The two Luke’s are in the top half of the draw so only one of our three selections are in that particular section, that being Gezzy Price. He faces defending champion Dimitri Van Den Bergh who won this back in 2022.

Van Den Bergh however struggled considerably towards the end of 2023 and lost his opening match at the World Championship to Florian Hempel despite being massively in control and missing match darts.

Price lost to eventual champion Luke Littler in Bahrain but he did put an end to Luke Humphries winning run which suggests his game is in a good place. He didn’t do much wrong against Littler and similar remarks also apply in respect of his loss to Brendan Dolan at the World Championships.

If he wins his opening game he’ll be pleased with the fact he faces Peter Wright or Kevin Doets next up. It’s likely he’ll face one of the Luke’s in the Semi-Finals but he’s capable of beating either of those if turning up. With a nice draw he should go deep.

Bully Boy lost in a last leg decider to MVG in the Semi-Finals in Bahrain but that was pleasing considering he suffered an inconsistent end to 2023.

He opens up against young protégé Gian Van Veen who burst onto the scene last year and lost to Luke Littler in the World Youth Championship final. There were a few worrying signs however that emerged as the season ended.

After his defeat to Littler in the aforementioned match he spoke about how perhaps dartitis – something which he has suffered from previously – may have been an issue. That is significant worry if that thought is at the back of his mind. On top of this he also let a two set lead slip against Man Lok Leung to lose 3-2 in the opening round at Ally Pally. He was hit by a barrage of 180’s in that game and even when 2-0 up he was not the better player.

He’s up against a big maximum hitter in Smith here, who brushed aside Peter Wright easily last week and could’ve easily eliminated Michael Van Gerwen too. The winner faces either Nathan Aspinall or Danny Noppert in the next; so the draw could’ve been a lot worse for Bully Boy.

Voltage is our third each-way tip and like Michael Smith is in the bottom half of the draw so avoids a clash against Luke Littler, Luke Humphries or Gerwyn Price until the final at least.

He kicks off against Dutch superstar Raymond Van Barneveld and despite Barney being the crowd favourite Cross is the better player of the two right now and I think he’ll have too much in this one.

His likely opponent in the next round is MVG and he’ll have an opportunity to seek revenge for his loss to him last weekend. It was a high class match and one that could’ve gone either way. He was also in terrific form by the end of 2023, reaching the Grand Slam of Darts final and World Championship semi-finals. He was arguably in better form than Mighty Mike and that match will hold no fear for him either.

He was winner of two events on the World Series last year, winning both events down under in the summer. As a result he was the number one seed at the World Series of Darts finals and he’s more than capable of keeping his good form going here.