2nd July 2012

Six Red World Championship Betting: Defending champion Mark Selby has the quality to win Group A

With the Six Red World Championship, which begins out in Thailand on Monday, seeing the field split into groups of six a few bookmakers have priced up each group in the first round of the tournament and as is often the case when groups are priced up there is some decent value in a couple of them. The first group I’m going to focus on is Group A where defending champion Mark Selby is the Evens favourite with Boylesports.

This group features Mark Selby, Joe Perry, Dominic Dale, Dechawat Poomjaeng and two amateurs by the name of Karam Fatima and Shachar Ruberg. With all due respect to the two amateurs, over the course of five matches I don’t see either being good enough to compete for the win in this company, both will just be happy to make the top four and qualify if at all possible.

That leaves us with the four professionals and while the Thai player Dechawat Poomjaeng will be supported by the local crowd I’m not convinced his game stands up to the quality of the other three players so I will pass him over very swiftly. Dominic Dale should be very competitive in this format because he has all the shots and his eccentricity should suit this competition well but consistency isn’t his strength which would be a concern. Joe Perry has every chance in the group too but I like the defending champion.

Mark Selby played well in China last week before he ran into Stuart Bingham who played really well himself. Selby has shown he can compete in this format and I think his solid all round game will still be prosperous even in a six red tournament. When he gets in he often dishes and he is very good at beating players below him in the rankings. With no signs of his neck issue troubling him I think the defending champion can move into the last 32 by winning Group A.

Back M.Selby to win Group A for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports