Mark Selby tries to explain the Jack Lisowski conundrum

Mark Selby got the better of Jack Lisowski at the Players Championship on Tuesday and was left struggling to explain the conundrum of the Jackpot.

Neither player was at their best in Telford, but Selby picked up a 6-3 victory, with the highlight a brilliant clearance of 136 in the eighth.

It looked like it might be a walk in the park for the four-time world champion as he took a 3-0 lead, but Lisowski did fight back to just 4-3 behind, only for Selby to power to victory.

Jackpot was not producing his scintillating top form and with his ultra-attacking style, when he’s not firing it can look like quite sloppy snooker.

Selby, who has been beaten by Lisowski seven times in the past, says he is often left questioning if Jackpot is really trying his best to win, even though he feels that he must be.

‘Obviously he’s just so talented and he’s so dangerous,’ Selby said of Lisowski. ‘You never know what you’re going to get from him. Very, very similar to Ronnie [O’Sullivan].

‘I don’t mean it in a bad way, but when you were watching him there, at times I thought he looked like he just didn’t want to be there, with some of the shots he was playing. But he is trying as hard as me out there, for sure.

‘Sometimes you play him and you think you get a lot of chances and then other times he can just absolutely blow you away. But you know what, he’s great for the game.

‘I’m so happy for him that he won a ranking tournament earlier on in the season. I just hope he kicks on now and the floodgates open a little bit.’

Lisowski’s first ranking event triumph at the Northern Ireland Open this season was a brilliant moment and hugely popular among snooker fans and his fellow players.

His form has not been great since and Selby says Lisowski will never achieve great consistency with his style of play.

‘To be consistent, I don’t really think you can have that kind of game, I think you need an all-round game,’ the Jester told WST. ‘When you’ve got that kind of game you need to be playing well and let’s be honest you’re not going to be playing well every single day, nobody does.’

Selby has pretty much every tool you could want in your snooker toolbox, but one he can show off more than anyone else is his immense patience.

The 42-year-old feels this is what Lisowski could do with working on more than anything.

‘I think with Jack, and he’ll probably say so himself, I think a lot of the time with him it’s just the patience,’ he said.

‘Sometimes he just pushes the boat out a little bit when he probably could just be a bit more patient. But then that’s what makes him so good to watch. He’s so attacking.

‘If you take that away from him, then you take away the raw talent that he’s got. It’s a bit like with Thepchaiya [Un-Nooh] as well. Very, very similar.

‘People say he’s probably not won more because he’s just so open and it’s all or nothing. But if you take that away from him, he’s probably not as dangerous to play. So it’s a tough one.

‘Obviously he’s won a ranking tournament, so he’s doing something right.’

Selby marches on in Telford and takes on Mark Allen in the quarter-finals of the Players Championship on Friday night.

The Pistol booked his spot in the last eight thanks to a 6-3 win over Wu Yize on Tuesday afternoon.