As for the 301 variant of the darts game, the rules are basically the same as with the previous one. The game is played in exactly the same way but players start the game with 301. When it comes to professional dart boards games competitions, the basic game rules are the same, as expected; but some other aspects of the game can vary.
Walk into any pub in the world and more likely than not, alongside a bar, a couple of taps, and some beaten up stools, there'll be a dartboard somewhere in the establishment. In addition to being a professional sport, darts is also a classic pub game all over the Northern Hemisphere. It's one of the few things the Scandinavians, the Irish, the Germans, and even the Americans all have in common. The game consists of throwing small 'missiles' at a circular, fixed board, and can be played with as few as two people or as many as two full teams. So where exactly did one of our most beloved bar games start?
Darts originated in the U.K. sometime in the mid-19th century. It's been said that the game first started with soldiers throwing short arrows at tree trunks or the bottom of a barrel. Wood would dry out and cracks would form, creating 'sections' on their makeshift boards. Apparently some woodworkers even began paying their bar bills by making homemade dartboards and giving them to pubs! Dartboards used to be called 'butts,' coming from the French word for target. The first set of proper darts was crafted using wood, lead for weight, and turkey feathers.
Darts Rules & Basics
Many variations of darts exist, though the most commonly played version is 501. The correct placement of a fixed dartboard is 5 feet 8 inches from the ground, with the bullseye being the point of reference. The proper distance between player and board, from toeline to front of board, is just over 7 feet 9 inches.
According to the Professional Darts Corporation, each team (or individual player) starts out at 501, with the goal of working their way down to zero. Teams alternate taking turns, with each turn consisting of three dart throws per turn. At the end of each turn, the total number accrued from the three darts thrown is subtracted from 501; the bullseye is worth 50 points. The catch, however, is that in order to win, the final thrower on the team must reach zero with a double. That's to say, if the team has 20 points left, the final thrower must hit the 10 twice. For odd numbers, the first dart must be used to change the number to an even (example, starting with 25 and scoring 5 points), then the doubling on the last two throws. Some variations of the game call for a 'double start,' which incorporates this final process at the beginning as well. This is referred to as the 'double in, double out' rule. Whichever team hits zero first wins. If neither team gets to zero in 20 turns, the team with the lower number of points wins. If the scores are tied at 20 turns, 10 additional rounds will be played. At 30 rounds, if the scores are still equal, the match concludes with a draw.
Tempted to join a dart league yet? Maybe not. Tempted to head to your local pub and get to practicing over a beer? We thought so.
Popular Dart Games & Variants
Overview
This article outlines darts official rules. This is a bit difficult to define because there's many ways to play a game of darts. There are more than 60+ games you can play on a dartboard.
For someone new to darts you may be a bit confused as towhere to start. I will try to simplifyit for you. Even though there's no one way to play a game of darts there arestill guidelines that all dart games must follow.
Furthermore the darts world has a governing body called theworld darts federation, WDF for short. They include over 70 countries worldwide,they also host tournaments in all those 70+ countries. As such their rules andregulations have become the standard for dart players everywhere.
Odds are if you decide to enter a tournament in your area you will be playing with their rules. If you want to get the news straight from the horse's mouth, here's their page for darts official rules here WDF tournament rules.
But regardless of if you want to enter darts tournaments oryou're just a casual player, there are guidelines that apply to every dartsgame, these are the general rules of darts.
Darts General Rules
1. The dartboard must be mounted 5 ft 8 inches from the floor to the middle of the dartboard for both bristle and electronic dartboards.
2. The throw-line must be marked 7 ft 9.25 inches from the front of the dartboard to the back of the throw-line for bristle dartboards. For electronic dartboards the throw-line must be marked 8 ft away. This translate to 9 ft 7.5 inches diagonal distance from the center of the dartboard to the back of the throw-line for bristle dartboards and 9 feet 9 inches for electronic dartboards.
3. You and your opponents take turns shooting at thedartboard to determine who goes first. The player who shoots closest to thebullseye gets the first turn.
4. Regardless of which game you play you will have to throwthree darts each turn unless you win the game with fewer.
5. For bristle dartboards if a dart falls off the dartboardbefore you can finish throwing and collecting all three, that dart doesn'tcount towards your score. For electronic dartboards the computer registers yourscore even if the dart falls out.
6. The outer ring portion is worth double the number and theinner right is worth triple that number. Some dart games may just award you 2points for hitting the double and 3 points for hitting the triple butregardless the game those portions will be worth more points. The inner portionof the bullseye is also worth 50 or double the points of the other portionwhich is worth 25 points.
Moving On
Those are darts official rules, general guidelines that apply to all dart games. Furthermore, of the 60+ dart games you can play on a dartboard, some are more common than others.
This goes back to tournament play. The origin of darts iscredited to the English as such they dictate the most commonly played game ofdarts, known as the x01 games.
Only in American do we see the popularity of cricket which isanother darts game that is played alongside x01 games at tournaments. So as abeginner if you are looking for a sort of standard those two would fit thatmold.
Odds are if you decide to go to a pub or bar for a gamethat's what they will play because everyone know those games. If you are inAmerica it will be cricket, if you are in England it will be one of the x01games. I'll list them both below.
Darts Official Rules For X01 Games
Prelude: The x01 games are the most popularform of darts found all over the world. They dominate tournament play all overthe world.
X01 games are named as such because they are played by adding1 to a multiple of 100. To my knowledge x01 games range from 101 to 1501, withthe most popular form of the game being 501 recently overtaking 301 as the newstandard.
The objective of x01 games is to be the first to reach zerofrom the starting score, be it 401, 501, 601, etc. Most x01 games also requireyou finish the game with a double out.
This simply means you have to hit a double section of thedartboard before your point will count and you can win the match. For exampleif you have 20 left to win the game, you have to hit the double 10 before youwill be allowed to win.
This has spawned the invention of out charts dart finish tables, which is a whole subsection of darts on its own. I'll go into more detail on the game-play below.
How To Play: Like with most dart games, you andyour opponent will take turns shooting at the bullseye to determine who getsthe first turn. You can flip a coin to determine who shoots first for thechance to shoot first. I prefer to play rock payer scissors.
After the first shooter is determined, each player takesturns throwing three darts at the dartboard each turn. The outer ring is worthdouble that number, so if you land on the outer ring of the 20 its worth 40.The inner ring is worth 3 times that number, so if you land on the inner ringof the 19 its worth 57.
You continue in this fashion until either you or youropponent reaches zero. But remember you must score a double on your last pointbefore it can count. If you score more points than you need or you are leftwith a score of 1 your point doesn't count. Because you can't get a double outwith a score of 1.
The winner is declared when one player manages to finish thegame with a double out. Some x01 games do allow single out finishes, this isjust you shooting the exact number instead of a double to finish. Most timesthis is left to the players' discretion.
Darts Official Rules For Cricket
Prelude: Americans are sort of separate fromthe rest of the world, they seem to have their own way of doing things. Takethe popularity of soccer worldwide, in the US American football, evenbasketball is more popular than soccer.
Rules For Dart Board Games
As such when it comes to darts America has it's own darts game. Where-else in other parts of the world x01 games are more popular, in American cricket is the most popular form of darts, it's even listed in the tournament rules of the American Darts Organization.
Dart Game Rules Printable
Unlike x01 games cricket only utilizes 7 parts of thedartboard, the numbers 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bullseye. The objectiveof cricket is to score three points on each of the numbers listed previously,doing so will designate those numbers as 'closed' for you.
After a number is closed, if your opponent hasn't closed thatnumber as well, any additional time you hit that number you will earn pointsequal that number. Before you close the number the double area is worth 2points and the treble area is worth 3 points.
Odds are if you decide to enter a tournament in your area you will be playing with their rules. If you want to get the news straight from the horse's mouth, here's their page for darts official rules here WDF tournament rules.
But regardless of if you want to enter darts tournaments oryou're just a casual player, there are guidelines that apply to every dartsgame, these are the general rules of darts.
Darts General Rules
1. The dartboard must be mounted 5 ft 8 inches from the floor to the middle of the dartboard for both bristle and electronic dartboards.
2. The throw-line must be marked 7 ft 9.25 inches from the front of the dartboard to the back of the throw-line for bristle dartboards. For electronic dartboards the throw-line must be marked 8 ft away. This translate to 9 ft 7.5 inches diagonal distance from the center of the dartboard to the back of the throw-line for bristle dartboards and 9 feet 9 inches for electronic dartboards.
3. You and your opponents take turns shooting at thedartboard to determine who goes first. The player who shoots closest to thebullseye gets the first turn.
4. Regardless of which game you play you will have to throwthree darts each turn unless you win the game with fewer.
5. For bristle dartboards if a dart falls off the dartboardbefore you can finish throwing and collecting all three, that dart doesn'tcount towards your score. For electronic dartboards the computer registers yourscore even if the dart falls out.
6. The outer ring portion is worth double the number and theinner right is worth triple that number. Some dart games may just award you 2points for hitting the double and 3 points for hitting the triple butregardless the game those portions will be worth more points. The inner portionof the bullseye is also worth 50 or double the points of the other portionwhich is worth 25 points.
Moving On
Those are darts official rules, general guidelines that apply to all dart games. Furthermore, of the 60+ dart games you can play on a dartboard, some are more common than others.
This goes back to tournament play. The origin of darts iscredited to the English as such they dictate the most commonly played game ofdarts, known as the x01 games.
Only in American do we see the popularity of cricket which isanother darts game that is played alongside x01 games at tournaments. So as abeginner if you are looking for a sort of standard those two would fit thatmold.
Odds are if you decide to go to a pub or bar for a gamethat's what they will play because everyone know those games. If you are inAmerica it will be cricket, if you are in England it will be one of the x01games. I'll list them both below.
Darts Official Rules For X01 Games
Prelude: The x01 games are the most popularform of darts found all over the world. They dominate tournament play all overthe world.
X01 games are named as such because they are played by adding1 to a multiple of 100. To my knowledge x01 games range from 101 to 1501, withthe most popular form of the game being 501 recently overtaking 301 as the newstandard.
The objective of x01 games is to be the first to reach zerofrom the starting score, be it 401, 501, 601, etc. Most x01 games also requireyou finish the game with a double out.
This simply means you have to hit a double section of thedartboard before your point will count and you can win the match. For exampleif you have 20 left to win the game, you have to hit the double 10 before youwill be allowed to win.
This has spawned the invention of out charts dart finish tables, which is a whole subsection of darts on its own. I'll go into more detail on the game-play below.
How To Play: Like with most dart games, you andyour opponent will take turns shooting at the bullseye to determine who getsthe first turn. You can flip a coin to determine who shoots first for thechance to shoot first. I prefer to play rock payer scissors.
After the first shooter is determined, each player takesturns throwing three darts at the dartboard each turn. The outer ring is worthdouble that number, so if you land on the outer ring of the 20 its worth 40.The inner ring is worth 3 times that number, so if you land on the inner ringof the 19 its worth 57.
You continue in this fashion until either you or youropponent reaches zero. But remember you must score a double on your last pointbefore it can count. If you score more points than you need or you are leftwith a score of 1 your point doesn't count. Because you can't get a double outwith a score of 1.
The winner is declared when one player manages to finish thegame with a double out. Some x01 games do allow single out finishes, this isjust you shooting the exact number instead of a double to finish. Most timesthis is left to the players' discretion.
Darts Official Rules For Cricket
Prelude: Americans are sort of separate fromthe rest of the world, they seem to have their own way of doing things. Takethe popularity of soccer worldwide, in the US American football, evenbasketball is more popular than soccer.
Rules For Dart Board Games
As such when it comes to darts America has it's own darts game. Where-else in other parts of the world x01 games are more popular, in American cricket is the most popular form of darts, it's even listed in the tournament rules of the American Darts Organization.
Dart Game Rules Printable
Unlike x01 games cricket only utilizes 7 parts of thedartboard, the numbers 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and the bullseye. The objectiveof cricket is to score three points on each of the numbers listed previously,doing so will designate those numbers as 'closed' for you.
After a number is closed, if your opponent hasn't closed thatnumber as well, any additional time you hit that number you will earn pointsequal that number. Before you close the number the double area is worth 2points and the treble area is worth 3 points.
After you close the number, the double area is worth 2 timesthat number and the treble area is worth 3 times that number. You win the gameof cricket when you close all numbers first and have more points than youropponent.
If you do not have more points than your opponent you willnot be allowed to close your final number until you earn more points than youropponent.
How To Play: Same as the x01 games. You and youropponents shoot one dart at the dartboard to determine who goes first. Theplayer closest to the bullseye gets the first turn. Afterwards you and youropponent(s) take turns shooting three darts at the dartboard each turn.
Your objective is to close all numbers and score more pointsthan your opponent. You close a number by scoring 3 points on that number. Thedouble section of the number is worth 2 points and the treble section is worth3 points. So it's possible for you to close a number in one turn.
Once you close that number you can begin to earn points onthat number until your opponent closes their similar number. Until then youwill earn twice the points for hitting the double section of the number, andtriple the points for hitting the treble section of that number.
For example if you hit the double section of the 15 you will earn 30 points, and if you hit the treble 15 you will earn 45 points. The first player to close all their numbers and have more points win. You will not be allowed to close your last number until you have more points than your opponent, otherwise if they close all their numbers they win.
Check out even more Dart Games for Beginners or find one of the Best Bristle Dartboards to play on.
