The most common variant of darts is the game of 501. As a matter of fact, most tournament-level games are games of 501.
The rules of 501 are fairly straightforward: All players start with 501 points, and each turn they subtract from that the total number of points they score on that given turn. The winner is the first player to bring the score down to zero.
However, there are two caveats to these rules: your final score must be exactly zero and your final dart must hit a double. Meaning that in order to win, the player must hit a double with their last dart, and that double point value must be exactly the same as the player requires to get to zero.
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What does it mean to bust in darts?
A bust in darts occurs when a player throws a higher score than their remaining point value. A winning throw must score down to zero exactly. When a bust occurs, no score is marked, and the players turn is over.
A bust also occurs if a player has a remaining score of one, because a double is required to win the game and no double has a point value of one.
Examples:
- A score of 10 is left to finish the game. Most players would aim at the double five (10 points). If you miss and hit the 20, you have hit more than the required 10, and you bust.
- A score of 4 is left to finish the game. While aiming for the double two, you hit a single three, leaving one point remaining. This is a bust because there is no double on the board that equals one
What happens if I get a bust?
If you bust on your last turn, your score is reset to what it was before your throws regardless of which dart you busted with.
For example, if a player needs 32 to close and his first dart is a single 16, he needs to score 16 with his remaining darts while meeting the double out rule.
If he scores a double 8 on his second dart, he wins. However, if he busts, none of the thrown darts count, and on his next turn, he would still need 32 to close.
2 Other Things To Remember About Busting In Darts
- The lowest score that you can finish on is a two (double one). If you have a score of two remaining, any section you hit on the board will cause you to bust, except the double one.
- It may also be worth noting that 182 is the highest score you can leave and not have to worry about busting the next round. As the highest score you can obtain in one round is 180, which would leave two points remaining.
Here is something that happened today. A player wanted to hit D17 to win. They thought they hit D2 and threw there last dart for D16 and hit a 7. They had in fact hit the D17. They said that the game ended when they hit D17 even though they threw the third dart. I argued that they busted since they threw the third dart and overshot 34. Who is correct?
From the DRA
5.3.7 Any dart or darts mistakenly thrown by a Player after scoring the Game Shot shall not be counted as the respective leg is concluded by the Game Shot.
Had this issue tonight, still trying to figure out the answer because they neglected to look to see if the dart was in the double
Game was over when they hit the double 17, whether they knew it or not.
If you get down to 3 and you throw a one then another one and then another one and you are at zero, do you just go back to 3 or do you actually just lose the game? Big argument here about this one please help.
if you are playing an x01 game like 501 or 301, your score would go back to 3.
But you would actually have busted after the second dart.
You have to double out to win. If you have 3 points left and you hit the 1’s segment with your first 2 darts, you have 1 point left. You can not double out 1 point. The lowest double on the board is the double 1 which is worth 2 points.
i have a question if a player need 40 but busts on his second dart can he still throw the third dart no matter what i had this happen in a recent game and i called it a fowl as he had thrown his third dart when he was already bust to me it was ungentlemanly conduct and the ref should of warned him
If a player busts, their turn for that round is over regardless of how many darts they have left. Their turn is over.
I never knew there was so much to know about busts in darts. Thanks for shedding some light on this topic. I’ll definitely be more aware of busts in my own games from now on.