501
Count down from 501 to a checkout.
501 borrows the oche's arithmetic and plays it with footballers. You start on 501; every player you name subtracts their stat tally — up to a maximum of 180 a visit, because some things are sacred — and the aim is to check out by landing in the window just past zero in as few darts as you can.
The skill flips halfway through. Early on you want haymakers: the biggest tallies you can summon. But the run-in is pure touch — you're hunting a player with *exactly* the modest number you need, which turns out to be much harder than naming a great. Overshoot the checkout window and the throw simply doesn't count: back to the board, one dart wasted.
In a duel it's leg-by-leg, throw-for-throw, and the moment someone stands on a finish the table goes quiet. It's the quiz equivalent of double-sixteen: simple to describe, horrible to hit.
How to play
- Start on 501. Each player you add subtracts their tally (max 180 a go).
- Check out by landing between 0 and −10 in as few darts as you can.
- A tally over 180 scores nothing, and so do the nine totals you can't throw with three darts. Shoot past −10 and the throw bounces off.
From the coachJust like the oche — start on 501 and chip away. Bust past −10 and the throw just bounces off.
Free to play in your browser — no download, no sign-up — and every round is built from real player and season data. More about the app and the dataset.
Where to start
Do not play the first leg properly. Spend it learning how tallies map onto scores in the competition you have chosen, because that mapping is the whole game and nobody arrives with it. Throw big names, watch what they are actually worth, and pay attention to how quickly the number comes down — most people badly over-estimate the early visits and badly under-estimate how awkward the finish is.
From the second leg onward, start thinking about what each visit leaves behind rather than how much it scores. That single change — playing for the leave instead of the score — is the difference between checking out and grinding around a small number you have no player for, and it is worth more than any amount of additional football knowledge.
How to get better at 501
The round has two halves and they need two different kinds of knowledge. While the number is large you want haymakers — the biggest tallies you can summon, thrown without much deliberation. As the number comes down the game stops being about size and becomes about precision: you need players whose totals you know exactly, not approximately, and a name you are confident is somewhere around forty is no use at all when you need thirty-one.
Play for the leave. Every visit should end with a remainder you have a player for, which is the quiz equivalent of leaving yourself a double. The biggest available tally is frequently the wrong choice because of what it leaves behind, and downshifting a visit early to set up a number you can actually finish on will win you more legs than raw scoring ever does.
Build a bank of small, certain numbers. Most players arrive knowing plenty of enormous careers and almost nothing precise at the bottom end, which is exactly backwards for the part of the game that decides it. A handful of reliable modest tallies — players you can place to the exact number — is worth more here than another twenty greats.
Where rounds get lost
- Overshooting the checkout — Shoot past the bottom of the window and the throw simply bounces off. It is the ending of most legs that go wrong, and it comes from reaching for a big name when the number needed was small.
- The impossible finishes — There are totals that cannot be thrown with three darts, and landing on one leaves you needing to score your way back out of it. Knowing they exist changes which leave you aim for on the visit before.
- Forgetting the ceiling — A visit is capped, so a genuinely monumental career can score less than you assume, and a tally over the cap scores nothing at all. The biggest name available is not always the biggest score available.
Common questions
- How does a leg of 501 actually end?
- You check out by landing in the window just past zero. Getting there in as few darts as possible is the whole game, and a throw that overshoots the checkout window simply doesn't count — you've wasted a dart and you're back at the board.
- Why does the strategy change halfway through?
- Because the two halves ask opposite questions. Early on you want the biggest tallies you can name, which rewards knowing the greats. The run-in wants a player with a specific modest number, which is a completely different and much rarer kind of knowledge.
- Is there a cap on how much one player can score?
- Yes — a visit is capped at 180, because some things are sacred. It means a single enormous tally can't win you a leg on its own, and the finish still has to be found.
- How do duels work?
- Leg by leg, throw for throw, against your opponent. The moment someone is standing on a finish is the moment the table goes quiet — it's the closest the app gets to the feeling of a real checkout.
It’s you if you want your football knowledge to feel like a nine-darter.