145 Left

I was watching the PDC World Darts championships yesterday and enjoying it. Especially the efforts of Rob Szabo against Ian Moss and Phil Taylor. Probably one of the best efforts of a NZ player at the PDC ever.

In the game John Part versus Mareno Marcels John in one leg was left on tops to finish and Mareno had 145 left and was to throw. He threw at triple 20 missed and hit a single 20 to leave 125. With two darts left he could not finish but only set to leave a double. This was where I thought he was quite clever and did something I would not have thought of but on reflection makes sense. Where I would have with the second dart tried to hit treble 20 to leave 65 and with the last dart thrown a single 25 to leave tops he did the reverse and hit the 25 with the second dart and triple 20 with the last to leave tops. I can see his thinking if you throw for the 25 on the last dart you give yourself the chance of hitting 50 and being left on 15. Doing it his way and throwing for 25 with the second dart if you hit the 50 you leave 75 but still have one dart to fix it going for triple 17 to leave double 12.

Sometimes these small differences in counting strategy are the ones that make a difference as to who wins the leg or even match,