Betfair World Snooker Tips: White is well worth a trade to fight back

1May 2013

Betfair

There will be plenty of nerves at the Crucible today as the quarter-finals reach their conclusion. Paul Krishnamurty argues that is a good reason to back a turnaround in the Ricky Walden v Michael White match...

Compared to past renewals, there has been a dearth of close finishes and even fewer memorable comebacks at this year's Betfair World Championship. So far we've only had one deciding frame and only one player has won after starting the final session behind. Even in that case, the deficit was merely one frame. However with nerves aplenty expected today as the semi-final line-up is completed, we should at last be about to see some real drama.

That is highly unlikely to be the case in the O'Sullivan/Bingham match after the Rocket won their first session 7-1, but both the Trump/Murphy and Hawkins/Junhui matches are beautifully poised at 8-8 and 9-7 respectively. The other match also has potential, despite Ricky Walden sweeping to an early 6-2 lead against Michael White.

The difference in this match is that both players are in unknown territory. Never mind the pressure associated with reaching the Crucible semis, just the extra rankings points will represent a significant step forward in either man's career. Maybe that was on Walden's mind when he nearly surrendered a 9-3 lead in the last round, before eventually winning 13-11. Maybe it was pressure that caused White to play his worst session of the tournament yesterday.

Irrespective of that, White remains a player with immense potential and he will have been bitterly disappointed to have played so poorly. These marathon best of 25 frame matches offer the perfect opportunity to right such a wrong and I expect him to come out all guns blazing in the morning. A good trading plan is to back White now at 6.0, then place an order to lay him at 3.0 should he shorten to that mark in-running. The staking plan detailed below amounts effectively to an even money bet, risking four units to return eight.

Recommended bets (Back to Lay)

Back Michael White 4u @ 6.0

Place order to lay Michael White 8u @ 3.0