The second stage of the PDC Home Tour kicks off on Tuesday night as we begin 11 consecutive nights of action to determine the first, and hopefully only winner of a PDC event to be held inside darts stars’ homes.
As with the first part of the tournament we have four players on show on the night with the winner progressing to the penultimate round of the event. Anyone left in has shown their class so we’re set for a juicy night of darts.
The Format
The 32 group winners from the first round of groups have been redrawn into eight groups for the second stage of the event. Each winner moves into one of two semi-final groups with the top two from those two groups progressing to form the Championship group which will take place on June 5 where the overall winner will be crowned. Each match from here on in is the best of 11 legs rather than the best of 9 of the first round. Two points are awarded for a win. If players finish level on points then leg difference will decide the outcome. If that cannot separate players then the head to head will settle the group winner. Were three players to be tied on points and leg difference the player with the highest overall average goes through. The entire tournament is being streamed live on PDC.tv, the Sky Sports App and various bookmaker sites.
Group 32 Recap
It was over a week ago now but it was the last chance saloon for the world champion Peter Wright, however ‘Snakebite’ took full advantage of his second chance to make it through to the last 32. He won the group with two wins and ended up coming out on top from Adam Hunt by three legs. Krzysztof Ratajski came third while despite beating Peter Wright in his final match, Justin Pipe brought up the rear after two heavy defeats earlier in the night.
That meant it was a poor betting night because we put our faith in a value bet on Pipe to deliver the goods but we knew from a 5-0 beating in his first match that we weren’t going to be collecting on that front. It was only a small bet so it didn’t break the bank but even so it provides us with something to build on heading into this second stage.
Play-Offs Group 1 Line Up
Peter Wright was the last man into the second stage of the tournament but he headlines the return of the competition as he is up on the first night of the play-offs. Wright needed two bites at the cherry to make it through to this stage but he took full advantage of his second opportunity, although even that night he wasn’t at his best and you wonder how much work he would have done since then. He is the favourite to progress and probably rightly so but it might take a better performance than he has delivered so far.
Cristo Reyes was a very impressive winner of his first round group. He was quite late to the party but he saw off John Henderson, Ryan Meikle and Danny Noppert in fine style and there could even be more to come from the Spaniard. He averaged a shade under 95 for the night which was no mean effort given that everyone he played against had already had a run in the competition. If Reyes hits the doubles well then he could take a bit of beating here at an acceptable price.
Jelle Klaasen caused a huge controversy on his way to winning one of the earlier groups of the first stage. There was a huge uproar about one of his checkouts so all eyes will be on his finishing to see how that goes. You would think he will be extra clear with his retrieving the darts but if that plays on his mind it might affect his form. Although he came through his group in fine style, Klaasen did only average 90.43 for the night so he is also going to need to step up a bit if he’s going to win this group you would think.
The lowest ranked player in the field is Ryan Murray, a man who overcame the challenges of Joe Cullen, John Michael and Jermaine Wattimena to come through on leg difference. That wasn’t the best group by any stretch of the imagination but you have to give Murray credit for coming through it. His overall average that night was less than 90 though so he is clearly going to need to put a few points on that if he is going to make it through to a semi-final group.
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Outright Betting
Peter Wright is the odds on favourite to win this group and while that is understandable and correct, if there was one thing we saw in the opening round it is that there is little profit margin for backing odds on shots in this competition. The better players are favoured slightly more in the play-offs and we shouldn’t forget that. The increase in distance doesn’t sound a lot but it really is and the better players are also likely to win matches by wider margins when they do win.
That means I don’t really want to take Wright on even though I don’t want to back him. Of the other three I’ve a feeling Cristo Reyes is the danger man. He has the throw in two of his three matches but the one that matters is against Wright and he doesn’t have the throw in that one which is very much a concern. If Reyes wins the group then so be it but I can’t really get involved with Wright in it.
Match Betting
I’ll take Cristo Reyes in one of his matches though. If you cast your mind back to the first phase of this tournament then I was regularly making money backing players in even looking matches when they had the throw and we have another of those occasions here. It comes in the second match of the night when Reyes takes on Jelle Klaasen. I’m actually quite pleased this is the first match for Reyes because if Klaasen does have doubts over his last appearance they will still be around here.
I’m not actually bothered if Klaasen has his doubts or not because I think when he is finishing well Reyes is probably the better player of the two. That is certainly borne out in their past meetings which the Spaniard leads 4-1. That might or might not have any difference here but it is something that is good to have on side. Reyes was the better player of the two in the first stage in a harder group than Klaasen had so I think he’s the one to be on, especially knowing that he has the throw in the deciding leg should it go that far.
Tips
WON – Back C.Reyes to beat J.Klaasen for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with 888sport
Back him here:
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