2023 Players Championship Semi-Finals Tips

Another day, more winners for James Punt. 2/3 this afternoon and he has one more preview to go. Check out his 2023 Players Championship Semi-Finals tips below.

Michael van Gerwen vs. Gabriel Clemens

Gabriel Clemens has to try and forget who he is playing here, which won’t be easy. He has played MVG four times and lost all four.

Clemens is a nice guy and perhaps a little too deferential to players he considers to be ‘better’. He isn’t alone and until he beats MVG, he is starting with a bit of a mental disadvantage.

Clemens beat Woodhouse 10-7 in the end, but it was a bit of a grind. He was the better player by some margin, but he couldn’t put Woodhouse to the sword as quickly has he should have.

He lost his throw too many times and he was a bit lucky to be facing a player not used to these big matches. Clemens ended with a 98.75 average and was 44% on the doubles, so it was a good performance, but it wasn’t dominant.

Tough Match

Van Gerwen had a much tougher task against Stepehen Bunting and it took a deciding leg to win it. Bunting had MVG there for the taking at 9-6 but, as expected, he folded when presented with the chance. He just took longer to fold than I thought.

I can see parallels with Bunting and Clemens. Nice guys who maybe are a bit too soft when it comes to hand to hand darting combat.

At the end of the day, MVG averaged 107 and was 71% on the doubles and anyone is going to struggle with that. As well as Clemens has played so far, I suspect he is going to be schooled by MVG tonight.

Green Machine Fav

Michael van Gerwen is the 1.28 favourite to win, with Clemens 4.00. MVG has played eight Players Championship semi-finals and won the lot. This match is best of 21 legs and since the semi-finals went to that format, half have ended with under 17.5 legs.

Of MVG’s best of 21 leg semi-finals, three of the seven ended under 17.5 legs. Price and Anderson took him to 11-8, as did Darren Webster.

Van Gerwen has covered a -2.5 leg handicap in all of his semi-finals here and while the odds are not huge, I’ll take them.

2023 Players Championship Semi-Finals tip: 2 points MVG to win -2.5 legs @ 1.60 with Ladbrokes

Luke Humphries vs. Ryan Joyce

Humphries had one of his ‘afternoon’ games today. James Wade set a snail’s pace which did put Humphries out of his favoured rhythm and it was all very close, until Humphries moved up a gear and, like MVG did, reeled off four legs in a row to win 10-7. He finished with a slightly below par average of 97.99.

Relentless Ryan Joyce was just that against Damon Heta. It was just a very steady performance, never letting Heta get on top and every time the Aussie closed the gap, Joyce found a way to open it back up.

Eventually, Heta remembered he was in a quarter final and succumbed to a disappointing 6-10 defeat. It was a shame as 6.50 to win the quarter was a nice price, but at least we covered the stake with Joyce to win.

First Major Semi

This will be Joyce’s first ever major semi-final, but his attitude is good. He knows this is a bonus. He is guaranteed £30000 for getting this far and he isn’t under any pressure. Joyce doesn’t have the kind of firepower to live with Humphries’ A-game, but as he said in his post-match interview, James Wade had his chances. Joyce is a great doubles hitter and if it does get into a scrap, he is well equipped.

Humphries is the 1.18 favourite and Joyce 5.25. Their H2H record is 3-2 to Humphries and he has won their last three. None have been on TV and you have to fancy the chances of Luke Humphries to show his experience of these big matches and long days.

It is hard to find any value here but I’ll have a small bet on the correct score.

2023 Players Championship Semi-Finals tip: 0.5 point Luke Humphries to win 11-6 @ 7.00 generally available

That is all from me this weekend. A couple of weeks to go before the big one. I’ll be taking a few days off to recharge the batteries before getting stuck into the prep for Dartsmas. It is going to be special.

-JamesPunt