BetVictor Snooker Shootout!!!!!

eraserhead wrote:

Badsnookerplayer wrote:I am sure he will win in the future - maybe even a WC - but at the moment he is nowhere near top 8 standard let alone Robbo or Judd standard. Nobody goes into a snooker match choosing to lose.

Sad thing is he's definitely a top 8 player even in this form.

This I agree with.

D4P wrote:

Prop wrote:Exactly. This idea of Ronnie being under less pressure than in some other point in recent history [insert season to support flawed argument] to win the Worlds is completely missing the point. He’ll always be under huge pressure to win another. Whether he’s had a great season, a crap one, or somewhere in between.

I am distinguishing between "pressure Ronnie feels to equal/pass Hendry's WC record" and "pressure Ronnie feels as the favorite to win the WC, because of having had a great season".

There's nothing Ronnie can do to decrease the first type of pressure, but he does have some degree of control over the second, and his season thus far has (arguably) served to reduce the second type of pressure...

I’m not sure about the 37 rankers thing. It was never part of the conversation, and seems a bit irrelevant in context of what everyone has been discussing.

As for the Worlds - which was the focus of this discussion - yes, of course having a relatively unsuccessful season would lift external pressures somewhat (bookie odds, BBC fanfare etc), and I dare say within his own mind Ronnie would in that situation heap less of his own expectations aloft his shoulders.

The thing is, none of that translates into him realistically and genuinely being more likely to win the Worlds. If you allow me to simplify your argument for a moment for the sake of discussion, you’re effectively saying that a Ronnie playing crap snooker over the last few months is more likely to win the Worlds than a Ronnie that’s been playing brilliant snooker over the last few months. It doesn’t make sense. Nor do ‘patterns’ or ‘omens’. I’m not citing you directly in saying that, but it’s worth stating to the general audience here.

ETA: I misread what you were saying about Hendry. I thought you were talking about the the ranking title record rather than WC record. So disregard my first sentence there, apologies.

McManusFan wrote:Gilbert got to a final and two semis. I'm not saying he's a better player than Ronnie, but he has been much more consistenly good than him this season.

Ronnie got to two finals and two semis. (Plus two quarters).

D4P wrote:

McManusFan wrote:Gilbert got to a final and two semis. I'm not saying he's a better player than Ronnie, but he has been much more consistenly good than him this season.

Ronnie got to two finals and two semis. (Plus two quarters).

Quite right, I'd forgotten about the Shanghai masters and Champion of Champions, seems like a long time ago now. Still think Smurph should be mentioned for consistency though, he's had a good season.

McManusFan wrote:Gilbert got to a final and two semis. I'm not saying he's a better player than Ronnie, but he has been much more consistenly good than him this season.

Ronnie has the same number of ranking finals, semis and quarters as Gilbert this season.

Guessing no afternoon session tomorrow?

jinx

Trump and Robertson are certainly ahead of the pack atm but lets not make them look invincible and hype them too much.

On a good day any topplayer can beat them. Ronnie certainly can. Robertson was even whitewashed by Wilson recently.

And once the WC starts it wont matter that much whats happened before in the season. Wouldnt surprise me at all if Higgins got to another World final while the in form player Robertson lost before the quarters.

Alex0paul wrote:Guessing no afternoon session tomorrow?

Correct just evening.

eraserhead wrote:

McManusFan wrote:Gilbert got to a final and two semis. I'm not saying he's a better player than Ronnie, but he has been much more consistenly good than him this season.

Ronnie has the same number of ranking finals, semis and quarters as Gilbert this season.

Aye, D4P already pointed out my mistake. I completely blotted out all the times Ronnie's done well this year, all this doom and gloom talk must have gotten to me!

Yeah Prop is right. This season my expectations for him winning another world title are much less than last 2 seasons.

Yes I know history has proved that having a quiet season means little at The Crucible and a player can suddenly win it out of nowhere, but until that happens my confidence will be low in his chances that's a certainty. If he reaches one table setup, I'll start to believe he's ready for another world title but at the moment I can't see that happening.

My main favourites for the World Title would be, regardless of what happens between now and then, in this order: Robertson, Murphy, Trump, Selby, Higgins and then Ronnie.

Yes I put Murphy ahead of Trump, because well... Trump will fall victim to the Curse.

McManusFan wrote:Aye, D4P already pointed out my mistake. I completely blotted out all the times Ronnie's done well this year, all this doom and gloom talk must have gotten to me!

I was too slow to post. Point is though that even in form like this, if Ronnie get's chances he can win matches with that alone. Think it's more noticeable when Gilbert gets to a semi or final as well, as expectations are different.

Andre147 wrote:Yeah Prop is right. This season my expectations for him winning another world title are much less than last 2 seasons.

Yes I know history has proved that having a quiet season means little at The Crucible and a player can suddenly win it out of nowhere, but until that happens my confidence will be low in his chances that's a certainty. If he reaches one table setup, I'll start to believe he's ready for another world title but at the moment I can't see that happening.

I understand where you're coming from. I am allowing myself to be swayed by the fact that the last 2 times he won the WC were in cases where he wasn't expected to win, because of either having had an underwhelming season or no season at all. As a general rule, Ronnie hasn't fared well at the Crucible when being the/a favorite, and seems to have been more likely to win when he wasn't expected to...

Andre147 wrote:Yeah Prop is right. This season my expectations for him winning another world title are much less than last 2 seasons.

Yes I know history has proved that having a quiet season means little at The Crucible and a player can suddenly win it out of nowhere, but until that happens my confidence will be low in his chances that's a certainty. If he reaches one table setup, I'll start to believe he's ready for another world title but at the moment I can't see that happening.

My main favourites for the World Title would be, regardless of what happens between now and then, in this order: Robertson, Murphy, Trump, Selby, Higgins and then Ronnie.

Yes I put Murphy ahead of Trump, because well... Trump will fall victim to the Curse.

Heavily agree with this. I'll start to believe sooner if he stops hitting baulk colours every 5 safety shots.

If you look at the last ten years most World Champions or finalists had strong seasons leading up to it.

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:If you look at the last ten years most World Champions or finalists had strong seasons leading up to it.

...except Ronnie. In the 5 seasons where Ronnie won the WC, he won a grand total of 4 other tournaments in those seasons.

Holden Chinaski wrote:It has been a strange season. At times Ronnie was playing very good and he lost some very close matches. Other times he played kamikaze snooker and it looked like he wanted to go home as soon as possible. There have definitely been matches where he didn't play serious snooker at all. Still won some of those matches as well.

The one v Higgins at the CoC was the craziest. Even the great John Higgins got caught out by how quick he was playing and getting most of the pots. Of course that style of play has reduced chances of succeding. But my word that was an entertaining match.

Andre147 wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:It has been a strange season. At times Ronnie was playing very good and he lost some very close matches. Other times he played kamikaze snooker and it looked like he wanted to go home as soon as possible. There have definitely been matches where he didn't play serious snooker at all. Still won some of those matches as well.

The one v Higgins at the CoC was the craziest. Even the great John Higgins got caught out by how quick he was playing and getting most of the pots. Of course that style of play has reduced chances of succeding. But my word that was an entertaining match.

It was incredible how frazzled Higgins was in that match. One of the mentally strongest players ever who’d just reached his third Crucible final based almost entirely on mental strength, and he got suckered in by a bit of exhibition snooker.

Is it a coincidence that Ronnie started to play more focused once he’d regained his position as the fastest player on the tour?

Iranu wrote:

Andre147 wrote:

Holden Chinaski wrote:It has been a strange season. At times Ronnie was playing very good and he lost some very close matches. Other times he played kamikaze snooker and it looked like he wanted to go home as soon as possible. There have definitely been matches where he didn't play serious snooker at all. Still won some of those matches as well.

The one v Higgins at the CoC was the craziest. Even the great John Higgins got caught out by how quick he was playing and getting most of the pots. Of course that style of play has reduced chances of succeding. But my word that was an entertaining match.

It was incredible how frazzled Higgins was in that match. One of the mentally strongest players ever who’d just reached his third Crucible final based almost entirely on mental strength, and he got suckered in by a bit of exhibition snooker.

Yeah it was a horror show!

How does Ronnie has a hope for Tour Championship if he wins Gibraltar Open?

He will win 50,000 + 97,500 that he has, his sum will be 146,500.

Higgins will have 158,500 by winning Dott in Players (143,500 + 15,000). And Dott will go up to 151,250 if it will be him who wins (136,250 + 15,000). There's no way that both can lose, so Ronnie is out. Although I think that he wouldn't enter Gibraltar anyway.

Let's just cancel the remainder of the season and skip straight to the Crucible. It's what everyone clearly wants anyway, judging by the chatter.

The match against Higgins in the Coc and against Selby recently in the Welsh Open have been Ronnies two best matches this season.

Andre147 wrote:

D4P wrote:

Wildey wrote:Ronnie will have more pressure to salvage a disastrous campaign for him

Maybe, but that would be a different kind of pressure from the pressure of being the favorite to win. I'm still holding out belief that part of what Ronnie tried to accomplish this season was to arrive at the Crucible with 2-3 other players ahead of him on the favorites list...

No way he would have planned this, yes it's happened but that's just how it goes.

yea its not planned it could benefit him make him hungryer or it could go the other way what i do know Ronnie can handle pressure so we wait and see but sometimes its not how well you play but how well the other guy stops you playing.

thats the great thing about snooker you need chances to win if those are limited you lose

D4P wrote:

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:If you look at the last ten years most World Champions or finalists had strong seasons leading up to it.

...except Ronnie. In the 5 seasons where Ronnie won the WC, he won a grand total of 4 other tournaments in those seasons.

He won more if you're counting the big invitationals. The number of ranking events has gone way up since 2012. Now you would expect there to be 3 or 4 players entering the World Championship with multiple titles that season and the last three seasons one of those players has won. That won't happen every season but I would expect it to happen the majority of the time.

Iranu wrote:Is it a coincidence that Ronnie started to play more focused once he’d regained his position as the fastest player on the tour?

I definitely felt like Trump trolled Ronnie into playing faster...

Andre147 wrote:Yeah Prop is right. This season my expectations for him winning another world title are much less than last 2 seasons.

Yes I know history has proved that having a quiet season means little at The Crucible and a player can suddenly win it out of nowhere, but until that happens my confidence will be low in his chances that's a certainty. If he reaches one table setup, I'll start to believe he's ready for another world title but at the moment I can't see that happening.

My main favourites for the World Title would be, regardless of what happens between now and then, in this order: Robertson, Murphy, Trump, Selby, Higgins and then Ronnie.

Yes I put Murphy ahead of Trump, because well... Trump will fall victim to the Curse.

And the player who actually will win the tournament — Ding Junhui — doesn’t even appear on your list.

No, no matter how many times Pink Ball makes us look like tits, will we listen to him? No. I’d rather be wrong than have to admit he’s a genius, says the planet.

eraserhead wrote:Anyway to find out who's playing when for players champs?

Want to get the prediction template up.

Just seen the draw is out:

https://wst.tv/coral-players-championship-draw/