With so many backyard barbecues happening this weekend to celebrate July 4, there’s sure to be plenty of cornhole played across the country. After the hot dog eating contest at around lunchtime on July 4, the 2021 ACL Pro Invitational will take place. DraftKings has a free entry to a DraftKings Sportsbook Pool that will hand out $5K in prizes for answering a series of questions about the event.
This year’s ACL Pro Invitational has been re-formatted to set up an All-Star style with the top 8 male ACL Pros and top 8 female ACL Pros by Pro Singles standings pairing up and competing for $25,000. The top-ranked male ACL Pro was paired with the No. 8 ranked female ACL Pro, the second-ranked male was paired with the No. 7 female, and so on to complete the 8-team field. It should be a fun showcase event and a good way for the public to be able to catch all the top players in action. What should we expect to see and who could emerge with the win? Let’s break it down by looking at the questions that are part of the free DraftKings Sportsbook pool.
To play the free $5K pool, head over to the DraftKings Sportsbook Pools page. The contest starts at 12:00 p.m. ET on July 4.
Check out the America’s Block Party page for more info on all the events, free-to-play pools, and betting markets rolling out over the weekend
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Who will win Match #1?
Matt Guy is ranked in the top five in both Pro Singles and Pro Doubles this season. Guy is tied for the No. 4 spot in the Pro Singles rankings and is also part of the No. 1-ranked Pro Doubles team with Jamie Graham. Guy and Graham won the Pro Doubles title this season at the 2021 ACL Bag Brawl and the 2021 ACL Pro Shootout #3 in mid-June. For this contest, Guy will be teamed up with Courtney Coy for this event, who claimed the women’s singles at ACL Open #7 and is currently ranked No. 89 in Pro Singles.
They’ll be opposed by Cody Henderson and Lori Dool. Henderson is currently No. 3 in Pro Singles and No. 3 in Pro Doubles. Henderson got on a great roll earlier this season and set a record with 31 bags in a row against Eddie Grinderslev. Dool won the Women’s Singles at the second ACL Pro Shootout this season and is a rising star, but I don’t think that they’ll be able to take down the more established team of Guy and Coy.
Choice: Matt Guy/Courtney Coy
Who will win Match #2?
Jordan Camba is tied with Guy for the No. 4 spot in the Pro Singles rankings and is part of the No. 2 team in the Pro Doubles rankings. His partner Samantha Finley is No. 79 and claimed the ACL Pro Shootout #1 women’s title earlier this spring.
Jay Rubin is the No. 6-ranked player in the Pro Singles and will be paired with Sarah Cassidy, who is No. 48. Cassidy has had doubles success in the past, claiming the Women’s Doubles along with teammate Cheyenne Renner at the 2020 ACL World Championships. Camba is the best statistical player of this group, but I think the more balanced team of Rubin and Cassidy have the advantage.
Choice: Jay Rubin/Sarah Cassidy
Who will win Match #3?
The second-highest rated Pro Single is Trey Burchfield, who gets a solid teammate in Jackie Sayasone, who is ranked No. 113. They’ll face No. 7 Allan Rockwell and No. 41 Kamryn Belvin.
Burchfield is known as The Robot due to his approach and his consistency and has an astounding 46.0% 4-baggers rate in combined Singles and Doubles play. Only Matt Guy at 41.75% is within eight percentage points of Burchfield, and Burchfield has turned that high percentage into 10.12 points per round, which is the highest mark of any Pro this season. He won the 2021 ACL Bag Brawl Singles title earlier this year and claimed the Pro Doubles title at last summer’s 2020 ACL World Championships along with Derrick King. He’ll need some help from Sayasone, who isn’t as established as Belvin, but I think Burchfield’s excellence is enough to carry them through this round.
Choice: Trey Burchfield/Jackie Sayasone
Who will win Match #4?
Match #4 will feature the highest-rated male competitor, Daymon Dennis, going head-to-head with the highest-rated female competitor, Cheyenne Renner, who is No. 36 overall. Renner will be paired with Ryan Smith, who is ranked No. 7 overall, while Dennis is paired with No. 120 Sheila Roy. Dennis has come out of nowhere this season to take the ACL by storm and just won the 2021 ACL Pro Shootout #3 less than a month ago for his second big win of the year after claiming the 2021 ACL Kickoff Battle.
Renner has been almost as dominant on the women’s side and won the Doubles title at Nationals last year as mentioned above while also winning the women’s side of the 2021 ACL Pro Shootout #3. With both these players in such excellent form, this is actually one of the most compelling matchups in the first round. Maybe it’s because I like pulling for the underdog or maybe it’s that I’m still not fully believing in Dennis as an elite player, but I think Renner and Smith can pull off the upset here.
Choice: Ryan Smith/Cheyenne Renner
Which female player will average the highest PPR (points-per-round)?
The choices here are Cheyenne Renner, Kamryn Belvin, Sarah Cassidy and any other player. With eight female competitors, the “any other option” is a pretty strong option. However, I think Renner is locked in and the top option here. She is producing 9.6 points per round on the season while Cassidy checks in at 9.05 and Belvin checks in at 8.71.
Choice: Cheyenne Renner
Which male player will average the highest PPR (points-per-round)?
The “any other player” gives you five of the top cornhole players in the world and is definitely hard to ignore even with Dennis, Guy and Burchfield as the other three options. Based on their numbers this season, Burchfield has a 10.12 PPR average giving him a slight advantage over Guy (10.07 PPR) and Dennis (9.92 PPR). You could definitely make a case for any one of these options being the right way to go, making this one of the toughest props on the board. With so much volatility, I’m going to take the field and expect a little bit of chaos.
Choice: Any Other Player
Will any games go into overtime after 10 rounds of play?
Using cancellation scoring usually results in close matchups and often results in overtime. If the score is tied, play will continue until a winner is decided. This has led to some marathon matches recently, and I expect that at least one of these evenly matched pairs of Doubles will end up needed extra innings.
Choice: Yes
Which team will win the top half of the bracket?
Which team will win the bottom half of the bracket?
Predicting any kind of bracket is difficult and this one that is fully stocked with exceptional players in a new format is even more prone to upsets. It is important to at least make sure your entry has a correlation with your earlier picks, so choosing from the teams you picked to win their first-round match is critical to securing a high finish.
Choice: Matt Guy/Courtney Coy
Choice: Ryan Smith/Cheyenne Renner
Which of these players will finish with the highest 4 bagger percentage?
These are four of the lower-ranked players in the field, but I love the fact that they get their own prop as well. The four options here are Lori Dool, Jason Rubin, Jackie Sayasone and Ryan Smith. I’m picking Rubin, Sayasone and Smith to each win their first-round matches, but this isn’t about who will play more rounds but who will have the highest 4-bagger percentage. Coming into the weekend, Rubin has the best percentage of this group at 33.55%. Smith is close at 27.54%, with Dool (17.04%) and Sayasone (7.96%) trailing behind. Since I’m riding with Renner/Smith in my other picks, I’ll keep it going here as well.
Choice: Ryan Smith
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