Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April

[kevshat]

The PDC have introduced five new European Tour events this year which are all played on a stage with 64 players in each tournament. All matches are the best of 11 legs and with £15k to the winner they are well worth winning. The first tournament is the Austrian Darts Open which begins at 12.00 on Friday. A link to the draw, format and order of play is here: http://www.pdc.tv/page/NewsdeskDetail/0,,10180~2750922,00.html. Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor are out of the tournament through illness so their first round opponents get byes. Sadly there is no TV or streaming coverage of this event but there are a few bookies offering outright betting and plenty of match betting so there's the potential to make money this weekend.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April I'm taking two outrights this weekend both of which have enhanced in value since the withdrawals of Taylor and Lewis. 1pt ew K.Huybrechts to win Austrian Darts Open 28/1 Blue Square (1/2 1-2) Kim Huybrechts is a player I really like and already this season he has shown me why with wins over Raymond Barneveld, James Wade and Mark Webster among others on the pro tour already. He has already made the final of a UK Open qualifier this season and a semi final and quarter final in the Players Championship tournaments and he looks the real deal to me. As we saw at the World Championship when he's on form he scores very heavily and can be very hard to stop. His draw isn't too bad especially with Lewis pulling out and I think he's just about in the weaker half of the draw with Anderson, Whitlock and Barneveld all in the other half of the draw. Huybrechts is clearly in form and I expect him to go well especially with the Premier League players having to play less than 24hrs after getting themselves up for a big PL match last night so their motivation and enthusiasm could be lower than normal. 1pt ew M.Smith to win Austrian Darts Open 100/1 Blue Square (1/2 1-2) Michael Smith is the next big star who is going to breakthrough in the PDC in a big way and there's no reason why he can't win this tournament. He has already won a Players Championship tournament this year where he beat Nicholson, Chisnall, Wade and Pipe along the way and he's also made a UK Open qualifier semi final where Phil Taylor was too good for him but there's no harm in that. Of the three youth tour events so far this year he has won one and made the final of another so he goes into this event with plenty of match wins and winning momentum behind him and I expect him to go well this weekend. As with all youngsters he can be inconsistent but when he is fully firing he is more than a match for anyone and an incredibly heavy scorer and even though there's some big names in his half of the draw I'll pay to see how far he goes given that this best of 11 distance could just be the perfect distance for him at this point in his career.

[IrishTW]

D Why are they ill? Hungover maybe? Both only pulled out thus morn,very bad respect for the tourney. How has Scott Rand been last few months? I fancy him to beat Anderson despite Anderson's draw last night. Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using PL Forum

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April I agree. I suspect a word in the ear will be given to both. I'll have some match bets for throughout the day. Will post them in a few posts as the time it takes to research them may make a few short notice if I do them all in one post. First one is here. 3pts I.White to beat C.Lloyd 11/10 BetVictor Ian White comes into this tournament in decent enough form and as we saw at the Grand Slam last year he's no respector of reputations as he beat Barneveld in that event. Two weeks ago White made it to the final of a UK Open qualifier where he lost to Raymond Barneveld but in the semi final of that tournament he beat Colin Lloyd 6-2. He also beat Simon Whitlock 6-2 earlier in that competition so White is clearly in good form. Colin Lloyd is having a decent enough year too. Obviously he had that semi final a couple of weeks ago and a quarter final prior to that but they have been mixed in with some early exits. I never like backing Lloyd on a stage as all too often he flatters to deceive. White doesn't and at odds against with form in the book and a recent heavy win over Lloyd I'll take the Stokie to make it into the second round at Jaws' expense.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April 4pts D.Winstanley to beat P.Nicholson Evs BetVictor I like Dean Winstanley and I think he'll go well in the PDC this season. He has already made a tour semi final despite only being on the tour for three months and he'll build on that a lot in 2012. Paul Nicholson is one of those seeds who I think is there for the taking this week. He's been moving house and having a few other things going on away from the oche recently and his form has suffered as a result of that. He hasn't been past the last 64 in any of his last four tournaments. Winstanley has struggled in his last couple too but he doesn't have the benefit of being seeded so he is likely to run into top players early on in tournaments. We've all seen Winstanley play and we know he's a heavy scorer and if he pins his doubles then I expect him to win this match. Nicholson isn't playing well at the minute and when he is low on confidence his doubles can go seriously pear shaped so at even money I think Winstanley is the call here as I give him a very good chance of winning this one.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April +1 for my bets this afternoon. Not sure anyone would've foreseen Colin Lloyd hitting a 111 average :eek. Both my outrights play tonight and I'll take two more bets in the session too. 3pts R.Howson to beat C.Osborne 6/4 Boylesports I think Colin Osborne is another seeded player who is worth taking on in this tournament. Richie Howson has begun the year pretty well having qualified for the tourn at Q school. He has also qualified for this event and a couple of weeks ago he made the quarter final of a UK Open qualifier so he will have travelled to Austria high in confidence and in good form. After his defeat in the first round of the World Championship, Osborne has only made it past the last 32 of one of the tour events so far in 2012 and surprisingly for a guy with such self belief he seemed to be struggling for some confidence and definitely for some form. Howson has a 6-0 win over Mark Hylton on his record this season and wins over the likes of Richie Burnett to his name too. Being seeded in most events the least Osborne should be doing is making the last 32 and to only pass that once is very poor for a player of his standard. Over a shorter format in an event like this I will always take the man who is in form and that man is the newcomer to the tour in Richie Howson. 4pts M.van Gerwen to beat M.King 6/5 Boylesports Michael van Gerwen has been in good nick for six months or so now and although his recent results as in the last 2-3 tournaments he has played in haven't yielded the results he would like he has already won a tournament this year. In that tournament he beat Andy Hamilton 6-2 in the quarter final, Simon Whitlock 6-0 in the semi final and Dave Chisnall in the final by a 6-1 scoreline so that emphasises the sort of form the young Dutchman is in. Mervyn King's in nothing like that sort of form as he still looks to sort out this arm problem which has been dogging him for a good while. Only once has Mervyn King gone past the last 32 in a tour event this year and that is incredibly poor form from someone who has played in world finals in the past and has been a regular in the semi finals of majors in the PDC. He is clearly struggling for something whether it be fitness, form or confidence but the one thing you don't need when you are low in spirits is to run into this Dutchman who doesn't miss a thing. Sadly that is King's task here and it is a task I expect to be too much for him and I only see MVG winning this match.

[fishy25]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April Haven't been particularly interested in this tournament given how it's not televised but looking at the results and draw, I've taken 3 today which look value in my eyes. I'll do 2 posts as the first match starts soon(ish) Richie Burnett to beat Dean Winstanley- 6/4 Bet365- (3/10) I like the Welshman at this price as in the last 18 months or so he has been playing the best darts of his life which has been good to see from Richie. He hasn't had an outstanding start to the year but in the past couple of weeks he's picked up some wins against some decent players. He made the semis in a UK Open qualifier event a couple of weeks back and beat the likes of Mervyn King and Robert Thornton en-route to the semis. Although there isn't too much to shout about for Burnett, he still has beaten Taylor and Jenkins this year and pushed Lewis all the way as well at the World Cup. Dean Winstanley has had a decent start to his PDC career after coming through Q school and his best result came last month where he also made the semis of a UK Open qualifier event. The worry for me however is his doubles still in this one. His scoring is extremely good when he's on song but he still has tendencies to throw in a couple of shockers, especially if he misses a couple of darts at his beloved D20. Winstanley just about edged out an in-form Jim Walker yesterday in a deciding leg in a match where Walker actually averaged the higher of the two players. I just wouldn't have Burnett as such an underdog here as if he keeps up with Winstanley scoring wise, he should get chances and I'd fancy he's the more likely to take out his doubles here in the shorter format.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April Was away yesterday but I don't think there were any bets I'd have taken anyway. +2.8pts for the weekend so far. I'll update the outrights on the P/L once they are both settled. Smith went out in unfortunate circumstances yesterday but Huybrechts plays Wade this afternoon. One bet for me in the afternoon matches. Apologies for the short notice. The match begins at 1. 3pts J.Cullen to beat M.Walsh 13/8 Boylesports Joe Cullen has played well this week. He has beaten Brendan Dolan which ok isn't too difficult these days and was one of the nicer draws a qualifier could get but he also beat Simon Whitlock on Saturday and that was despite Whitlock having a 9 dart finish. At one stage in that match Whitlock was 4-1 down and the only leg he won was the 9 dart leg which shows how well Cullen was playing. In the end the Yorkshireman only averaged 93.63 as he let Whitlock back into it a bit but that's still a decent standard. Mark Walsh was more fortunate to make it to this stage. He beat Michael Smith in the last round by a 6-5 scoreline but he had a 152 checkout when Smith was handily placed and that proved to be the difference in the end. It clearly wasn't his best match as he only averaged 86, five points less than Smith. That's a huge deficit in the averages to make up over a short space of time and Cullen, with nothing to lose and already guaranteed a decent payday can give this one a real go and I think he can beat Walsh at a tasty price.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April

Haven't been particularly interested in this tournament given how it's not televised but looking at the results and draw, I've taken 3 today which look value in my eyes. I'll do 2 posts as the first match starts soon(ish) Richie Burnett to beat Dean Winstanley- 6/4 Bet365- (3/10) I like the Welshman at this price as in the last 18 months or so he has been playing the best darts of his life which has been good to see from Richie. He hasn't had an outstanding start to the year but in the past couple of weeks he's picked up some wins against some decent players. He made the semis in a UK Open qualifier event a couple of weeks back and beat the likes of Mervyn King and Robert Thornton en-route to the semis. Although there isn't too much to shout about for Burnett, he still has beaten Taylor and Jenkins this year and pushed Lewis all the way as well at the World Cup. Dean Winstanley has had a decent start to his PDC career after coming through Q school and his best result came last month where he also made the semis of a UK Open qualifier event. The worry for me however is his doubles still in this one. His scoring is extremely good when he's on song but he still has tendencies to throw in a couple of shockers, especially if he misses a couple of darts at his beloved D20. Winstanley just about edged out an in-form Jim Walker yesterday in a deciding leg in a match where Walker actually averaged the higher of the two players. I just wouldn't have Burnett as such an underdog here as if he keeps up with Winstanley scoring wise, he should get chances and I'd fancy he's the more likely to take out his doubles here in the shorter format.

Good shout Fishy but the match started at 12 :$. Burnett won 6-3 :ok.

[fishy25]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April :$ Embarrassed and confused. I took the bet at 12:08?? That could well be void then but like Kev, I'm on Cullen at 11/8 but no point writing that up now.

[fishy25]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April Really not sure what's going to happen with that Burnett bet in truth, will have a chat with Bet365 in a sec. Hope they don't void it but I'm guessing they have to. Embarrassed by doing the write-up seemingly after the match had finished even though I had no idea that it had begun :unsure I've taken one more as well as Cullen for this afternoon. James Richardson to beat Michael van Gerwen- 2/1 Bet365- (2/10) Granted the Dutch youngster is the favourite after averaging a superb 104.7 yesterday but I still have concerns whether he can back this kind of persormance up with a similarly impressive one. We've seen in the past that he isn't the most consistent of players and whether the break over night will have helped him or hampered him I'm not sure. James Richardson shot to fame with that win over Barney at Ally Pally but in truth he's done well on the floor over the past year or so and recently he has beaten the likes of Gary Anderson and John Part, whilst narrowly losing to Terry Jenkins and Kevin Painter as well which shows how well he is playing at the minute. Granted he was a fortunate to be given a bye into the second round with Lewis pulling out but he beat Peter Wright comfortably which was a good result and over the space of 11 legs, I wouldn't be having him as this much of an underdog. He can score well, and his finishing is generally pretty solid and if he can start well and take the first couple of legs, I'm not sure how well his Dutch opponent will respond. Van Gerwen has tons of ability, but if he doesn't get going early doors, he may well struggle and I'll back the Brit to come through this one.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April

:$ Embarrassed and confused. I took the bet at 12:08?? That could well be void then but like Kev' date=' I'm on Cullen at 11/8 but no point writing that up now.[/quote'] We've all done it mate especially in foreign events. I guess it'll depend exactly when the match started but it was due to start at 12 :(.

[fishy25]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April Interestingly they have settled it as a winner after I spoke to them on Livechat. Think it doesn't help punters or bookies alike in the fact that it's not being streamed anywhere. You'd have thought a local Austrian site at the very least would have picked it up but not to be. Glad Cullen pulled through, 4 180s and a 98 average is a good showing from the youngster. Will update my P/L after the Richardson-Van Gerwen match and then have a look at the quarter final matches at least 3 hours before they are 'scheduled' to start ;)

[fishy25]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April Shame Huybrechts couldn't beat Wade earlier for Kev's outright but Cullen did the business well with Burnett and Richardson both winning as well. +11.25 from those matches with the whole confusions over the time not affecting the bets being settled as winners. Nothing I like in the quarters so will wait until the semis and see if there's any value about there.

[kevshat]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April +3.88 for me for the weekend with neither outright coming through. Good calls today Fishy :ok.

[fishy25]

Re: Austrian Darts Open 27-29 April Cheers bud, glad you ended with a positive result from this weekend as well. Although the final results don't show it, the 100/1 you took on young Michael Smith is a really good spot as he'll win a few floor events this year I'm sure. Back to the usual on thursday for the PL-see you then :ok