With the 128 PDC tour members for 2019 confirmed, the calendar gets underway in Milton Keynes on Friday when the leading 16 players in the world rankings head to Milton Keynes to compete in The Masters, the first tournament of the new season.
Michael van Gerwen has been pretty dominant in this competition in recent times, but he has been vulnerable elsewhere and there are 15 top class players looking to dethrone the world champion over the course of the weekend.
Recent Winners
2018 – Michael van Gerwen
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – James Wade
2013 – Phil Taylor
The Format
The tournament is a straight knockout and one of the good things about this event is not only that the cream of the crop is here but also the format is pretty long right from the beginning of it. The first round and quarter finals are the best of 19 legs while the semi-finals and the final are the best of 21 legs with the champion being decided on Sunday evening in a race to 11 legs.
Top Half
As the defending champion, world champion and world number one, Michael van Gerwen is the number one seed this week. His life has been made much easier in this top half with the news that Gary Anderson has had to pull out due to a back injury. Daryl Gurney is now the second highest ranked player in this half with Mensur Suljovic the only other man who is inside the top eight in the world rankings.
Stephen Bunting is the man who has replaced Anderson and he, Darren Webster and Jonny Clayton are all looking for a big weekend to make the most of their opportunity here. The other two men in this half of the draw are Simon Whitlock and Dave Chisnall, both of whom will quietly fancy their chances of a big return.
Bottom Half
The former world champion Rob Cross is the top man in the bottom half of the draw. You get the feeling that this could be a big year for Cross if he can start it well so this is a big weekend for him. Peter Wright is the next highest ranked player here while the world finalist Michael Smith and Grand Slam champion Gerwyn Price are the other men in the top eight in the world in the bottom half.
The lower seeded players in this half of the draw are much the stronger of the two halves this weekend with European Championship and World Series Finals winner James Wade among them. Adrian Lewis is another leading player in this part of the draw while Joe Cullen and Ian White set up a pretty competitive half of the draw.
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Betting
The value in this tournament is pretty obvious. It lies in James Wade. He leads Gerwyn Price, his first round opponent 5-3 in their head to head and there is nobody in the bottom half of the draw that he has a losing record against. If his draw was to go with the market he would play Rob Cross in the quarter final, an opponent he won four of his five meetings against last year and Michael Smith would be his semi-final opponent and he leads him 12-3 in past battles.
Of course Michael van Gerwen is the stumbling point but we would have an each way pay out by the time we run into him. Wade is a former winner of this tournament and has a very good record in the match play format. We saw that at the back end of last year and he’s too big to ignore at 33/1 this weekend in my eyes.
Tips
PLACED – Back J.Wade to win The Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with BetVictor (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
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