Games That Can Be Played With Darts

The simple concept of the dart board -- tossing three darts as close to the center as possible -- is turned on its head in many games that require precision tosses at specific parts of the board. Often borrowing names and concepts from other games, such as "baseball" and "golf," these varieties provide new ways to play darts.

  1. Cricket

    • The goal here is to hit any spot from 15 to 20 and the bull's-eye three times to "close" the number. Close out all numbers and earn the most points to win the game. Darts that hit the outer ring of any of these spots counts as a double, and darts that hit the inner ring count as triple (automatically closing that number). The outer part of the bull's-eye counts as a single and the inner part is scored a double. Once a number is closed out players earn the appropriate number of points for the spot that was hit (a triple 16, for example, would be worth 48 points once the 16 is closed out.) The numbers one through 14 are not used in this game.

    301 or 501

    • Players start with the titular number of points and must hit spots on the board that will lower their score to exactly zero. Players take turns tossing three darts and mark down their new scores after each set of throws. Once a player gets close to zero, he must hit the number exactly to win. For example, if you had a score of 18 you would need a single 18, double nine or triple six to end the game. If you hit a single 19 your score would remain as 18.

    Baseball

    • A game consists of nine innings, with players trying to hit the correct number during each frame (one in the first inning, two in the second inning, etc.). Each player tosses three darts each inning and scores double and triple runs for hitting the outer or inner ring of the correct number. The player who earns the most runs over nine innings wins the game.

    Golf

    • Players can throw both nine holes and 18 holes of golf with darts. Players take turns tossing up to three darts at each number in order from one to 18. A player scores one stroke if he hits the outer ring of the correct number, two strokes for hitting the inner ring, three strokes for placing a dart in the wedge between the bull's-eye and inner ring and four strokes for hitting the large wedge between the inner and outer rings. Missing the number completely counts as five strokes. The player with the lowest score after the predetermined number of holes wins.