In four of the 16 matches held on the first day favorites were defeated. In two cases, the loser was from the top-16. Michael White lost to Sidney Wilson, who showed a very good game. And Ding Junhui surprisingly lost to an amateur Adam Duffy (albeit former pro) with a crushing score of 2:6, playing frankly weak. This should warn against big accumulators despite our yesterday’s four-event parlay won with 2.75 odds.
I will not offer bets on morning matches for various reasons. Even if the BR manages to publish my predictions before the matches, there will be little time for punters. And morning sessions are often full of surprises, too. I would just pay attention to a match between Zhou Yuelong and Craig Steadman. The young Chinese is very talented, but offering the odds for his win as if he were top ten player is an imbalance in odds.
There are still 16 matches of the day and evening sessions. You should pay close attention to them.
Leaving behind bets on favourites with meager odds, the choice is quite narrow. There are matches with certain favourites, but betting with handicap makes it more interesting. I think, Peter Ebdon is likely to win against Lyu Chenwei and not with small advantage. I could assume the same with Mark King’s match against young Scottish player Ross Muir. If this tip fails, I’ll make a haircut like Ebdon and King have, since I’m almost bald myself.
The most interesting matches are among players with roughly equal position in the rankings. The odds are usually 50-50. A Aditya Mehta vs Sam Baird match seems a good choice to me. And I think a player from India would win. He is slightly higher in the rankings, and has achieved more (albeit not at the highest level). Mehta also has an advantage in personal meetings – 2:0. Besides, he must be delighted that his friend Pankaj Advani has just won the world amateur championship.