There’s a feast of snooker action in the Northern Ireland Open this evening and there looks to be three tasty bets for punters to tuck into.
Patrick Can Put the Boot Into Maflin
Kurt Maflin is a quality cueman but price dictates betting and the 7/2 on offer about Fraser Patrick looks too big to refuse.
Maflin is capable of troubling the best in the game when he is fully dedicated to the sport. That was evident when the London-born potter beat David Gilbert and John Higgins to reach the quarter-finals of last year’s World Championship.
However, recent performances leave question marks as to the sort of shape Maflin’s game is in.
The Londoner failed to get out of a Championship League group containing Igor Figueiredo, Martin Gould and Simon Lichtenberg and that was followed by a first-round exit in the European Masters.
Robbie Williams beat Maflin 4-2 at the last-32 stage of the English Open and Martin O’Donnell crushed the Norwegian 5-2 in the German Masters qualifiers earlier this month.
There’s no doubt that Maflin has the talent but Patrick is a solid player and he is good enough to take the opportunities if they come.
The Scot regained his tour card in 2019 and he’s shown enough to suggest he could upset the odds here.
Burns Can Fire Against Davis
Mark Davis has been a brilliant professional over the years, but he is in the twilight of his career and he faces a tough assignment against Ian Burns.
Burns is a capable performer, who perhaps hasn’t achieved the results that his talent deserves.
However, the Preston potter looked in decent nick in the Championship League and Burns has been good enough to reach the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open in the past.
Davis isn’t taken lightly and there may not be too much between these two players today but quotes of 7/5 seem to underrate Burns.
O’Connor Can Corner Selt
Joe O’Connor is a promising cueman and he looks ready to get the better of Matt Selt.
The Leicester potter showed what he can do when reaching the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in 2019 and he has continued in decent form with runs to the third round of the European Masters and English Open this year.
There isn’t much to like about Selt’s form this season and you can say the same for last term too. The Romford cueman has lost to Jamie Clarke, Xu Si and Dominic Dale in recent events and O’Connor can add his name to that list.
*All odds correct at time of writing