The last of the first round matches in the Pokerstars.com Masters take place on Wednesday, with John Higgins facing Mark Allen, in a repeat of their Grand Prix quarter-final clash, while Joe Perry meets Ryan Day, two players desperate for an upturn in fortunes.
John Higgins v Mark Allen
Not surprisingly, world champion Higgins is the favourite at 4-9 (various) and if this match is a repeat showing from their recent Glasgow encounter, then the Scotsman will canter to victory.
The 'Wizard of Wishaw' has shown this season just why he is the current world number one, with two semi-final outings and one final appearance in the three ranking events of the campaign, and it will take a really bad off day for him not to taste success in this one.
The pair also met in the semi-final of the World Championship, back in April, with Higgins victorious again, suggesting that Allen is not yet capable of living with the Scottish star. Since that Crucible defeat, Allen has trodden water, suffering first round exits in both the Shanghai Masters and UK Championship, and he seems to be struggling to capture the form that took him to the last four at the Crucible.
And the problem with Allen is, once you've lost a couple of times to the same player in a short space of time, then doubts creep in and I can't see anything but a Higgins success here, while a few quid on a 6-2 win at 6-1 (totesport, Skybet) could make your return extra special.
Verdict: Higgins to maintain his good run.
Ryan Day v Joe Perry
Along with Marco Fu, these two players are the most out of nick in the top 16 and this is really a hard match to call and I wouldn't be confident with whoever I backed.
Their records are very similar this season, with both suffering two first round exits as well as reaching one quarter-final, with the pair of them thrashed by qualifers in the UK Championship. Perry admitted that he "played rubbish' in his 9-4 defeat by Stuart Bingham in Telford, while Day was awful in his 9-3 spanking by Liang Wenbo.
Day is the 8-11 jolly with totesport, while Perry can be backed at 5-4 (various) and at the prices on offer the best bet may be to take the biggest price and back the 'Gentleman' from Chatteris.
Perry insists he has been knocking the balls around well in practice and has changed some elements of his game – whether they are enough to drag him out of his rut, well only time will tell. This match could well come down to the wire and it may pay to back both players to win 6-5, at 6s (Day) and 7s (Perry).
Verdict: Perry to win, but not a confident selection.
