The 2024-25 PDC Darts World Championships are well underway from the historic Ally Pally in London, and while 17-year-old Luke Littler and defending world champion Luke Humphries are the headliners, the crowd favorite may well be 39-year-old Stephen Bunting.
Bunting is a 10-year veteran who won the World Championship in 2014, but hasn't been able to get back to the mountaintop. He's become extremely popular for his everyman attitude and charisma that has caused fans to flock to him. Never mind that he has the best entrance in the world today. I mean, just watch this and tell me you're not fired up for the darts...
Bunting enters this year ranked eighth on the PDC money list. But the man they nicknamed "The Bullet" also has a secret weapon in the form of a new hypnotist.
When discussing 2023 world champion Michael Smith, who has struggled mightily since, Bunting offered some perspective.
"You're set in your own ways, aren't you? Yeah, I think my hypnotherapist did reach out to him and his family probably last year. I don't know what happened there, but it didn't happen and it's not my position to speculate," he told The Mirror.
"All I can say is that I'm really happy with my hypnotist. I think he's doing fantastic for me with things like diet, sleep and looking for energy when you're playing. Each player is different, so I wouldn't like to tell certain players, 'This is what you need to do' but you learn off the best. That's my opinion."
Bunting then explained how hypnotherapy has altered his life, and how people tend to have a misconception of it all.
"People don't really understand what a hypnotist is about - he doesn't make you bark like a dog or dangle a watch in front of your eyes until you fall asleep. He puts you under for 25 to 30 minutes and it's the equivalent of four hours' sleep.
"It just focuses you - 95 per cent of your brain is negative, like bucket that fills up with negative thoughts and all the stress of your everyday life, but the sleep movement takes down the level of this bucket, releases the stress and you can play with more freedom."
Whether or not Smith takes Bunting's tip and tries hypnotherapy remains to be scene. But Bunting certainly has us sold.