Darts has never been popular or more under the microscope thanks to the Luke Littler effect. There are plenty of different games and formats to play, most notably 501 which is the default game used by the Professional Darts Council (PDC) at all levels.
The 01 games which are the most traditional competitive dart games around the world and are enjoyed by players in pubs, clubs and household dens everywhere.
Let’s outline the basic framework, objectives, the rules of the game, and how to star, finish score in an 01 game or leg. The most frequent used, especially at the competitive or professional level is 501.
501 Aim of the Game:
Each player (pairing or team) starts with 501 points. The aim of the game is to work your way from 501 down to zero. Whoever hits zero points first will win that leg.
Usually a match consists of the best of an odd number of legs meaning the winner is the first to reach a specified number of legs most amateur events are the ‘best of’ 3 to 9 legs but many professional games use higher numbers. The standard PDC baseline is best of 11 which is used for many of the tournament and or early rounds.
501 Rules:
Although they vary a little between codes and events, some basic guidelines are usually in place.
It is usual to use what is called ‘straight start’. This means that from their very first dart a player is deducting their score from that 501.
There are variations from straight start — the most popular being ‘double-start’— which are played in many regions or specific events. But more of those another day.
The usual way of finishing a game of 501 is by reducing your score to zero by hitting a double (the outer ring of numbers) — a simple illustration would be a very consistent player hitting 4 scores of 100 would have 101 left. This is known as ‘double-finish’.
The player will need to work out how to leave themselves a double of any number and hit it to win the leg. Most will try to hit the treble 20 and then the single 1 to leave 40 (double 20 or tops).
When the double is hit and the score is zero (0) the leg is over.
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Who throws first in 501?
Determining who throws first in a 501 dart game is usually decided by ‘bulling up’.
This is when each player throws one dart at the bullseye. If one player hits the bullseye and the other misses, the player who hit the bullseye would throw first in a 501 dart game. The player will then take turns going first in each leg.
However, if both players miss, whoever is closer to the bullseye will throw first. Below are a couple more rules on this process:
- A bullseye beats a 25 (also known as an outer bull)
- Two Bullseyes is a tie and the throwing order is reversed for the next try
- Two 25’s is also a tie
- If you can't work out who is closer to the bullseye, players throw again in reverse order
At higher levels the nearest to the bull rules is scrapped and it's either inside or outside the bullseye ring. If both are outside they throw again.
Zero or Bust?
Standard 501 rules dictate that should you score more than 501 you are declared bust and your score returns to whatever it was at the start of that turn.
For example our consistent player from previously is again on 101. After hitting the treble 20 and the single 1 they are unfortunate enough to miss the attempt at double 20 badly and hit the treble again. This means that have scored 121 but it is know as bust or bursting and is declared as “no score” and the player returns to 101.
In short if you exceed 501 point hit you return to score at the end of your previous turn.
(Instead of a double-out, beginners may decide between themselves to allow ‘single-out’ meaning they can simply hit the exact score to bring them to 0. There are also regional variations or ‘no bust’ rules where the score only goes back to the previous score that was possible to check out. In the above example the player would be left with 40.)
Now you will know the basics for playing and or watching steel tip darts and the PDC’s regular format of 501 down - straight start, double finish.
Next we'll look at scoring and finishing in 501!
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