EU Masters

The speaker expresses frustration with their personal and financial situation. They discuss snooker events and players, including Sean Murphy and Judd Trump. They highlight players like Daniel Wells and Joe O'Connor who they believe have potential. They discuss the upcoming European Masters tournament and their thoughts on the different quarters of the draw. Overall, they are excited about the start of the season and the potential for upsets and surprises. You can shove your sneaker up your tracksuit. I ain't looking for no more. I won't be living here again. I've had all sorts of s**t going on in the financial media for the last 6-7 years. I was stalled again. A guy took all the money. A kid took all the money. I was absolutely sick. I'm just here forever. I've had to take more s**t. I'm not prepared to take any longer. It's interrupted my private life, my children's life, a few relationships. And well, let's see what you do without me. Because I ain't planning on good endings. Alex, there's no chance of you reconsidering this deal. No, no. No, no. Welcome to the European Masters snooker betting podcast. And welcome to my guest, Mr. George William, fellow snooker tipster writer and friend. This is the first edition of our betting podcast, pretty much marking the starting of the season. And welcome, George. Have you seen anything in the Championship League or the events out in China you like? Hi, Craig. Yeah, great. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I mean, I've discussed it with you before about the Championship League. Not a fan. Never have been, probably never will be. But, you know, it's still a ranking event. And you've got to give ultra respect to the winner in Sean Murphy. You know, he's third ranking event since February. 12th career ranker. So it's the first time actually he's won three finals on the bouts in ranking events. And, you know, since the beginning of the year, he's been the most consistent player on tour. Certainly currently the most consistent player around. And he's probably the most consistent that Sean Murphy's ever been. Yeah. Majors are obviously big for him. But he hasn't won one since the Masters in 2015. And I guess he will target those this season. Yeah, definitely. And his level of play has found consistency apart from the World Championship. And, of course, he lost to C. Joao. And, you know, C. Joao reaching the semis and Purcell reaching the winning has created a different market somewhat this year in the betting markets. And the likes of Robertson, Ronnie, Judd, you know, they've all been pushed out a little bit to counteract them shortening in price. So it's going to be an interesting year with, you know, they're all provisionally, they're all in a bit of a mess. The likes of Ronnie, Robbo, John Higgins. I mean, they'll soon put it to bed if they win an early event. But there's a little bit of pressure there on him. What do you think? Yeah, absolutely. And I think especially John Higgins, as you say, he had a really desperate season really last year, apart from obviously, you know, a decent showing at the World Championship. Certainly in the first two rounds, he looked really good. And then obviously he hit a brick wall against Mark Selby. But obviously Judd comes into this European Masters in sort of winning form in the invitational tournament over in China, beat Higgins in the final, knocked in two centuries, had a strong field as well. He actually had a really good run. And, you know, players, every player bar one was a main tour player. Even in the first round he beat Bai Yu Liu, who's arguably the best woman player around. Again, sort of like Murphy, you feel that Judd will target the really big events, you know, the UK, the Masters, the Worlds. It's a really big season ahead for him. Obviously he won his second Masters in January. But apart from that, he didn't win a ranking event. He did win, he did get to a final in the World Grand Prix. So yeah, really interesting season for Judd ahead. And as you said, you know, the likes of O'Sullivan, Higgins, Robertson, you know, kind of under pressure with the rankings. So yeah, they'll all want to start well, especially here in Nuremberg. Yeah, I mean, what I find quite interesting about last season is John Higgins, if you look at his break building stats, they suggested that he's still as good as ever. Which kind of suggests John Higgins was losing all the important frames, which his early season was very, I guess he had a mental letdown from the season prior when he didn't manage to win anything despite doing everything booked, didn't he? Yeah. So yeah, it's interesting. Interesting, really. And an interesting start to the season here in the European Masters in Nuremberg at the end of the month. Outright markets are up, as we know. There's no match betting yet as we're recording this. So quarter one, Judge, if you had a look at the Kieran Wilson is the defending champion in quarter one. C. Joel is in there. Is there anything that catches your eye in quarter one? Well, yeah, it's packed with real quality, isn't it? You know, Kieran, reigning champion, loves Germany. It'll be interesting to see how Si gets on following his heroics in the World Championship. Hossein Dabai is in there. I mean, he actually hasn't got to a proper ranking final yet, believe it or not. You know, Joe Ulong's got a really good record in this event. And early season. Yeah, and early season. John Higgins is in there. Sean Murphy, arguably the player to beat. The betting wouldn't say it. Joe Perry, you know, won the Welsh Open very recently. Yeah, but Vegas don't rate Sean still, do they? They don't really. I mean, he swaps. Is he about 14th and 1 for the tournament? Yeah, I think he opened 16th in a place. I mean, like we discussed, you could argue his standard of snooker is the best of any of them. Yeah, he could very easily be a bit shorter in the betting. Obviously, he starts his first round in Germany, plays in Graeme Dott. Yeah, I mean, that's not going to be an easy game, is it? I mean, Dott, you won't give him an inch. The player I like in this section is the winner of Murphy and Dott. He's Daniel Wells, and he's about 33-1 to win the quarter. And he's come on leaps and bounds in the last sort of 12 to 18 months. I mean, he topped the one-year ranking list last season for outside top 64 players as an amateur. Yeah. Which is an unbelievable achievement. I know Michael White did it, I think, the season before. But obviously, last season, it's the shootout semi-final. And he's beaten, last season, some fantastic players. Like, he beat Stephen Maguire. Yeah. Joe Gudong. Didn't he beat Judd as well? Yeah, he beat Judd 4-2 in one of the O-Nations, I think. John Higgins, he beat. Perry, Gary Wilson, Matt Steltz. It's amazing how some of these class players, when they go back to being an amateur for a year or two, they come back stronger, don't they? Oh, yeah. I mean, didn't Ronnie say to Wells in an interview saying, you know, stay as an amateur, there's less pressure on you? Oh, there is to a degree. Kind of clears the decks, doesn't it, with regards to expectations. And, man, Michael White came back playing well. Andrew Higginson in this quarter is one that's come back, actually. And his stats suggest he's jumped up, his level has jumped up leaps and bounds lately. Yeah. I mean, Daniel Wells, remember in 2018, got to the semi-final of the Scottish Open. He should have got, I think he lost to Mark Allen. He did, yeah. He was way up, well up in it. He was. I think he's a much better player now, five years on. And in that year also, I think he got to the quarters of the Paul Hunter Classic. That was in Germany. I think also he had, sorry to cut in there, George, I think he had legitimate, you know, reasons for losing his tour card. He was severely affected in the COVID time, wasn't he? I think he was, yeah. With getting stats and stuff and testing positive when he wasn't actually having any symptoms. Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, he's an interesting player this year, isn't he? Like you say, at 33 for the quarter. Yeah, he's just very solid and I don't think he's afraid of anybody. Yes. He came through, he played well in the Championship League as well. Yeah, quite a difficult group and he only conceded one frame. Yes. And then in the, I think in the semi-final groups, he only lost to Ash Carty 3-1. So, yeah, he comes in here, you know, with his gander up. And I think, yeah, I think he's been a little bit disregarded in the market. Yeah. Obviously, it's going to be a very, as I say, I said at the start, it's a quarter of real quality. It is. But I think, you know, form-wise, especially in the last 12 months, I don't think there's been too many players there who have been playing better than Dan Wells. I mean, Shaun Murphy's drawn the most difficult imaginable wildcard match. I mean, you know, to draw a dot. So, yeah, you could easily have a situation where Shaun is an upset there and that really will open the door for Daniel. Yeah. Well, that's hopefully the case. Yeah. Yeah. So, is there anything else in quarter one you want to mention, George? No, I don't think so. Do you fancy anything in there? Like you, it looks so strong at this stage of the season, I'm probably going to learn more than by betting. Interested to see how Dylan Emery performs. He's a player with a lot of potential. Yeah. He's playing John Higgins, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah. So, he always interests me in his matches in a lot of markets and we'll probably come on to that in the next podcast. Yeah. I do like Emery a lot, yeah. Yeah. And then we get to this section, quarter two, Judd Trump leads it and Mark Allen at the bottom. And I think certainly it's the section that I wanted to attack a little bit from the quarter point of view and, you know, I've got the feeling that you felt the same, George. Yeah. I think we've got sort of similar vibes. Yeah. You know, I really like, especially like Joe O'Connor. Yeah. I mean, again, if you want to talk about players who've improved the last two years, I mean, O'Connor, he's just got humongous potential. I mean, he's 31 in the world now. Yeah. Unbelievably, he hasn't played for the Crucible yet, but, I mean, he's only 27. Yeah. He's, you know, he got to his first ranking final last year in the Scottish. Yeah. And I think he got to his semi later in the year as well, didn't he? Semi for the Players' Championship, yeah. I mean, he got to the quarter of the Welsh. Yeah. And some of the players he beat last season, unbelievable. I mean, in the Scottish Open, he beat Zhao Jingtong, Ding Junwei, Mark Williams, Ricky Walden, Neil Robertson, and then Players' Championship beats Luca Bressel and Mark Allen. Yeah. I mean, it's just, I feel like, you know, he's just going to keep going, rising through the rankings. Let's say perfect, perfect format for him, best of nine. Yes. And he's just all class. He does all the basics right. He's got no sort of side to him. Yeah. He's just a very, very good player. And I think, yeah, I think he opened 100-1. He did, didn't he? I think even 80s is decent value on Joe. Yeah. I mean, the bookmakers are still not rating him, are they? You know, so you've got a situation where, you know, you've got Jack and Michael White in that quarter, but really Joe O'Connor's probably at the point in his career now where if he's going to jump up to a top 16 level, he's going to start disposing of the open players like that more. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. You know, and it's just amazing. Most of his best results seem to be in the best of seven events. But when you watch him play, you would have thought that longer events would be more suited to his style. Yeah, I totally agree. He's, yeah, I say on his day, I mean, as he showed last season, he can just beat anybody. Yeah. And I don't think he's going to fear too much in this quarter, especially with, I mean, Judd, Mark Allen, the Souths haven't really played. Obviously, I know Judd won last week in China, but, you know, they haven't played a ranking event yet. So I think it's a quarter for the taking. I think, you know, I know you like another player as well. Yeah, I think, well, I think we agree on one. We'll finish with that one. But, yeah, I was drawn a bit towards Fekir, mainly because of his good record against Mark Allen. Mark Allen's a bit in and out. I mean, it was a strange year as world number one last year. He played like world number one pre-Christmas and then post-Christmas, changed his approach, changed his game, went to a ridiculous amount of matches without a century break for world number one. That's never been heard of before. And, yeah, as we know, he's probably one of the best handful of break builders in the world. So, yeah, I like Fekir's chances. He plays well against Joe as well, funnily enough. But I do like Joe's chances. I'm quite happy to oppose Mark Allen in this quarter with both of them. And, you know, I think they are both – Joe is definitely still underrated by the bookies. Like you said, he opened the 100s, 80s. Fekir's more a bet to win the quarters. You know, Joe, I think, could win the event. Yeah, yeah. And that's what Joe brings to the table. But, you know, I think it would be difficult. And then, of course, playing Jack in the – I don't see much problem for Tepchea. I mean, in the top part of the quarter, Chris Wakelin, I think, got to respect him. He's improved an awful lot. Yeah, yeah, totally. I watched Aaron Hill in qualifying because I backed him to beat Jimmy at 5-4, and I was really disappointed with Aaron. But then he looked to be changing his technique. He's a player I rate, but he was very fortunate to beat Jimmy. And that was a bullet dodged. And then, yeah, to lead on to my last guy, and I know you agree, is Tom Ford. He likes traveling to Germany, doesn't he? I mean, he made the final last year, the German Masters. I think his one event that he won was some minor event in Germany. And he's just that sort of player nowadays that he'll lose a lot of first rounds. But once he gets rolling and, you know, he's very fluent, this quarter looks open for Tom because he's got a good record against Judd. Not a great record, but like John Higgins, in recent years he's started to trouble him more and more. There's no guarantee Judd's going to... I don't know that I fancy Judd to beat Chris Wakelin at the moment until we see how he plays. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with the answer, Ford. He reminds me such a lot of Rob Milkins, and I hope maybe Tom will take a lot of... Look at how Rob did last season, you know, one load of money. And I think those two are quite similar sort of players. You know, they never sort of changed their approach in all the years they've been pro. And, yeah, Ford's just such a dangerous player. In the balls, he's as good as anybody. Yes, yeah, I mean... He is. Yeah, he's... I think you just have to buy into the fact with Tom that if he gets up out the wrong side of bed, you know, he may throw a dizzy fit and you might lose quickly. He could do, yeah. But he brings a lot of potential to the table from a punting point of view and his record of winning quarters in ranking events is as high as anyone. Yeah, and he did it in the UK last year as well. Yeah, I think that's the second time he's done it in the UK, isn't it? I mean, you've got to respect that, haven't you? Yeah, I mean, he's got to at least the semifinal, the ranking semifinal, in four of the last five seasons as well, so... Yeah. He is a danger, no doubt about it. Anyone else in there that you like? No, I was pretty drawn to Joe, Joe O'Connor and Ford. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're right in what you're saying about taking on, you know, the three sort of big guns in there, Trump, Allen and Nasowski. Yes. It hasn't got the depth, has it? No. In the top quarters, you've got Kieran, like you say, Siju Al Hussain, Joe Long, John Higgins, Sean Murphy. That's effectively six top 16 players in theory. You're right, you're right, yeah. Yeah, you know, and this quarter, you've got effectively George, Jack and Mark Allen. And, you know, they just don't seem as solid yardsticks. Obviously, they're all dangerous, but... Yeah, well, I mean, the next quarter is interesting with Ronnie leading it. I mean, what do you think? Do you think it's a quarter worth playing in? I suppose it all depends whether or not Ronnie turns up. Oh, that's a good point. It wouldn't surprise me if he withdraws. No. He's only played in two of the last six European Masters and the last six German Masters, he's withdrawn in all of them. So, he did say at the end of last season that he's going to be sort of concentrating on the Asia events. Maybe he's just not fond of Germany. Yeah. If, you know, if he doesn't turn up, then it sort of opens a door for sort of Dave Gilbert. He could certainly capitalise if Ronnie doesn't turn up. He's a 2019 runner-up of the German Masters. Yeah. He seems to always sort of play well, doesn't he, when he's sort of away from home? Yes. Yeah, he's a good traveller, isn't he? I mean, he's had success out in China. And that's a really good point that, you know, we probably haven't mentioned yet. Some players travel better than others. Tom Ford travels well. Tom Ford travels well. Fekir does because he's played well in Wuhan. Ricky Walden is probably the best traveller of all. We didn't mention him in the quarter-fourth. Back in the day. Yeah. You know, so that's a big factor though, isn't it? You know, some players just do not like leaving home comforts behind. Yeah, it's a very, very good point. And Ricky had a bit of a stale season, didn't he, last year? Yeah. Whereas the season before that he was, you know, getting very, very close to, you know, his best from sort of around, you know, 2000 and sort of five to ten sort of times. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing how small-margined Snooker is because he lost 10-9 to Luka in the first round of the Crucible. Look at that. It was a cracking match. Ricky played well and, you know, well, the rest is history, as they say. You're right. Spot on. Yeah. He played well. I mean, again, Bresl just had that just unbelievable bit of form. I think was he 9-7 down against Ricky? Yeah. I mean, to get sidetracked a bit, what did you make of Bresl winning it? I mean, it's just unbelievable talent. That's the word. It's just unbelievable talent to do that in a World Final. The whole tournament, not just the World Final. I mean, look what he did to Williams in the round after Walden and then he came back against O'Sullivan. Yeah. And then, obviously, the amazing comeback against Sy and then, obviously, against Felby in the final. I mean, he was always ahead, generally, in the match. Yes. And to keep going in the World Final, one table, first final, World Final, it's just phenomenal. I just opened my mouth the whole way through with him. Yes. His self-belief and just, yeah, he was... Well, it's interesting how he beat Max Selby in the final because, of course, Max Selby is pretty impossible to play when you're deep at the crucible for most players. But, you know, if you look at the players that do have success against him, like Jack Liszowski, the same for Fahey, they are the players that just go on the all-out attack. They do not try. They do not try and get involved in tactical games. And, you know, you've got to play well because, obviously, if you're going to keep the balls open all the time, you've got to keep scoring and keep the pressure on. But it's definitely, for those few, those elite players, it's the way that, you know, it is... You know, you get caught in a more tactical game than Max Selby and he's just going to strangle you, isn't he? Well, he did and he just didn't change his approach the whole way. It was just like, you know, if I go out, you know, playing like he did and he goes out in the first round, well, you know, as much as he'll be disappointed, but so be it. And he just never missed a beat the whole event. Yes. When he was just flowing, he just never looked like missing. It really was just... I remember you saying to me, you know, I know you tipped him, sort of, before the tournament started and you sort of said that he could do like a Joe Johnson, that, you know, never won at the crucible and it was. It was just literally like Joe Johnson-esque, wasn't it? It was reminiscent. I mean, I didn't think... I opposed him with Ricky Walden in the first round and then I was watching him play Matt Williams and I was watching the effect he was having on Matt Williams, the way that he was playing. And, of course, at the crucible, the bags were always cut bigger. You know, effectively, there was little or no point playing safe against him. And, you know, he was making players' knees buckle and luckily I jumped on during the first session with Matt Williams, about 66s, and, you know, but it was just Joe Johnson all over again. When Joe Johnson's gone years without winning, the pressure builds up and then suddenly wins and he just lets his arm go. In the end, they're just having fun, aren't they? Yeah. And, you know, Joe Johnson came back and reached the final the year after, so we'll have to watch out for Luca next April again, maybe. And he's in quarter four, isn't he? He starts his season campaign. Yes. Interesting draw as well. He's got a bye match. Sorry, not a bye match. He's playing... Jackson Page, isn't it? Jackson Page, which is a really difficult draw. Yeah. You know, playing open to Jackson Page, he could be, I don't know, a saucer in The Apprentice, something like that. And then the winner plays the new Indian lad, who's interesting, isn't he? Yeah, he's been scoring really well in Asian Q schools and then scored well again in the qualifiers and in the Championship League. He looks a dangerous player himself, sort of like... I've watched him quite a bit. Beats Sean O'Sullivan in the Championship League and he just gets down and just bots them and, you know, they've been going in for him. Yeah, he's sort of one to watch, I think. Chadra, I think his name is. Ispreet Chadra. Yeah, that's right. It's quite an interesting bottom quarter, isn't it? It's packed with... We've got Pang Jung Soo, we've got Barry Hawkins, who reached the final of this event last year. Yeah, yeah. Now out of the top 16, but not by much. Matt Williams, who just makes maximum perform every day in exhibitions. Sometimes you think he's better than ever. I know you've got Neil Robertson against Woo Yeez. Have you got any thoughts in this quarter? Well, I think Neil Robertson is... He obviously had a really hard time last year. I know he missed about three events. I think a lot of them was down to illness. I think twice he missed events down to illness. Obviously, he had a very quiet season. He got to three ranking semifinals. Now, most people would be delighted with that. But that's the first season since 2007-2008. He hasn't won a tournament or a ranking tournament. Obviously, the extraordinary had to come to an end. He did win an event. He did win the mixed doubles with Mink Nutra. But I think Robertson obviously has won this tournament before 2020 when he was in Austria. Serial winner. He's got a great record early in the season. I think it's the best time to catch him. Obviously, last season he won the first event in the mixed doubles. He probably won't accept that. 2020, all events. 2020-21, he won. He got to the final of the second event. 2018-19, 2016-17, 2014-15 and 2013-14 seasons. He won the first event of the season. He is best fresh. Last season, as much as his results were not great, he still hit the most centuries of the season with 50. He actually averaged a century every 3.66 frames he won. Which is absolutely remarkable. The season before that, he hit one every four frames. No player got close to hitting one every four frames last season. If he can just get it all together, he's got to be a big threat. As you say, tough first round. He played the guy who played in the Crucible. Wu Yizi played really well at the Crucible. As did all the Chinese. The Chinese that played in their debuts, like Pang, Fan Zhendong and obviously Tsai. They all performed pretty well. Sticky first game. You know with Robertson, he just gets on rolls. If he can get those couple of rounds in, he's got to be a threat, hasn't he? I agree with you. Playing Wu Yizi, Li Hongyu, Nopon, Matt Williams. He's got Hobson's choice. He's going to have to play well from the start. I noticed he was practicing in the summer, which is unusual. I expect him to be tuned up. The thing is, with his ranking, he's got to put his foot down now. I think he definitely represents solid value in that section to me. I 100% agree with you. Matt Williams is in there, but Matt Williams is a bit of a mark for Neil. Neil tends to beat him every time. Before we wrap it up, is there anything else in those bottom two quarters? Not for me, Craig. I think obviously Selby, he's got a fairly comfortable first few rounds. He's normally not the best player in first events. He rarely gets going until the middle of the game. He rarely gets going until two or three events. The last time Selby won his first ranking event of the season was back in July 2011, believe it or not. That was 12 years ago since he won the first event. He could be one to take on as well in quarter three, but he really has got a comfortable first few rounds. He's going to be gunning for the world's number one ranking at the end of the season. He wants that back. Again, he's another one that's going to be targeting all the big events. He won this event in 2020, I think, just before COVID. Or was it during COVID? I can't remember. He beat Martin Gould in the final. Yes. Of course, he's going to be a big contender. Look at the field. Roddy's 5-1. You've got Judd, sevens, Robertson, nines. God, a few years ago, you'd never get Robertson at 9-1, would you? No, it's definitely worth a poke. Definitely. I'm going to have to summarise our clicks. Our bets, really. You like Daniel Wells' quarter one, don't you? Yes. We both like Joe O'Connor and Tom Ford in quarter two. Yes. I'm leaning a bit towards that cheer as well, although I think you're talking me out of it a bit. Ronnie's quarter, we're not sure if he'll turn up or not. It could be some value, like Judd says, with Dave Gilbert. I think we both like the solidity of trusting Neil Robertson to start the season like he has done over the years. I think that summarises our picks at the moment. We'll be back with some match previews. It remains for me to thank George for coming on and sharing the podcast with me. Thanks very much, Greg. All right, George. Thank you, mate.