How to Play Bob's 27 Darts

Bob's 27 Dart Game Rules

Bob’s 27 was invented by Bob Anderson, a former world dart champion, to improve hitting doubles since it is a necessary skill for winning games of 01.

Number of Players

One or more people. Bob’s 27 is perfect for practicing alone but any number of people can play while taking turns. 

How to Play

In Bob’s 27, each player starts the game with a score of 27 and the goal is to make it around the board by only hitting doubles. You start by throwing three darts at the double 1, then double 2, then double 3, and so on until the bull.

For each dart that hits its mark, you add those points to your score. For example, the first number you aim at is double 1, which is worth two points. If you hit two of those throws but miss the third, you would earn four points for a total of 31.

But if you instead missed all three darts on the first round, you’d lose points equal to the double you miss, so your score would be 25. Each round you can gain up to three double’s worth of points, but you can only lose one double’s worth.

If a player’s score drops to zero or below then they are out. 

Minimum and Maximum Scores

In Bob’s 27 the lowest score possible is obviously missing every throw and hitting zero points. This will still give you 5 rounds worth of attempts though.

On the other hand, the best possible score would be 1437, which means you hit every double three times, in order. If you pull that off you should be playing professionally.

Tips and Strategy

If you’re just playing for fun you can always keep score in your head, but Bob’s 27 is a practice game and to get the most out of it, you'll want to track how many hits and misses you have on each number.

As you play you may notice you have a harder time hitting certain numbers and a written record will let you see exactly where you need to improve. The more you play, the more information you’ll have on what you need to work on.