How to finish a leg of 501 — setting up the double

Why 170 is the biggest finish and 110 the biggest with two darts, the bogey numbers, set-up shots, when to go for the bull, and the checkouts to learn first.

Last updated: 13 October 2026

Scoring wins you time. Finishing wins you legs. Most players who plateau have stopped getting better at the second one, and it is the half that responds fastest to being thought about.

Why 170 is the maximum

The highest a dart can score is 60, on the treble twenty — but the last dart of a leg has to land in a double. The biggest double is the bull at 50. So the most three darts can finish is 60 plus 60 plus 50: T20, T20, BULL, which is 170 and is called the big fish.

Everything above 170 needs at least four darts, which means at least two turns, which means your opponent gets another turn too.

Bogey numbers

Seven scores below 170 cannot be finished in three darts at all: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159. There is no combination that adds up and ends on a double.

They matter in one specific way. If you are sitting on 180 and score a 20, you have left yourself 160 — which is finishable. Score 11 and you have left 169, which is not. Knowing the seven stops you scoring yourself into a corner.

Two darts, and the 110 ceiling

With two darts in hand, the most you can finish is 110: T20 and the bull. With one, it is a double or nothing — any even number from 2 to 40, or 50 on the bull.

Two darts have bogey numbers of their own, and there are seven of them too: 109, 108, 106, 105, 103, 102 and 99. On one of those with two darts left, no route exists, so the darts go at leaving a finish for the next visit instead.

It is also why the first dart of a big finish has to leave 110 or less. From 160, T20 leaves 100, which the two darts left can take out with T20 and D20. Miss the treble, and a single 20 leaves 140, which two darts cannot finish.

Setting up the double

The whole craft of finishing is arriving at a double you like with a dart to spare. Which double you like is personal, but most players settle on 16 or 20, because both halve cleanly: miss D16 with a single 16 and you are on D8, then D4, then D2. A miss does not end the turn.

That is why a route that leaves 32 is usually better than one that leaves 30, even though 30 is a smaller number. 32 is D16, and D16 forgives a mistake. 30 is D15, and missing D15 with a single leaves 15 — an odd number and a dart wasted getting back to even.

Leave yourself an even number. Under double-out an odd score always costs a dart to fix, and the difference shows up over a season, not over a leg.

Set-up shots: leaving a finish

Above 170 a leg cannot end in this visit, and on plenty of scores below it not with the darts you have left. Then the visit has a second job: leave a number the next one can finish. Most of the time, scoring as much as you can does that. Near the end, look at what a miss would leave as well as what a hit would.

Say you are on 100 with one dart left in the visit. At the 20, a treble leaves 40 and a single 80, both good. But the 1 is next door, and a single 1 leaves 99, which two darts cannot finish, so the next visit has no dart to spare. At the 19, every bed you are likely to hit — T19, 19, 7 or 3 — leaves a finish of two darts or fewer.

Neither choice is wrong. The habit worth having is to know, before the dart leaves your hand, what each bed around it would leave.

When to go for the bull

The bull is the smallest bed that finishes a leg, so most routes keep away from it. Some cannot: 170, 167, 164 and 161 can only be finished with the bull as the last dart, and with two darts so can 110, 107, 104 and 101.

On 50 the app’s table says BULL at every dart count, because one dart is the shortest route. With three darts in hand, many players take 10 and D20, or 18 and D16, instead: an easy single first, then two darts at a double they know. Both finish the leg, and the one to choose is the one you hit more often.

The ones to learn first

Nobody memorises all 169. A dozen covers most of what you will actually face:

• 40 — D20. The most common finish in darts by a distance.
• 32 — D16, and the reason so many players aim for it.
• 36, 24, 16, 8 — the rest of the 16 ladder, which is where a missed D16 lands you.
• 60 — 20, D20. Not a treble: the single keeps you on an even number.
• 81 — T19, D12. Worth knowing because it looks awkward and is not.
• 100 — T20, D20. The one that feels like a proper finish.
• 121 — T20, 11, D25. An odd one that comes up more than you would think.
• 170 — T20, T20, BULL, for the one time in your life it happens.

The full table has every score from 170 down, with the best route at three darts, two and one — generated from the same code the app uses to suggest a finish while you are standing at the oche.

Every checkout from 170 down →

Practising the finish

Finishing gets better fastest when the practice is aimed at it. Three of the app’s drills are. Bob’s 27 goes round every double with a score that punishes a miss. Round the board on doubles takes you round them in order, with no lucky single to move you on. Checkout practice gives you twenty real finishes, from 170 down to 8, with three visits at each.

The statistics then show whether it is working: your checkout percentage, and your doubles percentage, which counts every dart at a double and so moves sooner.

The drills, and what each one trains →

Every nine-dart finish, counted →

Common questions

What is the highest checkout in darts?

170: T20, T20 and the bull. With two darts it is 110, T20 and the bull, and with one it is 50, the bull itself.

What are the bogey numbers in darts?

The scores under 170 that three darts cannot finish: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159. Up to 110, the ones two darts cannot finish are 109, 108, 106, 105, 103, 102 and 99.

Should you go for the bull on 50?

With one dart left, yes, because nothing else finishes it. With three, many players take 10 and D20, or 18 and D16, for two chances at a double they know.