How to Play Darts: 501 and Cricket Rules Explained

Learning how to play darts really means learning two different games that share one board. This page covers 501, the countdown game most people picture first, and cricket, the marks-and-closing game that’s just as common in pubs and clubs, each with its own setup, turn structure, and worked scoring example. Both are thrown from the same board, at the same distance, with the same three darts per turn - only the goal and the scoring change.

Cricket darts rules and 501: how to play darts in a nutshell

In 501, you start at 501 and throw three darts a turn, subtracting their total from your score; the last dart of the leg must land in a double (or the inner bull) to finish exactly on zero. In cricket, there’s no countdown at all - you’re racing to close seven targets (20 down to 15, plus the bull) by hitting each one three times before your opponents do, while banking points on any target you’ve closed that they haven’t. Everything below follows the standard PDC/WDF tournament format for 501 (straight start, double to finish) and the common club version of cricket (not cut-throat); where a pub or house commonly plays it differently, that’s called out in its own section.

Setup: the board, the oche, and your darts

A regulation dartboard hangs with its center - the bull - exactly 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) off the floor. The oche, the line players throw from, sits 2.37 m (7 ft 9 1/4 in) out from the face of the board, measured along the floor. Because that’s a horizontal distance and the bull is up at head height, tournament setups are often double-checked with a single diagonal measurement instead: a tape run from the bull’s center straight down to the back of the oche should read 2.93 m (9 ft 7 1/2 in) - if that diagonal is right, both the height and the distance are right.

The board itself is split into 20 numbered segments, running 20, 1, 18, 4, 13, 6, 10, 15, 2, 17, 3, 19, 7, 16, 8, 11, 14, 9, 12, 5 clockwise from the top - deliberately mixing high and low neighbors so a slightly off throw rarely lands on a big number twice. Two thin rings cross every segment: the outer ring doubles whatever number it sits in, and a second thin ring partway in trebles it. At the center, the outer bull is worth 25 and the smaller inner bull inside it is worth 50 - and for finishing purposes in 501, the inner bull counts as a double.

Each player throws their own set of three steel-tip darts, no heavier than 50 g each, and every dart is removed from the board and handed back after a turn - you always throw your own darts, never an opponent’s. Track the running score (and, in cricket, the marks on each target) on a chalkboard, scoresheet, or the darts scoreboard tool, which also flags a bust automatically.

501: how a turn works

Each player starts a leg at 501. On your turn, you throw three darts and add up whatever you hit; that total is subtracted from your remaining score. Hitting the board anywhere counts normally except for finishing - a single, double, or treble on any numbered segment all add their plain value, doubled, or trebled, and the two bulls add 25 or 50. There’s no requirement to hit a double before you start scoring (that’s “straight start,” the standard both the PDC and WDF use); scoring begins with your very first dart.

The only restriction comes right at the end. You can’t just subtract your way to zero with any old dart - the dart that brings your score to exactly zero must land in a double segment or the inner bull. If a dart would take your score below zero, down to exactly 1, or to exactly zero without that final dart being a double, it’s a bust: the entire three-dart turn is voided, your score reverts to whatever it was before you picked up your darts, and play passes to the next player.

501 scoring and checkouts

Say a player’s score has come down to 32, with three fresh darts in hand. Throwing a single 16 first brings the score to 16; throwing double 8 next brings it to exactly zero on a double, and the leg is won right there - the player doesn’t even need their third dart. That’s a checkout: a finish planned around hitting a specific double at the end rather than just scoring the most points possible.

The same 32 also shows how a bust works. If that first dart had landed in treble 16 instead of a single, the score would drop to 32 minus 48, a negative number - an instant bust. The whole turn is thrown away, the score stays at 32, and the player tries the same finish again on their next visit. Planning a checkout around a number you can comfortably reach with room to spare, rather than one that busts if you’re even slightly off, is most of what separates a confident finish from a wasted turn.

How a leg of 501 ends

A leg ends the instant a player’s score reaches exactly zero on a double or the inner bull - that dart is the last one thrown, even if there are darts left in the player’s hand that turn. Most matches aren’t decided by a single leg: play continues leg after leg, with the loser of each leg throwing first in the next, until one side has won enough legs to take a set (commonly the best of 5), and enough sets to take the match.

Cricket: how a turn works

Cricket uses the same board, the same three darts, and the same alternating turns as 501, but ignores the 501 countdown entirely. The targets are the numbers 20 down to 15, plus the bull - nothing else on the board counts for anything. Each hit on a target earns marks: a single scores one mark, a double two marks, and a treble three marks (so a treble closes a target outright in a single dart). Hitting a target three times across one or more turns closes it for you.

Once you’ve closed a target and at least one opponent hasn’t closed it yet, every additional mark you throw on that target scores points instead of just adding marks - the target’s number, multiplied by the marks that dart was worth (so a treble 18 after 18 is already closed scores 18 x 3 = 54). The bull works the same way, worth 25 per mark instead of a number’s face value. A target becomes dead once every player in the game has closed it; once dead, nobody can score on it again no matter how many more darts land there.

Cricket scoring: marks, opening, and point accumulation

Say Player A’s first visit of the game is three darts at 20: treble 20, treble 20, then a single 20. That’s 3 + 3 + 1 = 7 marks on the number 20 in one turn. The first 3 marks close the 20 for Player A. Player B hasn’t thrown at 20 yet, so it isn’t dead - it’s open for A to score on, and the 4 marks beyond what closed it count as points: 4 x 20 = 80 points added to A’s total, all from one visit.

Play continues, and later in the game Player B finally throws three darts into 20 as well, closing it on their side too. The instant both players have closed it, 20 goes dead for good - from that point on, a dart in the 20 scores nothing and closes nothing for anyone, no matter who throws it.

How a game of cricket ends

A game of cricket ends the moment every target - 20 down to 15, plus the bull - has been closed by at least one player, and the player checking that final box also has a points total at or above every opponent’s. If you close every target first but you’re still behind on points, the game doesn’t end: it keeps going until you catch up on points or an opponent closes out everything with enough points to win outright.

Common variations and house rules

• Double-in, double-out. Many county and pub leagues require a double to start scoring as well as to finish - any dart thrown before you double in, including big numbers, scores nothing. The PDC’s own World Grand Prix is the one well-known televised event that uses this format; the PDC and WDF’s standard tournament format for every other event is straight start.
• Straight-out house games. Casual and kids’ games sometimes drop the double-out requirement entirely, so the first dart that brings the score to exactly zero wins outright, single or treble included. It speeds games up but removes the skill test the double-out rule is built around.
• 301 instead of 501. Identical rules to 501, just starting from a lower score - a faster game for players still building accuracy, or for fitting more games into a session.
• Cut-throat cricket. A reverse-scoring variant built for three or more players: instead of banking points for yourself on a target you’ve closed, you add those points to every opponent who hasn’t also closed it. The player with the lowest total once every target is closed wins, which changes the strategy completely - closing a number early to protect yourself can matter more than scoring on it at all.

Darts shares its throw-and-score rhythm with other target games worth a look on game night: cornhole and bocce both reward the same precision-over-power instinct, just with bags and balls instead of darts, and shuffleboard and pickleball both split into a “which version do you mean” question the same way darts splits into 501 and cricket.