Aim Darts
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501 darts scorer

Two players, 501 each, first to zero on a double. The board below is set up and waiting, so you can start a leg without signing up for anything. Change the rules before the first dart if your house plays it differently.

You0
501
avg
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darts
0
Player 20
501
avg
—
darts
0
No finish on yet.
You to throw
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—
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Can you finish on a single?

Not in the standard game. 501 is played double out, so the dart that takes you to exactly zero has to be a double, and the bullseye counts as double 25. Plenty of pub formats play straight out instead, where any dart finishes. Both are in the options above, along with master out, where a treble counts too.

How a leg of 501 actually goes

You throw three darts, add them up, and take the total off 501. That is the whole game until you get near the end, and the end is where it gets interesting.

Most players open with the treble 20 bed. Three trebles is 180, the maximum, and the reason 60 gets called a ton in singles. A steady 60 a visit puts you on a finish in eight or nine darts, which is why the average matters more than any single big score.

From about 170 down you stop scoring and start setting up. The job is to leave yourself a number you can actually hit: an even one, ideally one that halves cleanly if you miss. 32 is the favourite because a missed double 16 leaves 16, then 8, then 4, and you are still alive. Leave 41 and a missed 20 puts you on 21, which is an odd number and a wasted dart.

Then you have to hit it. Doubles are where legs are won and lost, and where most beginners find out their aim is not where they thought it was. Turn on call the target in the options above and the scorer records what you were going for as well as what you hit, which is the only way to find out whether you miss a double 16 high, low, or into the 8.

The three ways to bust

Playing double out, a visit busts for one of three reasons. Your score goes back to whatever it was before you threw, and any darts left in your hand are forfeited.

  1. You went past zero

    On 40 and you hit treble 20. That is 60 against 40, so the visit is void and you are back on 40.

  2. You left exactly one

    Nothing on the board doubles to one, so one is unfinishable. On 20 and hitting a 19 busts you just as surely as overshooting.

  3. You finished on the wrong ring

    On 20 and you hit a single 20. You are on zero, but not by way of a double, so it does not count and you go back to 20.

A busted visit still counts as darts thrown, and it scores nothing, which is why a bust drags an average down. That is the convention every darts scorer uses and it is the single most common reason someone thinks the maths is wrong.

Finishes worth knowing by heart

The scorer suggests a route whenever one exists. These are the ones that come up often enough to be worth learning anyway.

The scorer works the rest out as you go. Every finish from 2 to 170 is on one page if you would rather learn them.