Dr. Huang's wager. Odds: 500 to 1

X Breaker

X Breaker

AzB Silver Member
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A very interesting story I read from the newspaper about the recently crowned UK Snooker Champion, Mr. Ding.

There was an engineer living in the UK called Dr. Huang and he loved to play snooker.

In 1997, after he returned to China from the UK, he wrote a letter to a UK company to ask if they would accept his bet that a Chinese player would win the world snooker championship by 2010.

He received a reply shorty stating that they would indeed accept his bet, the odds were 500 to 1 and the maximum bet would be 200 pounds.

Dr. Huang sent a check of 200 pounds to the UK and in June 1997, he received a receipt on which the terms "professional" and "2010 Jan 1st" was added. In order for him to win, a Chinese professional snooker player would need to win a World Snooker Championship sanctioned by the World Snooker Federation before 1st Jan, 2010.

The odds are 500 to 1, if Ding wins, Dr. Huang would pocket 100,000 pounds, which is approx. 200,000 US dollars.

Do you think Mr. Huang would ever win this 100,000 pounds before Jan 1st 2010?

Richard
 
Rumours of a "tiger woods of snooker", meaning Ding, have been around for a little while. Although we just recently became aware of players like Ding, if you lived in China and saw the level the game is being played at now, I don't think 500-1 odds are bad at all.

That area of the world is starting to make a big impact on pool and snooker. Wu shocked everyone last year, Ding is running centuries left and right, who knows who else might pop up this year.
 
Prob a bit late now but Judd Trump who is 16 and has just turned proffessional (they changed the rules for him especially) would have been a good bet.

I think Ding has a great chance to do it before 2010, does he want to sell his bet? :rolleyes:
 
500 to 1 sounds like damn good odds especially the way snooker and cue sports in general have been growing in China, and if the guy is running centuries all over the place the bet is even better. The risk is so small compared to the reward I should write a letter the this company in the UK:p
 
The bet

I think Huang has a very good bet. I am sure
if this company was flooded with offers of the same
bet, they would reconsider their position on it .... lol
 
I think he has a pretty good chance of winning
the bet. Ding Jun Hui would be the obvious
player from China to do it, however Ronnie
O'Sullivan was a phenom as a teenager also but
didn't win the World Championship until 2001
when he was 25 yeras old, he had won many other
events but that title eluded him for his first
8 years as a pro.
Now Ding Jun Hui is playing great, he just won
the UK Championship a month ago, but he still
has never even qualified for the Worlds, so
anything can happen. Ding also can become the
youngest ever World Snooker Champion, he's 18
now but will be 19 when the Worlds takes place.
I believe Hendry was the youngest at 21.

If I had to make a bet either way I'd go with
Ding winnning it by 2010.
 
I just read Mordecai Richlers "on Snooker", a good book for snooker fans, and he talks about a similair story involving Mark Williams.

"Williams's triumph was popular with his peers and the fans. It was especially popular with his fellow Welshman, Kevin Bohn, a factory worker. Bohn had first seen the then fourteen-year-old williams play at a junior amateur event in 1989, and he had immediately forked over 140 pounds to a bookmaker, wagering, at odds of 300-1, that Williams would win the world title before 2001. Bohn saw his faith rewarded with a check for 42,000 pounds"

Williams won both the UK and the world championship that year, something only Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry had accomplished to that point.

Wu won two majors last year, maybe Ding will do the same in snooker.
 
Ding is only around 10-1 to win the 2006 World Championship.
So for any chinese player to win the World Championship before 2010 would probably be around 4-1 or less.
 
When Dr. Huang made his wager back in 1997, I think snooker was not yet popular in China. Marco Fu was the only known Chinese player. I can see how the odd was placed at 500 to 1 back in 1997. I believe it would be a much slimmer odds now. Dr. Huang have been waiting since 1997 and there is finally hope for him to see his fellow countryman having a chance to win. There are 4 more chances before 2010.
Ding will need to play qualifiers from round 1 all the way through and it is definitely not an easy way to the finals for him this year. He would certainly make history if he could somehow manage to do it.
Richard
 
Ding has 4 chances to win the world title. Can he do it ? Yes, definitely. Will he do it ? Well, there are many great players who have never won the world title, so I would say it would be a surprise if he'd win it. Don't get me wrong, I'd want him to win, but there are so many great players against Ding there so it would require many things to fall into right places if he'd be the one to lift the trophy. Facing a dead-stroke Ronnie or Hendry in the first rounds would be the most likely way for Ding to have an early exit from the World Champs. Did Dr. Huang make a good bet ? Hell yes !!! The odds he got are looking better and better after each year, but Ding has only 4 chances to make Dr. Huang a rich guy. It's not terribly many chances, but he has very good odds.
 
mjantti said:
Ding has 4 chances to win the world title. Can he do it ? Yes, definitely. Will he do it ? Well, there are many great players who have never won the world title, so I would say it would be a surprise if he'd win it. Don't get me wrong, I'd want him to win, but there are so many great players against Ding there so it would require many things to fall into right places if he'd be the one to lift the trophy. Facing a dead-stroke Ronnie or Hendry in the first rounds would be the most likely way for Ding to have an early exit from the World Champs. Did Dr. Huang make a good bet ? Hell yes !!! The odds he got are looking better and better after each year, but Ding has only 4 chances to make Dr. Huang a rich guy. It's not terribly many chances, but he has very good odds.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. I think Dr. Huang has had a very good deal and he did the right thing by bidding the maximum allowable amount. However, luck plays a hugh part in the outcome, and since Ding has to win his qualifiers first, it makes it even more difficult for him to win. Just to make it through all the qualifiers is not easy, on any given day, anyone he may face can run centuries from everywhere.

Asian pool players have performed really well in 2005, winning the US Open(Alex), World Junior 9 Ball (Wu from Taiwan), World Pool Championship (Wu from Taiwan), and World 8 ball (Wu from Taiwan), along with a WPBA US Open title (Ga Young Kim), WPBA tournament of champions (Ga Young Kim), WPBA Nationals (Ga Young Kim) and a UK snooker title (Ding).

The newspaper in China is saying they are expecting to see Ding and Pan capturing World titles in snooker and 9 ball respectively this year.

Let's not forget, besides Ding, Marco Fu also has a chance to make Dr. Huang a nice little fortune.

The outcome could be very interesting indeed.

Richard
 
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