Players Championship predictions and snooker betting tips: Allen ready to star

Free snooker tips, best bets and analysis for the Players Championship, which starts on Monday in Wolverhampton.

Where to watch

ITV4, 7pm Monday

Best bet

Mark Allen to win the Players Championship
1pt each-way 8-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

Tournament preview

Snooker’s top-16 players on the one-year ranking list converge on Wolverhampton for the Players Championship and it should be a cracking contest.

The draw often plays a major role in the evaluation of any competition and it looks to hold the key in this event. Top potters Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Neil Robertson are all housed in the same section of the draw and it’s not hard for punters to look elsewhere.

Recent German Masters king Zhao Xintong will be brimming with confidence coming into this event but Mark Allen may represent better value in the top half.

The Antrim ace has always given the impression that he is one to follow when on-song and his efforts in last month's German Masters certainly give plenty of encouragement.

The Pistol's talent lies in the break-building department and he knocked in five centuries in the Tempodrom. That wasn’t enough to get Allen past his semi-final foe Yan Bingtao, but it adds to the idea that the Pistol is ready to fire.

Allen takes on Ricky Walden in round one, and while the Chester man has been playing some decent snooker, it’s a first-round tussle the Antrim man should win. Mark Williams is a tough potential quarter-final opponent, but if Allen produces the power-scoring he displayed in Berlin he is going to take some stopping.

The Pistol seems to be in a good place on the baize and he looks each-way value in Wolverhampton.

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