Easter weekend sees us get to pick up what we gave up for lent, eat lots of chocolate and this particular year we get a European Tour darts event to enjoy as well! 48 of the PDCs finest will head to Germany for the German Darts Masters which is streamed live on the bookmaker consoles from Saturday to Monday.
These European Tour events are gaining more and more credibility season on season and as the order of merit acts as the platform for European Championship qualifying they are taken much more seriously now. As a result of that nearly every weekend guarantees great action especially now the crowds are big and really inspire the players.
Not all of the big names have made their way to Munich this week. Phil Taylor and Raymond Barneveld haven’t entered the tournament but apart from that anyone who is anyone will toe the oche this weekend.
Michael van Gerwen is obviously the man to beat and I won’t be opposing him too early in this tournament because he generally dominates the early stages at least in European Tour events.
Studiers of draws will see that MVG could run into Dave Chisnall or the man who took a point off him in the Premier League on Thursday night in Robert Thornton as early as the quarter finals so there is hope for the others in the field.
Another hope for the rest would be the fact that the other real form horse at the present time – Gary Anderson – is also in the same half of the draw as the Dutchman so it might be that the Green Machine doesn’t have this all his own way for once.
When you look at the main seeds in the other half of the draw to van Gerwen you see Michael Smith (2), Peter Wright (3), Adrian Lewis (6) and Ian White (7). In that quartet you have a couple of players who should win many more of these events than they do in Wright and Lewis and the other two are not the most reliable or consistent.
Just looking at the draw in full I think if there is a weekend to take a couple of solid players at big prices this could very well be the one. I’ll avoid what looks like a mini event in itself in the top half of the draw and take two in the bottom half.
The first player I’ll go with is Jelle Klaasen. The Dutchman is in that perfect quarter with Ian White and Michael Smith as the top seeds and when Smith is set to collide with Mensur Suljovic in the last 16 this quarter really does have the potential to open right up.
This is the sort of tournament Klaasen should be threatening now. He has shown in the last two majors that he belongs at the top level of the game and to get there and stay there he needs to be taking events like this down. He’s been playing well in the last six months and if he can light up early on and the draw does open up, not that he’ll need it to, but if it does his 40/1 price will look big pretty quickly.
In the other quarter I’m happy to take on Peter Wright and Adrian Lewis with a man who funnily enough beat them both on his way to a Players Championship win a couple of weekends ago in Stephen Bunting.
Bunting is far too good for a return to form not to come about but he confirmed to everyone that he is back in form when he won that title, beating Michael van Gerwen in the final. Given that the Bullet always has been a confidence player I’m expecting a decent run from him this week. If he gets to Wright in the second round and beats him this draw will open up and he’s far too big to ignore this weekend.
Back J.Klaasen to win German Darts Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Sportingbet (1/2 1-2)
Back S.Bunting to win German Darts Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 81.00 with Sportingbet (1/2 1-2)
