

Great to see the Cheat out

he shouldn't be let near a snooker hall nevermind a pro tournament

Setun

Good call to anyone who backed Mark Allen. If he keeps a cool head I like his odds very much. He played very well today, faltered after the interval but I think he let the pressure of playing O'Sullivan get to him. Willie Thorn moaned a lot about his positional play (Allen kept finishing straight on the colours), but if he can relax his cue action a bit, we should see him in the final.

Dave!

Fair play to Mark

Can't wait to see Neil Robertson tomorrow

Ayrtonf7

Does anybody know if the Semis begin at 7 tomorrow or will they wait till thursday to start the first ?

zack01

Both semis on Saturday and i'll be there!

TimeToShine

what day is the final on?

Dave!

GWAN NEIL

ishvalian

TimeToShine wrote: »

what day is the final on?

Sunday 16th

zack01

Hendry still has it all to do now and i'm sure in the back of his mind he'll be aware if he loses today it may well be his last appearance in The Masters as his ranking continues to spiral downwards.

Dave!

So it's Mark Allen vs Neil Robertson on Friday at 1.30pm

Setun

Dave! wrote: »

So it's Mark Allen vs Neil Robertson on Friday at 1.30pm

That should be a great match. I'll make sure I'm sat comfortably in front of the tv for that one.

I missed the Robinson match today so I don't know how he's playing - anyone want to try and call the winner?

bluefinger

Daddio wrote: »

That should be a great match. I'll make sure I'm sat comfortably in front of the tv for that one.

I missed the Robinson match today so I don't know how he's playing - anyone want to try and call the winner?

I'd say he'll beat Allen. Today he looked unbeatable at times,especially after the first couple of frames although in his interview he didn't reckon he was playing too well. Favourite for the tournament by miles imo.

there was one amazing long shot he got, white near cush red on side cushion about two feet from the pocket, and he screwed back into baulk, he just plays some ridiculously good pots.

wathcing murphy at the moment and i've never seen him miss so many easy pots.

Setun

It's fairly painful to watch at the moment - catching it on Eurosport at the moment. Judging by the standard of play neither of them deserve to get into the next round! Just gone 3-2 to Murphy. Average frame length: 30 mins. Before the interval the pot success was 82% and 74% for Cope and Murphy respectively if I remember correctly - and as John Virgo says you'd normally expect above 90% from a pro playing on form.

syngindub

The coverage this year has been very dissapointing on bbc. Red Button snooker is a right pain, no pause, no pundits, and it takes ages to come on.
I don't remember the Masters coverage ever this bad on bbc.

Ayrtonf7

Anybody know the latest score ?

Setun

Jamie Cope just about made it over the finish line. He'll really need to up his game if he's to make an impression in the next round though.

Baluba

Just caught the highlights of the Murphy Cope match on the beeb. The standard was woeful. Murphy distracted by movement in the crowd? For the whole game??

TimeToShine

To be fair I don't think playing music in between intervals is particularly helpful for concentration

Setun

TimeToShine wrote: »

To be fair I don't think playing music in between intervals is particularly helpful for concentration

Especially when the music is crap. I'd be out of that arena after every frame until that bloody music is switched off. Hopefully it'll be gone for the crucible.

syngindub

Daddio wrote: »

Especially when the music is crap. I'd be out of that arena after every frame until that bloody music is switched off. Hopefully it'll be gone for the crucible.

The walk on music is just about ok.

This whole lark of having a few words with the player when he's entered the arena is poor. I just feel embarrassed for the player.

Then the music during a frame interval just feels wrong.

HayleyLyons1

Since when was Hendo a second rate hacker? The man was butchering the table yesterday.

zack01

Heard a whisper that many of the players are not happy with the volume of the music during the interval,i cant see the point of it really, snooker players concentrate throughout the match and to have music blaring after each frame is ridiculous. I know the WSA are only trying to jazz up the game but they might just have to listen to the players on this one.
And as for being interviewed as they enter the areana well i personally wouldnt mind that too much, better being interviewed at the start then at the end if you just got done 6-0!!!!
Apart from the match last night the standard has been pretty good and come sunday night a new name will be on the trophy.

Setun

syngindub wrote: »

The walk on music is just about ok.

This whole lark of having a few words with the player when he's entered the arena is poor. I just feel embarrassed for the player.

Then the music during a frame interval just feels wrong.

I don't mind the walk on music so much - although I can't account for some of the player's song-choice :P When the match has started though I think they should keep the distractions to a minimum.

Setun

HayleyLyons1 wrote: »

Since when was Hendo a second rate hacker? The man was butchering the table yesterday.

Apparently since he started practicing alone, according to the commentators during the UK championships. Maybe he's just grown a bit tired of the game? Hazel Irvine kind of hinted yesterday that Hendry is going to make an announcement during the week addressing his future in snooker.

bluefinger

Murphy Cope was the worst match i've seen in a while.

For anyone not happy with the BBCs coverage, Eurosport are as usual covering every pot in the tournament, and theres normally a few streams to be had online.

Today's games should be an improvement on yesterday.

Dott vs Ding is a headline writers dream, Ding will be favourite but I reckon Graham Dott looked very impressive the other day against Higgins and will edge this one.

The other game is harder to call, Mark King was very good apart from a few shakes in the last frames against Selby plus he's had a good rest. Cope played terribly last night. Mark King should win this, but i think Cope might beat Mark.

giant_midget

Daddio wrote: »

Apparently since he started practicing alone, according to the commentators during the UK championships. Maybe he's just grown a bit tired of the game? Hazel Irvine kind of hinted yesterday that Hendry is going to make an announcement during the week addressing his future in snooker.

Yes i saw this piece on BBC yesterday too, Seems to be a hint of retirement...i hope i picked it up wrong, This new ranking system seems to have hit Hendry hard. He was always nice an comfy in the top 16, now this is under threat...