A game, or “leg”, of darts is usually contested between two players who take turns in throwing up to three darts. Starting from a set score, usually 501 or 301, a player wins by reducing his score to zero. The last dart in the leg must hit either a double or the inner portion of the bullseye, which is the double of the outer bull, and must reduce the score to exactly zero. Successfully doing so is known as “doubling out” or “checking out”. A throw that would reduce a player’s score to one or below zero does not count, his turn ends, and his score is reset to what it was before that turn. (Sometimes in friendly games a player is allowed a dog’s chance by “splitting the eleven” if he has a remaining score of 1. This required placing a final dart between the legs of the number eleven in the normally non-scoring part of the board). Since the double areas are small, doubling out is usually the most difficult and tense part of a leg. Longer matches are often divided into sets, each comprising some number of legs.

Although playing straight down from 501 is standard in darts, other variations exist, notably “doubling in”, where players must hit a double to begin scoring, with all darts thrown before said double contributing nothing to his score. Other games that are commonly played differ in their scoring methods. These include “Round The Clock”, “Killer” and the more complicated Cricket.

In Round the Clock, players must hit each numbered section in turn, finishing with a bull to win. Far from being a beginner’s game, Round The Clock is a good training games since it practices targeting all areas of the board, a skill which is essential when finishing a classic leg. This can be taken further by only counting the double or the treble rings.

An additional rule which can add some spice to playing Round The Clock with two or more players is that any dart that falls in a bed other than the one aimed for is forteited to any player(s) awaiting that number.

In Killer, a number of players “own” a number on the dartboard (often selected by throwing a dart with their non-playing arm) and compete to build up “lives” (by hitting that number) until a threshold is reached (usually 4 or 6) before attempting to “kill” other players by removing the lives they have built up (by hitting those other players’ numbers) until a single player is left.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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