Stephen Maguire is facing Joe Perry and is in the lead 7-2. Bookkeepers in england are giving at this moment Joe Perry 1:1000 chances to the title, that means for every pound you bet you would get £1000 if Joe wins the trophy.

In the meantime the match between Stephen Hendry and David Gilbert has just begun.

Update(s):

Joe Perry loses another frame and Stephen Maguire is impatient to finnish the match. Joe perry wins another frame though and the score is now 8-3.

Stephen Hendry drew “first blood” in the match against David Gilbert. The breaks are small and the match is pretty slow but we hope for more action later on in the game when it will be als on TV.

Maguire’s win of the last frame would cut the match sfort as another session won’t be needed. He’s also in a hurry because after Joe Perry he has to face Mark Williams, and that’s today. So if Maguire wants to be fresh for Mark he needs to put an end to this game as soon as possible.

Young debutant David Gilbert enjoys the public’s applause as he wins the second frame of the match. Stephen Hendry, as he said in an interview by BBC, means business and has his eyes on the title. Hendry made his personal mission to secure the world champion title for the 8th time in his career. Be aware!

After 14 frames the score is 7-7 and the future of this match is terribly uncertain. The match is also plagued by mistakes, the players aren’t concentrating and the level has fallen a lot from what we are used to see here…. I think they are going to have a tense decisive frame and the next 6 frames are crucial, Crucible is turning up the heat.

In the meantime Mark Williams is in the lead 3-0 and 69 points in the last frame of the first session. It would be heavy blow for Joe Swail to finish the first session without a frame won and finding himself this evening led by four points in the match.

Update:

Mark Williams is in the lead 4-0 against Joe Swail. We are hoping for a comeback, for the beauty of the game to say the least.

Ken Doherty needs 3 snookers to win the 15th frame but does not concede, he fails to pot a red and Mark Allan puts an end to this frame, gaining back the 1 frame lead “stolen” by Ken inthe 14th frame with a 100+ points break.

Mark Allan wins against Ken Doherty 10-7 in an impressive match.

“I beat Steve Davis and John Higgins in an invitation event last year but to beat Ken Doherty in the best of 19 is definitely my best win.”
–Mark Allen for BBC

Joe Swail made a great comeback from 4-0 but Mark Williams is still in the lead 5-3.

In the 4th frame of the match, Maguire is in the lead 2-1 and has 60 - 0 points. After a foul Joe Perry races to put the game into a tied but makes a mistake leaving the red on the edge of the pocket and Stephen Maguire makes an unexpected comeback to the table but the green ball is blocked and, even if he needs 3 snookers to win, Joe Perry is putting up a fight to make the score even again.

UPDATE: It’s 3-1 with Stephen Maguire in the lead. Joe Perry is beginning to feel the pressure at Crucible.

Judd Trump, at age 17, plays snooker pretty well. He’s one of the new generation players to make their way in the ranks at the snooker temple, the Crucible Theater in Sheffield.

On 13 March 2004, as a fourteen year old, Judd Trump hit a maximum during an Under 16 tournament at Coalville, Leicester, and became the youngest player in history to compile a 147 in an official tournament.

–Wikipedia

Judd Trump is giving former world champion Shaun Murphy a hard time in the firs round, the score is tied. After a slow start that gave Shaun a 3-0 lead Judd managed to get his game back on track.

The kid is a pleasure to watch, the shots he pulls are unbelivable, both hands shots, too.

UPDATE: Shaun Murphy finds himself trailing behind the young player and he must be feeling the pressure…

UPDATE: The match is still tense, Shaun Murphy is now in the lead by 1. Do not forget, the winner of this match is going to face in the next round the living legend, John Parrott.

Ken Doherty finds problems in winning a frame against Mark Allen. Allen won all 4 frames of the first session. Now in the second session of the match Ken Doherty is on the edge of winning with a score of 54 to 17, he commited an incredible foul at the green ball when he failed to touch it.

Mark Allan needs three snookers but does not concede the frame. Doherty finds himself in snooker position now but does not have a hard time finding the yellow ball pinned in the middle of the table. Mark Allen commits a foul and concedes the frame. He is in the lead 4-1.

Ken Doherty found his game during the break, he cut the difference to only two frames and is on Mark Allen’s tail.

Mark Allen wins the 7th frame ensuring us we will enjoy a third session in their company.

After 15 incredibly boring frames and a score of 9-6 Barry Hawkins managed to steal 3 frames from Fergal O’Brian and the match is now in it’s decisive frame… I must say it has become a little bit interesting, but I wouldn’t want to sit in the audience at the Crucible for 4 hours for this… if it were Ronnie, the match would have ended ages ago. Who knows, he might as well have gone home for no reason.

Sir Steve Davis looks at his dream come true, as the provisional ranking where he is on the 13′th position will become permanent once the world title will be conquered. His wish is to reach 50 in top 16.

Yet he was defeated in decisive frame by his friend, John Parrott. John is likely to meet Shaun Murphy and if the former world champion won’t prove to be a match for him Ken Doherty may find a bumpy ride in the quarters

UPDATE: This is how Steve Davis lost, in the decisive frame of the match, after a superbe comeback from 9-6…

A good night’s sleep seems to give results for peter Ebdon, yesterday’s session ended at the right time as he was caught up and surpassed by Nigel Bond 5-4 after leading 4-0. In today’s session Ebdon got the lead again 6-5. If the two are going to play a decisive frame and Nigel Bond wins Ebdon won’t be able to forgive himself for loosing a decisive lead in he first day.

In the meantime Barry Hawkins gained a 2 frame lead over the Irishman Fergal O’Brian and is gaining points in the third frame.

UPDATE: Nigel Bond and Ebdon are tied again while Hawkins loses the 3’rd frame, his score is now 2-1 over Fergal O’Brian but winning this 4′th frame won’t be easy and the match has great chances to become tied.

UPDATE: Peter Ebdon still holds the lead 7-6 against Nigel Bond with good chances of winning the 14′th frame and gaining a two-frame lead.

The defending champion, Graeme Dott, is running against Ian McCulloch as we speak… It’s the third frame and we had no significant breaks… it’s a slow start this time.

Will the World Championship curse send Dott home without this crown, or will he break the curse forever. It is known that no first-time winner of the championship ever successfully defended his title the following year at Sheffield. It’s the 31′th edition here and we are in for a long fight.

UPDATE: The third frame just ended with Ian’s resignation… it’s 2-1 for Graeme Dott.

UPDATE: Ian McCulloch has gained the lead, the score is now 5-4 in his favor.