The PDC Hone Tour play-offs continue on Wednesday evening and after the exit from the competition of the world champion on the opening night of the second stage, all eyes will be on a couple of former champions of the world to see if they can make it through to the semi-final.
As ever with the Home Tour, four players are battling it out from their own homes in a bid to keep us entertained during lockdown while also getting some competitive practice in for when the tour resumes properly in the future.
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.
Tuesday Recap
Peter Wright was expected to come through the draw quite comfortably on Tuesday evening but a heavy defeat to Jelle Klaasen in the final match of the night put paid to that and it was the Dutchman who progressed. Wright was actually lucky to have his fate in his own hands going into that last game as Cristo Reyes missed a host of doubles to beat him in a match which had the Spaniard have won, it would have been him going through. As it was Klaasen, Wright and Reyes all picked up two wins and the former Lakeside champion had the best leg difference. Ryan Murray had little to show for his work on the evening.
It was a decent start to the play-offs for us from a betting point of view. We went with one bet on the night which was for Cristo Reyes to beat Jelle Klaasen and despite missing a bunch of doubles to win 6-3 and then even more of them to win 6-4, he put in a burst of power scoring in the deciding leg and finally pinned double 8 to open his night with a win and give us a nice little profit on the evening to move forward with.
Play-Offs Group 2 Line Up
There is no doubt that the second group of the play-offs is stronger looking than the first one overall. That is because we have two former world champions and members of the top 20 in the world in this one. The first of those is Stephen Bunting, who played very well to win his group earlier in the tournament and who has been on Twitter suggesting he is going well and has been practicing. It is always nice to know whether a player has been practicing rather than having to guess. Bunting shouldn’t be ruled out here.
He isn’t the favourite to win the group though. That honour goes to Glen Durrant, a man who averaged over 100 twice in his three matches in the first round and who is always suitably prepared and plays up to a high standard at all times. Durrant didn’t score like he could in that opening group yet still averaged 99.85 for the night so if he starts pinning the maximums the other three men in this section will have to watch out. Durrant looks the rightful favourite, if a little on the short side.
Alan Tabern has shown some signs of life in 2020 and he did so again in his opening group to make it through at the expense of Simon Whitlock, Kirk Shepherd and Mike van Duivenbode. You could argue that it wasn’t the best group known to man, and the fact ‘The Saint’ averaged less than 90 on the night would highlight that, but it still had to be won and credit to Tabern for doing so. You would think the veteran is going to need a significant improvement on that effort to be competitive here though, especially over this longer distance.
The final man in the group is the Belgian player Mike de Decker. De Decker needed two bites at the cherry to make it into the play-offs but we’ll let him off of that because his first group turned into a farce when Keegan Brown’s internet cut out. To be fair to de Decker he had a comfortable group second time around when Conan Whitehead was the highest ranked player in it but he did had to take advantage of that, which he duly did. If allowed he could be competitive but you would think he’ll need his best work to make it through.
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Outright Betting
I think Glen Durrant will come through this group but history has shown us not to get involved in anyone at odds on in these things. If anyone is going to justify short odds it will be him but it is important to remember that he is the second ranked player in the field here so he doesn’t have the throw against Stephen Bunting, who it would be a surprise if he isn’t the biggest danger to Durrant over the course of the evening.
While not having the throw isn’t quite the big deal it was in the first phase when it was the best of nine, it still isn’t ideal and interestingly on the first night five of the six matches were won by the player throwing first. There is a case to be made that Bunting is value at 5/2 as a result of that but I’m still not convinced that he beats Durrant. I’m happy enough to leave the group betting alone and focus on the matches.
Match Betting
There isn’t a whole lot I like in the match betting on the whole on Wednesday either to be fair. I often seek out the value in close matches when the player has the throw but the only two players who are odds against with the throw are unlikely to win those matches so that plan has got to be put on hold for a night at least. There is one bet I like though and it comes in the big match of the night between Stephen Bunting and Glen Durrant.
The beauty of this competition is that we have the advantage of knowing who will throw first and with that being Bunting in this match then I think the over 9.5 legs is a serious runner here. I say that because I believe Durrant will win the match, or at least keep it close, so in order for him to win 6-3 or easier he will need to break throw twice and hold his own throw. That won’t be easy against someone like Bunting. If Durrant only breaks throw once and the rest of the match goes with throw he wins no better than 6-4 which sees the over land. I don’t see Bunting winning any easier than that so over 9.5 legs is the way to go here.
Tips
Back S.Bunting vs G.Durrant – Over 9.5 legs for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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