2017 Welsh Open

[Erwan_BZH]

Must be a toughie to swallow for Judd...He was right back in it in the second session, took the bull by the horns, had a 8-7 lead only to succumb to a very determinded Bingham. Once again, another title is slipping off his hands...Tough because he played superbly all week and besides his 4-frames lapse at the beginning of the match, he was, to me, the better player of the two. No disrespect to Bingham here, he played fantastically well to level it all at 8 all and to clinch the title. Great bottle!!
So for Trump, he must be started to think he's cursed of something like that...he's due to land a big one but for whatever reason, seems he can't cross the finishing line, always falling short. Worrysome?

[JimMalone]

4-0 for Bingham. To me Trump has always been a player who has been better with an early lead. I think Stu is the heavy favorite now.

Well, Stu's win was never really in doubt, was it? ;-)

Good, but not great final. Very thrilling to watch, but not always the highest quality. I'm happy Bingham won, but feel a bit pity for Trump. In the evening he was the slightly better player in my opinion. 8-9 is always a tough loss. But I'm pretty sure he will recover.

[JimMalone]

I don't know if there's anything in this (a bit like a dropped slice of toast always landing butter-side down) but does anyone else get a real sense that the vast majority of times the player you want to win a match/final, doesn't??

It's got me so paranoid now, that I feel it's almost guaranteed 'my' player is going to lose, simply because I want him to win.

It does happen to me quite often, despite I know that is not the case. I then feel that everything is against me. Right now I'm on a horrible streak of cases, that my favorite sportsmen or teams all lose their important matches or teams I don't like win. Welsh Open final anyways wasn't important enough for me to get on this list, though ;-). But with this streak right now I'm already nearly "convinced" a player I dislike (O'Sullivan probably) will win the world championship this year...

But when I look back and count it's easy to see that the events won by players (or teams) I like and dislike approximately equal each other. Of course the chance of it depends also on how many sportsmen in a competition you like or dislike.

[Neil Taperell]

Used to .....but i wanted Fu , Hamilton and then Bingham to win ..........obviously didn't bet on them , as they would have all lost !

[JimMalone]

Used to .....but i wanted Fu , Hamilton and then Bingham to win ..........obviously didn't bet on them , as they would have all lost !

When I bet I usually bet on the outcome I don't want to happen. Doesn't make me happier though

[Rane]

Winner, winner, chicken for dinner. Congratulations to Ballrun.

[shmeeko69]

When I bet I usually bet on the outcome I don't want to happen. Doesn't make me happier though

I always maintain it's better to bet on a player you don't like. So if they win then, you're happy with the added money and if they lose then,
you're still happy that they're out. Makes sense really?

[JimMalone]

I always maintain it's better to bet on a player you don't like. So if they win then, you're happy with the added money and if they lose then,
you're still happy that they're out. Makes sense really?

As I said this is exactly what I do. But in some cases it still doesn't help as my favorite player winning is much more important to me than win a few euros.
I won something like 70 euros, when Federer beat Nadal in the Australian Open Final this year, but was still inconsolable that Nadal lost.

[shmeeko69]

I would have been the opposite to that Jim, as I'm a Federer fan and was delighted when he beat Nadal, so
I would have lost the bet, but my player won and reached 18 GS's

I can't understand for the life of me why folk bet on their favourite player or team in a sporting event. It's blo*dy crazy!

[JimMalone]

I would have been the opposite to that Jim, as I'm a Federer fan and was delighted when he beat Nadal, so
I would have lost the bet, but my player won and reached 18 GS's

I can't understand for the life of me why folk bet on their favourite player or team in a sporting event. It's blo*dy crazy!

I like Federer. I would have been happy if it was any other player. But Nadal is one of my two favorite athletes ever. And I so badly wanted him to win.

Well I think it has something to do with an optimistic worldview for them. They are so convinced it will happen and so euphoric about it, they bet on what they want to happen.

[crocodile]

An interesting night of snooker. :smile:

The Welsh Open has provided some excellent finals down the years... The first one I ever watched in full was the terrific battle between Hendry and O'Sullivan in 2005, then there was the unforgettable final between Robertson and Andrew Higginson in 2007, Selby's comeback from 8-5 down against O'Sullivan in 2008, the Maguire-Bingham thriller in 2013... Well, tonight was another one of those classic midnight finishes that only snooker can provide. It was perhaps not as high quality as the ones I mentioned, especially the evening session which had very little fluency, but it's always exciting when so many frames go down to the colours. :smile:

Nice to see Bingham finally getting some reward for his very consistent performances this season. I think he will definitely be a big danger at the Crucible. Trump as well, only one notable title this season, but lots of near misses and impressive performances in single matches. He just needs to string a few good performances together and it could be his year. :smile:

I won't say anything about the tournament as a whole, I'm sure everyone knows my feelings about this particular format by now. I will however mention the usual lack of class from Eurosport, literally ending their broadcast on the continent in the middle of David Hendon's sentence, without a word of goodbye. Not that I am particularly interested in the customary platitudes that follow the victory ceremony, but this recent trend of completely ignoring the viewers on the continent is a little unprofessional.

Well, perhaps they don't want to lose a minute of valuable advertising time ....

Not that these award ceremonies particularly interest me either, but I've noticed that whenever they do reruns of the finals the broadcast always comes to an abrupt end a few seconds after the last ball's been potted and the winner's started celebrating (at least it's the case here in Germany - probably it's the same in other Continental countries too).

And on the subject of advertising - I also noticed at one point during the WGP (I think it was) that Shaun Murphy couldn't get started on one particular frame because they had to wait for some ITV advertising to finish first. Makes you wonder.

[Odrl]

And on the subject of advertising - I also noticed at one point during the WGP (I think it was) that Shaun Murphy couldn't get started on one particular frame because they had to wait for some ITV advertising to finish first. Makes you wonder.

Yes, I think this happens in every tournament where ITV or Eurosport are the host broadcasters. I don't think it happens in the BBC or the Chinese events. That said, the BBC does of course have the massive delay at the start of the match, when we all have to wait for their studio stuff to finish.

It's pathetic really, the event should be played according to its own schedule and TV should be there to cover it. Can you imagine something like that happening in football? Players just standing around before the kick-off, waiting for TV to give the referee permission to start the match? Laughable, isn't it? And yet it's common practice in snooker. :wink:

[cueman]

Must be a toughie to swallow for Judd...He was right back in it in the second session, took the bull by the horns, had a 8-7 lead only to succumb to a very determinded Bingham. Once again, another title is slipping off his hands...Tough because he played superbly all week and besides his 4-frames lapse at the beginning of the match, he was, to me, the better player of the two. No disrespect to Bingham here, he played fantastically well to level it all at 8 all and to clinch the title. Great bottle!!
So for Trump, he must be started to think he's cursed of something like that...he's due to land a big one but for whatever reason, seems he can't cross the finishing line, always falling short. Worrysome?

I don't think Judd played that well this week to be honest. In patches he was good, maybe the table wasn't the best for his type of game, but the amount of times he broke down on 40 or 50 is a concern.

His lack of titles is clearly becoming a problem now. The more you fail to get over the line in these types of matches, the harder it is to deal with the pressure each time it happens in the future. His cue action went in the decider, he wasn't able to get into the pack and the red he missed into the right corner he missed by a long way. When Bingham had his chance he looked far more composed and look like a champion.

I think Judd is going to really struggle to get over this now. He keeps talking up that he is working hard and he's going to try and win the Masters and lost first round, he had a poor UK tournament as well, it seems the longer matches he can't sustain his form and the pressure gets to him. His best form has all come in the short format events in best of 7's.
If ever a player needs to get a coach in his corner now its Trump, I think he needs Griffiths or someone to mentally toughen him up. You've seen what he's done for Fu and Hawkins and the level they played at to win tournaments this season, Trump needs to work on his scoring if he's to win the big titles.

[Erwan_BZH]

Not sure it's really about scoring to be honest. I would blame hazardous shot selection more. He seems to be too eager for the quick kill and not patient enough (even though the tactical battle in the 16th frame was splendid).
He seems to always be guilty of some brainfart at some point of an important game that costs him victory. A seasonned coach like the Griff would indeed be a welcome addition for him. He needs external advice to finally land some silver.

[shmeeko69]

I like Federer. I would have been happy if it was any other player. But Nadal is one of my two favorite athletes ever. And I so badly wanted him to win.

Well I think it has something to do with an optimistic worldview for them. They are so convinced it will happen and so euphoric about it, they bet on what they want to happen.

I've always treated betting like a business and I only place a few strategic bets per year and that's probably why I'm one of the very few who can show a long-term profit.

If you get emotional when you bet or "sweaty palm syndrome" then, you shouldn't do it!