2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Preview – JP
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Preview
It was a tricky start for James Punt this afternoon but Big Boris Krcmar ensured we clawed something back. Check out James’ 2026 Poland Darts Open Friday preview below.
Afternoon Session Reflections
It was a disastrous start to the 2026 Euro Tour season. The 2 pointer on Edhouse to beat Menzies went down. The Scotsman, playing absolute toot in the build up to this, hit nine 180s in his 6-4 win. Ridiculous.
Harrysson averaged 98.07 against O’Connor, but for once O’Connor didn’t run up the white flag and hung on to win 6-4. At Least Boris Kcrmar averaged 102 in a 6-3 win over Joyce. It was -1.62 for the first session. Hopefully we can recover some of that this evening.
Wessel Nijman vs. Thomas Lovely
Nijman is on fire on the floor, as he was at the end of 2025. He has won eight of his last ten matches, won PC2 last week and was runner up in PC4 on Tuesday. The question is, can he take his floor form into a stage event? He won ten of his fourteen first round matches last year.
Lovely played in two Euro Tours last year and lost both first round matches, and he is yet to win a match in Europe in his career.
Their H2H record is 2-2 but in 2025, Nijman won both their matches 6-2 and 6-1.
Nijman is the 1.18 favourite, Lovely 5.50. You can get 1.62 with a -2.5 leg handicap for Nijman, which is reasonable, but not of any great interest. No bet.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Daryl Gurney vs. Dawid Robak
Gurney is the 1.08 favourite in a match with a local qualifier who averaged 78.38 across his three matches yesterday. No bet.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Damon Heta vs. Conor Scutt
Scutt has lost four of his last five matches and is playing with no consistency. Heta has lost six of his last ten matches, but is playing better than that sounds, and he is playing with more consistency than Scutt. However, he is lacking in confidence and finds winning very hard.
Heta is the 1.73 favourite, Scutt 2.20. Their H2H record is 3-1 to Heta but these are two very dodgy players and this is an easy match to pass on. No bet.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: No bet
Krzysztof Ratajski vs. Mickey Mansell
Mansell will try and bore Ratajski to death, but the Pole is very well equipped to cope with slow players. He doesn’t get rattled by spoiling tactics. The Polish Eagle will have a full house on his side and he is the better player. He is in good form, winning seven of his last ten and scoring well on the whole. Ratajski reached the quarter finals in the World Championship and reached the semi-final of PC2 last week.
Mansell has won six of his last ten matches but lost four of his last six. He lost 2-6 to Ratajski in PC3 on Monday and the home favourite is 10-2 vs Mansell overall.
Ratajski is the 1.45 favourite, Mansell 3.40. Mansell is a grinder and while he has never made much impression on the Euro Tour, he tends to win his first round match before losing in round two. However, this is a tough opening match. In 2025 Mansell played in five first round Euro Tour matches and won four. His one defeat was to Ratajski.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point Ratajski to win -1.5 legs @ 1.75 with Ladbrokes
Dirk van Duijvenbode vs. Adam Gawlas
I remember the days when Dirk would be fancied to win these events, but now he is just another player making up the numbers. He did reach the final of the final event of 2025 and he was runner up twice in 2023, but he isn’t the player he once was. In 2026 he has played eleven matches and won six. He can still hit some big numbers but he just doesn’t look like he enjoys it very much anymore.
Adam Gawlas was a very promising player a few years ago, whilst still a very young man. He reached a couple of Euro Tour quarter finals and the UK Open semi-final in 2023. But he lost his form and his tour card last year.
Gawlas won it back in January and celebrated by reaching the semi-final of PC1 last week. He has won six of his last ten matches, played some good stuff, but lacks consistency.
These two have only met once, back in the 2022 Grand Slam, which Dirk won 5-3.
It is a hard one to call. Gawlas has played some good stuff, but is inconsistent, while Dirk looks like he is going through the motions, and sometimes he sparks into life. This could go either way and could be close.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 2.23 with Livescorebet
Niko Springer vs. Cristo Reyes
An interesting matchup. Reyes disappeared from darts during the pandemic. He just stopped. Reyes then turned up at the Mediterranean qualifier for the World Championship. He played Gian van Veen in round one and gave him a proper match, losing 1-3 with a 96.16 average.
Reyes then went to Q school and won a card. He has played 21 matches since and won 15, hitting some very respectable averages but not with a great deal of consistency. He has qualified for three of the first four Euro Tour events so he has set up the potential to pick up some useful ranking money.
Euro Tour Winner
Niko Springer got his tour card last year and won ET 12 in Hungary as well as being runner up in ET 7. He didn’t really do much else to be honest. He was dumped out of the World Championship by the Aussie, Joe Comito, and he has played just ten matches in 2025, winning five, with six sub 90 averages.
Springer did win seven of his nine first round matches on the Euro Tour last year, and it was his happy place. Reyes hasn’t played Euro Tour darts since 2019 but had won eight of his last nine opening matches.
Reyes is the 1.83 favourite, and if this anywhere but on the Euro Tour, I’d take it, but Spring was a decent player in Europe last season and he could lift his game here. No bet.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: No Bet
Joe Cullen vs. Krzysztof Kciuk
The GOAT, Joe Cullen, has got a bit lucky with the draw, but maybe not. Kciuk is a Polish qualifier and a former tour card holder. The home players in this afternoon’s matches were cheered to the rafters and Cullen will have to dominate early if he is to shut them up. But he should be able to do that, as the local qualifiers are not good.
Cullen’s recent form is decent. He has won six of his last ten matches with eight 95+ averages. That will be too good for Kciuk. The Pole has won seven of his last ten matches but that was in Q school and yesterday’s qualifiers. He had a high average of 87.11 at Q school and has not hit anything bigger since.
These two have played three times, with Cullen winning three, the last being back in 2023. None required more than nine legs.
Cullen is the 1.33 favourite and he should be good enough to cover a stiff handicap.
2026 Poland Darts Open Friday Tip: 1 point Joe Cullen to win -2.5 legs @ 1.95 with Ladbrokes
Mike de Decker vs. Marvin Kraft
Kraft got his tour card in January and has played sixteen matches since, winning eight, four of them in the qualifier for this event. This his Euro Tour debut. His seasonal average is just 83.00.
De Decker reached the quarter final of PC4 on Tuesday but he has lost five of his last ten matches and hit four sub 90 averages, but his B game will likely be enough here. He is the 1.30 favourite but this is not a betting match for me. No bet.
