The 2010 Players Championship Finals (officially the 2010 totesport.com Players Championship Finals) was a professional darts tournament held at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, England, from 28 to 31 January 2010. It was the first of the five Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) premier events in the 2010 calendar and the second edition of the tournament. The event was sponsored by the betting company totesport.com and featured an increased prize fund of £250,000 with £60,000 going to the winner. Phil Taylor, the world number one, was the tournament's defending champion, having won the first edition in 2009. Taylor was eliminated in the semi-finals by Paul Nicholson, who won the match 10 legs to 9 and proceeded to qualify for the final, defeating Dennis Priestley, Steve Beaton and Adrian Lewis in the three intervening rounds. Nicholson's opponent in the final was Mervyn King, whom he beat 13–11 for his first major PDC tournament win. He also achieved a tournament-high checkout of 170 in the ninth leg of his semi-final match against Taylor. Overview The Players Championship Finals was first organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in 2009 and is the final tournament for the best players on the PDC Pro Tour. It occurred at the start of the season according to the final rankings of the year before. The 2010 competition was held between 28 and 31 January, and was the first of the five premier PDC events in the 2010 season. It was the second edition of the tournament and featured a 32-player draw at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex for the second successive year. Sponsored by the betting company totesport.com, it had a total prize fund of £250,000, and the host broadcaster was ITV4. A total of 32 players from the final standings in the 2009 PDC Players Championship Order of Merit following the final Players Championship event of the 2009 season qualified for the competition with all of them seeded. The first seed was drawn against the 32nd seed while the second seed played the 31st seed and so on. Phil Taylor, the world number one and the 2009 Players Championship Finals winner, was the first seed and Mark Walsh was seeded second. Colin Osborne was seeded third and Adrian Lewis was the fourth seed. The maximum number of legs played in a match increased from 11 in the first round to 15 in the second and