*** World Darts Championship - Day 1 ***

It's the first day of my favourite tournament of the year starting this Friday and I am exceptionally excited. Taylor looks a strong favourite for this but can Lewis win his 3rd or will mighty Mike get his hands on the trophy??? Lots of twists and turns to come and hopefully we get the usual banter and opinions on here for the duration

First bet that took my eye is Lewis most tournament 180's at 2/1 (Or 21/10 in a place). Last 2 tournaments on tv has seen him hit them for fun and for this type of bet you really need a prolific hitter who is likely to go deep in the tournament. Could be wrong but it's 2/1 each of two between Adie and MVG and I cannot see anybody else bar this pair winning it. Will probably be one of them in the final if the draw pans out as expected and I fancy it might be Adie. Think I'm right in saying he had most maxes in both years he won the trophy and I fancy he won't be far away from a 3rd in which case he's likely to be banging in a lot of maximums along the way.

Second thing is looking back over the previous years I seemed to do my dough a lot in R1 matches so I will be having a lot less bets in the early stages. Not sure if its the underdogs missing doubles to land handicap bets or runaway wins in matches I pegged as close but I never seem to do well until R2. So based on that I doubt I'll be having more than 1 or 2 bets per day till the last 32

So onto the day 1 action on Friday night

John Part v Mareno Michels:

Opening match sees 3 time champ John Part take on dutchman Mareno Michels who is making his PDC world championship debut. Part is a forum legend and a PDC mainstay but is showing definite signs of regressing. His last match on tv saw him miss 18 match doubles which gave him an unwanted record and it could be that he is nearing the end of the playing career and following Mardle into the media which he excels at. Michels is here as a result of qualifying through the european order of merit and I remember him playing in 2 or 3 BDO world championships at Lakeside a few years ago. His form hasn't been sparkling on the floor this year and it remains to be seen how he copes with the big stage which can take players by surprise. Not got a real opinion on this match but if Part doubles even averagely he should probably have enough to go through to R2.

Recommendation: No Bet

Ian Moss v Rob Szabo:

1st qualifying match and I can say hand on heart I could probably count on 1 hand bets I've had in these best of 7 legs. Not going to start throwing it away on a whim now either so very much a watching brief to see who gets beat 3v0 from Phil later in the evening.

Recommendation: No Bet

Peter Wright v Joe Cullen:

Wright is probably one of the most in form players on tour and has been for 12-18 months now. His outright odds are an insult and obviously factored into them is a likely meeting with Taylor in the last 16. He's a very solid scorer, doubles well and has a great attitude and I am a big fan (But not as big as Lori!). Cullen on the other hand is one of a lot of young PDC players who never actually seem to have kicked on and made any impact in a major tournament on tv. I think Wright will win this comfortably but unfortunately the match odds and handicap prices don't do much for me. 6/4 the whitewash looks a fair price if he has the darts but won't know that for 2 days so hard to advise based on that.

Recommendation: No Bet

Phil Taylor v Qualifier:

Taylor wins in a canter probably without losing a leg. We'll leave it at that

Recommendation: No Bet

Dean Winstanley v Richie Burnett:

Last game of the evening sees Winstanley take on the mad welshman in what looks the best game of the evening (Or certainly the closest). Winstanley is a player who I really like but he's had a dreadful 2013 and really needs a big tournament here to try and get his career back on track. Burnett on the other hand has had a bit of a comeback in the past year or two and is chucking some decent darts on occasion. Last time he was on tv though his throwing action seemed to be getting more wild but he does actually seem to be able to control it. Before I looked at the betting I made Burnett marginal fav here so given he's the Evs outsider with most bookies I have to have a small bet on him as I think he might just edge a very close match.

Recommendation: 0.5pts win Richie Burnett @ Evs (general)

Summary: Only 1 minimum bet for the opening day on the crazy taff but still looking forward to the night immensely and getting the tournament off and running. all views and bets are as welcome as ever and hopefully I get as many laughs in the next 17 days as I have in the past few years doing this.

HH