Masters darts: Free tips & predictions as Michael van Gerwen bids to defend his title and Rob Cross makes his debut
Our in-form darts tipster Chris Hammer, who backed Rob Cross to win the World Championship at 16/1, returns with his betting preview for the Masters.
Masters Darts recommended bets
0.5pts e.w. Michael Smith to win the Masters at 66/1 (1/3 1,2)
1pt Michael Smith to win fourth quarter at 5/1
1pt Daryl Gurney to win second quarter at 3/1
For details of advised bookmakers and each-way terms, visit our transparent tipping record
Expect to see an angry Michael van Gerwen storming around Milton Keynes this weekend.
He may have put on a brave face and even cracked a smile at The Dorchester on Monday night when receiving the PDC Player of the Year award, but deep down he'll still be hurting from his failure to retain the world title.
Most players would have been more than happy with 18 tournament titles in a calendar year even if it meant missing out on the biggest one, but MVG is one of those once in a generation winning machines that wants everything.
What happened on that dramatic night at Alexandra Palace was nothing short of a failure to him.
For almost a month the world number one will have been stewing over those six missed match darts to beat eventual champion Rob Cross and although he claims he's had a break and "feeling good", his burning motivation right now is to pull the plug on the new 'power' source in darts.
'Voltage' capped the most amazing debut chapter in a PDC career by ending Phil Taylor's legendary story with a 7-2 pummelling on New Year's Day and is now a firm fans' favourite ahead of the Masters at Arena MK and the start of Premier League Darts season next week.
It would have also bothered MVG that Cross scooped both the players' player of the year and the fans' player of the year gongs on Monday, thus outdoing him in the adulation and respect stakes from those that really matter most.
Not that winning a fourth successive Masters title this weekend would right all the 'wrongs' of the above, but it'd be a start - especially if he can beat Cross in the final.
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Draw & tournament bracket
- (1) Michael van Gerwen v (16) Kim Huybrechts
- (8) Simon Whitlock v (9) James Wade
- (5) Daryl Gurney v (12) Gerwyn Price
- (4) Gary Anderson v (13) Benito van de Pas
- (2) Peter Wright v (15) Alan Norris
- (7) Dave Chisnall v (10) Raymond van Barneveld
- (6) Mensur Suljovic v (11) Michael Smith
- (3) Rob Cross v (14) Ian White
You could also argue it's more important for him not to be seen losing again and his overall dominance was questioned - rather than the glory of winning the Masters itself. After all, while it's a fantastic weekend event featuring purely the world's top 16, it's no 'proper' major.
He's won the last three editions of this event for three main reasons.
First and foremost he's the best. Secondly it's his favourite legs format with all matches long enough (first round is best of 19) to lessen the chances of shocks. And thirdly his motivation to win never dips.
While I'm not suggesting for one moment that the other players aren't too bothered, this isn't a pivotal time of the season to be peaking for, especially for the eight who won't be involved in the Premier League next week.
Plus, there's no very recent form lines to go off and we don't know for sure how much - or little - they've been resting up or practising following the end of the busy winter months of 2017.
MVG is highly likely to face one of Daryl Gurney, Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson in the semi-finals and while you'd ordinarily expect it to be the latter, I wouldn't be feeling too confident backing the Flying Scotsman given how despondent he was after a back injury contributed to his quarter-final defeat to Phil Taylor.
He told www.pdc.tv: "It's a lot better. I've been going for the last four weeks but he reckons it will be another couple of months before I'm 100 percent. This weekend will be a tester to see how things are going."
It may therefore pay to back Gurney to win this quarter of the draw at 3/1.
The World Grand Prix champion headed to the Worlds as the only player to have reached the quarter-finals or better at every TV major and while defeat to John Henderson was a shock, he'll be fully revved up to get back on track.
I have two bets from the bottom half of the draw, but neither are going to be on Cross.
Obviously no regular reader of my darts tips needs reminding how highly I rate him and I'll always be able to dine out on tipping him to win the world title at 16/1 (have I mentioned this before?!) - but he could be too short for this event at 4/1.
His head is surely still in a spin following what has been a whirlwind few weeks and while he's clearly level headed and takes all these new experiences in his stride, he's still human and it must have been so difficult to try and get back to the basics of practising as hard as he'd have liked.
He did say on Thursday: "The reaction since the World Championship has been unbelievable and it's been a busy time but I've been putting in the practice still and it will be nice to get back to playing." We'll soon find out how the distractions have affected him.
Also, we have to remember his world title run may have finished with a demolition job but it was far from plain sailing before that.
He survived match darts in a breathless second-round clash of the highest quality against Michael Smith and withstood a superb comeback from rising star Dimitri van den Bergh in the quarters before somehow coming through that epic with MVG.
Had Smith knocked him out, it could have been Bully Boy hitting the headlines and Cross would instead have turned up to the Masters as 'just' a very good player looking to build on an impressive debut season. Fine margins, eh?
As far as Smith is concerned, he may get the chance to gain a measure of revenge against Voltage in the second round if the duo can see off Mensur Suljovic and Ian White respectively.
Bully Boy obviously has the tougher game but their head-to-head is pretty even (7-5 in favour of Suljovic) and they won a hard-fought meeting each in 2017 in matches no longer than first to six legs.
So the clash of styles doesn't adversely affect Smith like it does his mentor Anderson and his scoring prowess should be too much for the Austrian, who went off the boil a little at the very end of 2017.
We saw at the Worlds how impressive the St Helens thrower can be at his best. He whitewashed Cross in the fourth set before taking the fifth in just 36 darts with an average of 125.
The 27-year-old missed two match darts in the next although Cross also went on to squander three of his own before edging to victory. That defeat was Smith's fifth against Cross from six matches in 2017 so that is a worry from a mental point of view, but that's factored into the prices.
Also, as a Premier League player without the distractions of Cross, you can expect Smith to be geared up and ready to blast out of the blocks and this is why I like the idea of backing him at 5/1 to win his quarter.
I'm also happy to take 66/1 each-way in the outright market as a potential semi-final meeting with Peter Wright, Raymond van Barneveld, Dave Chisnall or outsider Alan Norris would also be winnable for a player eager to prove he's ready for the next level.
Posted at 0100 GMT on 26/01/17.