The Citywest Hotel Convention Centre in Dublin will be the venue of the Bodog.com World Grand Prix Darts tournament, beginning on Monday night.
Thirty two players will compete for 350,000 prize money in the double-start competition that will end on September 10. Phil Taylor who has won the event a record nine times is the man to beat at the event that will be telecast live on Sky Sports HD.
All legs of the competition must begin and end with a double, making the World Grand Prix one of its kind, on the darts circuit.
Several players took part in the weekend's Two Players Championship, as a warm up to the Dublin event, but champion Phil Taylor decided to give the weekend competition a miss.
Phil Taylor's first round opponent on Monday night is Brendan Dolan, and Taylor will be understandably nervous, considering that all his three losses at the tournament, in 2001, 2004 and 2007, have come in the first round.
Dolan, based in Fermanagh, was Taylor's first round opponent in 2009, a match he lost 2-0, but this year, Dolan believes he can win, especially as, given his past record, Taylor is considered vulnerable in the first round.
Eight first round matches are due to take place on Monday night. Terry Jenkins, who has been runner up twice, will play against Holland's Vincent Van der Voort.
In another match, Merwyn King, currently the world's fourth ranked player, will face Wayne Jones. In yet another first round game, Adrian Lewis will find himself face to face with Alan Tabern.
Andy Smith, returning after surgery on an infected leg wound, will play against James Caven. This will be Smith's first televised match. Another first round match will feature Steve Farmer and Steve Brown, both taking part in this tournament for the first time.
Ronnie Baxter will face Gary Anderson; while Baxter has entered the semi-finals on a previous appearance in Dublin, Anderson is Scotland's top ranked player.
Kevin Painter and Mark Dudbridge are the eighth pair to clash on the opening night; both players boast playing in world championship finals, in their resumes.
The other eight first round matches will take place on Tuesday night. John MacGovan, an Irish veteran and the oldest player in the tournament at 69, will meet Raymond van Barneveld, the runner-up to Taylor in 2008 and 2009.
Barneveld is second favourite for the title after Taylor. Simon Whitlock is joint second-favourite with Barneveld, while James Wade is the next among the players fancied to win the Dublin event.
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Suresh Iyer is an avid sports fan and blogger.
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