All the preliminaries have been done for the Gibraltar Darts Trophy and the tournament will now be played out over Saturday and Sunday with 31 men fighting for the first prize and the benefits that come with it.
I say 31 men because Adrian Lewis was sadly forced to pull out of the tournament due to his wife and children being ill. He wasn’t replaced which means we have 31 left to battle it out for the title.
Top half
If we break the draw down into a top half and a bottom half we immediately see that Michael van Gerwen is in the top half and this probably isn’t the weekend to be taking him on, especially with a potential quarter final opponent in Adrian Lewis pulling out of the event.
It is hard to see van Gerwen not making the semi-final where he could face either James Wade or Gary Anderson which would be a bit of a test but if he has come through quite comfortably he is likely to have plenty left by then unlike whoever he faces in the last four clash.
Bottom half
There are some great early match ups in the bottom half of the draw with Peter Wright vs Daryl Gurney, Simon Whitlock vs Gerwyn Price, Robert Thornton vs John Henderson and Michael Smith vs Joe Cullen all matches just to decide last 16 places so there is a bit of a tournament in itself going on down there.
Dave Chisnall, Ian White, Mensur Suljovic and Terry Jenkins are the other four seeds in that half of the draw looking to take advantage of any areas which open up which with those previously mentioned matches surely the draw will do just that.
Betting
I’m going with just the one bet in this tournament. There isn’t too much in the way of value around but one man who could be a shade of value is Dave Chisnall.
With him being eliminated from the Premier League we’ve not seen much of him on our screens in recent times but he made a semi-final in the Pro-tour last week and made a nine dart finish in the other tournament that weekend so he is clearly playing well.
With Kyle Anderson being eliminated in Friday’s first round, Chisnall now faces an easier looking task in Steve West and with Robert Thornton beatable in the last 16 there is a chance for Chisnall to go deep here.
Were it not for running into Michael van Gerwen regularly in big events Chisnall would have a much higher ranking than he currently does but these chances where he doesn’t face the Dutch machine until the final are ones he has to take full advantage of. I think he can do that by making at least the final here.
Tips
PLACED – Back D.Chisnall to win Gibraltar Darts Trophy (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Winner Sports
Back him here:
