Luke Humphries begins Players Championship Finals title defence as Mike de Decker makes light work of Richard Veenstra

Luke Humphries joins Luke Littler as one of the only big names to dodge the seed cull at the Players Championship Finals with 'Cool Hand Luke' opening his title defence easing past Gabriel Clemens 6-2.

Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting are just a few of the names who have gone out today already and with recent major champions including Ritchie Edhouse and Mike de Decker, darts is perhaps at its most unpredictable right now.

But the two stand out names perhaps were the easiest to guess in terms of both moving through as Humphries joined the second round line-up. It was a 95 average and two 180's for 'Cool Hand Luke' as well as 6/13 on the doubles while Clemens struggled hitting 2/11.

Humphries opened with a 16-dart break on double 10 with Clemens missing darts to hold. While it was an 18-darter, Humphries consolidated with a 65 checkout to make it 2-0.

Both missed handfuls of darts at double but it was Humphries who made it 3-0 with double four finally. It was more like it from Humphries as he sped towards the finishing line with a 76 checkout for 4-0 hitting an 11-darter.

Humphries couldn't get to the brink though and Clemens pinned two legs on the spin for 4-2 down to ask the question and after initially fluffing his lines, Humphries answered hitting double two for 5-2. A 14-darter sealed it from there for 6-2 with a 46 checkout.

Elsewhere Mike de Decker continued to show why he is The Real Deal in a battle of Holland v Belgium against Richard Veenstra and it was the latter that prevailed. Albeit mostly due to missed darts at double as De Decker won through 6-1.

He punished 12 missed darts at double from the Dutchman and with Michael van Gerwen dumped out, he now faces Ian White in the second round. Another opportunity presents itself to the rising Belgian.