The penultimate event of the PDC year is the Players Championship Finals which gets underway in Minehead on Friday as the leading 64 players of the pro tour campaign head down to Butlins to compete for a decent prize pool.
Daryl Gurney picked up the ultimate World Championship boost when he took this tournament down last year and he’ll be out to defend the title. 63 other men will all be looking to head to Ally Pally off the back of a big TV tournament win though.
Recent Winners
2018 – Daryl Gurney
2017 – Michael van Gerwen
2016 – Michael van Gerwen
2015 – Michael van Gerwen
2014 – Gary Anderson
2013 – Michael van Gerwen
2012 – Phil Taylor
2011 – Kevin Painter
2010 – Phil Taylor
2009 – Paul Nicholson
The Format
Unlike some events, the 64 man field is seeded by their final position on the Players Championship Order of Merit which gives us a completely different seed list to when the world rankings are used. Number 1 plays number 64 in the first round, 2 s 63 and so on. The first round takes over the two sessions on Friday and is the best of 11, as is the second round on Saturday afternoon and we then move up to the best of 19 for the last 16 on Saturday evening and the quarter finals on Sunday afternoon. The remainder of the tournament takes place on Sunday evening over the best of 21 legs with the winner taking home a cool £100,000.
Top Quarter
Gerwyn Price was the best player on the Players Championship schedule this season in terms of money won and so he is the number one seed and in this quarter of the draw. Jose de Sousa, Jonny Clayton and Mensur Suljovic are the other four members of the top 16 seeds in this quarter which highlights a relatively open section here it must be said.
There are some fair names outside that elite top 16 ranking, with Danny Noppert capable of going deep from this draw. Kim Huybrechts is another who will be wanting a big weekend while Dimitri Van den Bergh and Stephen Bunting also in this quarter as well. The likes of James Richardson, Keegan Brown and Ryan Searle are among the other men in this section.
Second Quarter
It is Peter Wright who is the highest ranked player in this part of the draw with the man he beat in the Grand Slam of Darts semi-final – Glen Durrant – the fifth seed in this one. This is a good looking quarter as emphasised by the fact that Jeffrey de Zwaan and Nathan Aspinall are the other players racked in the top 16 of the Order of Merit in this part of the draw. They are not the only good players in the second quarter though.
All eyes will be on Raymond van Barneveld in the penultimate tournament of his career. He is seeded 53 which highlights his struggles this term. European pair Max Hopp and Jelle Klaasen are also in this quarter as are Simon Whitlock,Joe Cullen, Chris Dobey and James Wilson among others. John Henderson probably shouldn’t be written off too quickly either.
Third Quarter
It is James Wade who is the second seed this weekend and he is the highest ranked player in this third quarter as a result. Grand Slam quarter finalist Adrian Lewis is in here as the 15 seed while Dave Chisnall and Jermaine Wattimena are the other players who finished in the top 16 of the floor circuit this term who have been drawn in this part of the draw.
Where is Michael van Gerwen you might ask? Well he is in this quarter as well but he is only ranked as 18 for this weekend. The World Matchplay and European Championship winner Rob Cross is also in this quarter as the 42 seed and when you chuck Jamie Hughes, Justin Pipe, Mervyn King and Ricky Evans into the pot this turns into a stacked section of the draw.
Bottom Quarter
Krzysztof Ratajski is the third seed for this tournament and he will launch his campaign from this quarter of the draw. Ian White is seeded to be his biggest danger before the semi-final but as you would expect there are plenty more good players in the quarter. The defending champion Daryl Gurney and title challenger Michael Smith are just two of them who catch the eye.
Those ranked outside the top 16 on the seeding criteria in this quarter include the World Cup runners up Steve Lennon and William O’Connor while Gabriel Clemens is also in this quarter. Brendan Dolan has been in good form recently and he is in this part of the draw, while Devon Petersen, Vincent van der Voort and Steve West will be popular enough with the crowd.
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Outright Betting
I’ll go with a couple of outright bets this week with Nathan Aspinall being the first of them. He has a nasty draw with Raymond Barneveld in the first round but if he can come through that I can see him going deep. He has good vibes with this venue having won the UK Open here earlier in the year and often that can be a big thing for a player. Aspinall hasn’t played badly in recent times, he has just run into a lot of insane performances recently which makes his form look a little worse than what it actually is. We saw in the World Series of Darts Finals that he is scoring very well and if he can see off Barney then there could well be another big weekend from him.
Gerwyn Price is obviously the favourite to come through the top quarter but I’ve been waiting for months for Jose de Sousa to make it into a TV event so that I can get involved in him and finally that time has arrived. He has delivered some wonderful averages on the pro tour this season and has won two of those floor events and made the final of another. He lacks experience on the big stage which is a bit of an issue but he is in the perfect part of the draw to go deep and if he can have a match or two on the second stage that will be no bad thing either. I’m a big fan of the Portuguese star and while I accept it might be too soon for him, at 66/1 I’m paying to find out.
Quarter Betting
Michael Smith is in a competitive quarter of the draw but actually it is the other half of the section which is the toughest part. He has a relatively smooth passage to the quarter final where he could take on Daryl Gurney or Krzysztof Ratajski, neither of whom would be extremely tough to beat. I think Smith is getting closer to winning a TV tournament but the quality that is in that third quarter puts me off backing the St Helens man outright. He won’t face any of them in his quarter though so the 4/1 that he comes through this section of the competition looks very acceptable to me given his potential early round opponents.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to win Players Championship Finals (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.de Sousa to win Players Championship Finals (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Sky Bet (1/3 1-2)
Back M.Smith to win 4th Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with Sky Bet
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