Previously there had been a random draw after each round and the tournament had earned the nickname the "FA Cup of darts" as a result.

The top 128 players (plus ties) in this Order of Merit join the 32 Punch Taverns qualifiers at the televised stages in Bolton.

Winmau World Masters champion Michael van Gerwen, playing his first match on Sky Television in the UK, beat 37-year-old Chris McTernan a pub qualifier from Bacup.

There were very few shocks on day two of the tournament, although former world champions Bob Anderson and Keith Deller, who were both struggling for form, were both knocked out.

The draw for the fourth round, featuring the top 32 players in the world was staged at the end of Friday's play.

Raymond Barneveld would book a place in Round 5 with an 11–1 win over John "Mr. Magoo" MaGowan, who he defeated 11–7 in the Semi-finals twelve months ago.

Phil Taylor achieved his third nine dart finish at Bolton in the fifth round against Wes Newton – it is also his fifth televised perfect game.

The clash between the world's top two ranked players ended with a convincing victory for Raymond van Barneveld against Phil Taylor.

Vincent van der Voort produced a second successive 11–10 win to reach the final by beating Colin Osborne in the semi-final whilst defending champion Raymond van Barneveld had a more comfortable win 11–4 over Colin Lloyd – meaning he'd beaten his two rivals in the top three of the world rankings on the same day.