The second quarter of any sporting draw that has a seeded system to it is usually the toughest to come through just because of the way the rankings work and that would appear to be the case at the PDC World Darts Championship 2023.
This is the quarter where the Grand Slam champion Michael Smith will be looking to reach the semi-finals from but there are a whole host of top class acts who are in this section so we should get some great action from it.
Draw
(4) Michael Smith v Jermaine Wattimena/Nathan Rafferty
(29) Martin Schindler v Martin Lukeman/Nobuhiro Yamamoto
(13) Joe Cullen v Ricky/Evans/Fallon Sherrock
(20) Damon Heta v Adrian Lewis/Daniel Larsson
(5) Luke Humphries v Keegan Brown/Florian Hempel
(28) Vincent van der Voort v Cameron Menzies/Diogo Portela
(12) Dave Chisnall v Andrew Gilding/Robert Owen
(21) Stephen Bunting v Geert Nentjes/Leonard Gates
Preview
As ever I have split the quarter into the red half and the green half with the winner of both colours meeting in the quarter final. The red section is where Michael Smith will be expected to dominate things but Joe Cullen has won The Masters and reached the Premier League in 2022 while Damon Heta has the World Cup title to his name and was the top seed at the recent Players Championship Finals. Martin Schindler is the other red seed in this quarter but one man who can’t be ignored despite his ranking is Adrian Lewis. He is coming into a bit of form and knows how to go all the way in this tournament.
The green section is absolutely stacked with talent in this draw. Luke Humphries is the highest ranked player in it and he has been to the last eight of this tournament three times but has never got past the quarter final. Dave Chisnall made the semi-final here a couple of years ago when he destroyed Michael van Gerwen in the last eight and he has been to the quarter finals on a couple of occasions too. He was looking good last year before Covid stopped him in his tracks. Stephen Bunting is another player in the green section who has been to the semi-finals. Vincent van der Voort is the other seed while Andrew Gilding and Cameron Menzies are the dangerous floaters.
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Betting
This quarter is all about Michael Smith and while I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes through and makes the semi-final from this section now that he has broken his TV title duck but he can still be guilty of missing a few too many doubles and while his scoring power allows him to get away with that in leg play, were they to come in fifth legs of sets here it would leave him very vulnerable. I’m keen to take him on but I don’t want to be on anyone facing him too early so I’ll go to the green section for a bet.
Luke Humphries is the obvious choice and he has been to the last eight on three occasions but he probably hasn’t arrived at this tournament with the expectation he carries on his shoulders this time. The fact that Smith and Humphries are in the section means that Dave Chisnall can go under the radar and that might suit him well. I think if you are going to come out of this quarter you are going to have to score and not many do that better than Chisnall. He doesn’t have the easiest draw but he’s solid enough and having won a European Tour event earlier in the season he’s in good form. He might just be the sleeper in this quarter at 6/1.
Tips
Back D.Chisnall to win 2nd Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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