Darts 501 Rules: Double Out, Busts and Checkouts

501 is the darts game on television and in almost every league, and its rules fit in one sentence: start at 501, subtract every score, and finish on exactly zero with your last dart in a double. Everything interesting — busts, checkouts, why players aim at 32 rather than 31 — follows from that last clause.

This guide covers the rules as the World Darts Federation (WDF) writes them, how a bust works in practice, a table of common checkouts from 170 down, and the numbers you cannot finish from.

The basic rules

• Each player (or team) starts the leg on 501.
• A turn — a visit — is three darts. Add the three scores together and subtract them from what you have left.
• The start is straight in: every dart counts from the first throw. You do not need a double to begin.
• The finish is double out: your final dart must land in a double — the outer ring — or the bullseye, and bring your score to exactly zero.
• The first player to check out wins the leg. Darts thrown after the finishing dart do not count.
• Players alternate who throws first in each leg. Matches are played as best of a number of legs, or of sets, which are themselves best of legs.

The board is hung with the centre of the bull 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) from the floor, and the oche — the throwing line — is 2.37 m (7 ft 9¼ in) from the face of the board, measured horizontally.

Reading the board for scoring

• The number segment scores its face value.
• The inner narrow ring is the treble: three times the number. Treble 20 is 60.
• The outer narrow ring is the double: twice the number. Double 16 is 32.
• The outer bull (green ring) scores 25. It is not a double.
• The inner bull (bullseye) scores 50 and counts as double 25 — so it can finish a leg from 50.
• A dart outside the double ring, or one that falls out before the score is called, scores nothing.

The highest visit is 180: three treble 20s.

The bust rule

A visit is a bust — scored as zero, with your total put back to what it was before the visit — if any dart:

1. takes you below zero (you had 32 and scored 40);
2. leaves you on exactly 1, which can never be finished because there is no double worth 1; or
3. brings you to exactly zero without a double (you had 32 and hit two single 16s).

The visit ends the moment you bust. Any darts you had not yet thrown are not thrown, and any points the earlier darts in that visit scored are cancelled too.

Worked example: a bust in the middle of a leg

You have 32 left. First dart: single 15, leaving 17. Second dart: single 16, leaving 1. That is a bust. Your score goes back to 32, and your turn is over.

A leg, visit by visit

Visit 5 is the one to study. From 36, the first dart hit a single 20, leaving 16. The second hit a single 16, which brought the score to zero — but not on a double. Bust: the 36 comes back and the turn ends. On the next visit the same route works properly: single 20, then double 8.

Check the arithmetic: 180 + 100 + 45 + 140 + 36 = 501.

Checkouts

A checkout is the route to zero from a given score. The highest possible is 170: treble 20, treble 20, bullseye. Anything over 170 cannot be finished in one visit, and the highest two-dart finish is 110 (treble 20, bullseye).

Common checkouts

These are standard routes, not the only ones — most scores can be finished several ways, and the best route for you depends on which doubles you hit. Every one below reaches exactly zero and ends on a double or the bullseye.

The numbers you cannot finish in three darts

Seven scores of 170 or less have no three-dart checkout at all: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159. Players call them bogey numbers. Leave one of them and the next visit can only set up a finish, not complete it.

Why players aim at 32

Doubles are thin, and a dart aimed at one often lands in the single of the same number. The favourite finishing doubles are the ones where a miss still leaves another even double:

• D16 (32 left): a single 16 leaves 16, which is D8. A single 8 leaves 8 (D4), then 4 (D2), then 2 (D1). You can miss four times and still have a double on.
• D20 (40 left): a single 20 leaves 20 (D10), then 10 (D5).
• Odd numbers can never be finished with one dart, because every double is even (and the bullseye is 50). 41 needs a single first — 9, then D16 — so aim to leave an even number.

And never, on purpose, leave 1.

Common variations

If you are playing straight out, the bust rule still applies to going below zero, but a single that lands exactly on zero finishes, and leaving 1 is no longer a bust.

Keeping the score

In a league, a marker keeps the chalkboard: the score for the visit on one side, the remainder on the other. At home, the remainder is the number everyone argues about, because a subtraction error of 20 in visit two can decide a leg ten minutes later.

Fivebar's Darts sheet is built around exactly those rules: 501 down to a double, busts enforced, checkouts suggested, and legs counted. From a game's menu you can start from 301 instead, play straight out, or play over legs. The Darts sheet is part of the one-time unlock; the support page lists what is free and what is not. For the other game on the same board — closing 20 down to 15 and the bull — there is a separate Cricket sheet.

The short version

• Start on 501; each visit is three darts, subtracted from what is left.
• Straight in, double out. The bullseye counts as double 25.
• Bust if you go below zero, leave 1, or hit zero without a double — the score reverts and the visit ends.
• The highest checkout is 170 (T20, T20, Bull). You cannot finish from 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 or 159 in one visit.
• Aim to leave 32 or 40, because a miss still leaves an even double.