Double 16 is Your Best Friend

According to a popular song years back, diamonds are a girl's best friend. And many folks will tell you that a dog is man's best friend. (This is true. Couple or three years ago I had my girlfriend and our dog living with me. Both eventually moved on. Guess which one I still miss.) But when it comes to doubling out in a dart game, double 16 is your best friend. Allow me to elucidate my assertion. (For you Alabama folks, that means I'm gonna tell ya why.)

Doubling out occurs in most 01 games, ie, 501, 301, etc. The object in these games is to reduce your score to exactly zero. The catch is that your last dart, the one that brings your score down to zero, MUST be a double. It can be any of the twenty doubles making up the outer ring of the board or even the double bull. So what makes the double 16 special? I'm glad ya asked that question!

Obviously you can only double out if you have an even number remaining. (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) So it follows that if you have an odd number remaining, 11 for example, you can't double out. First you have to hit something to set yourself up with an even number. That's an extra dart you're forced to use before you can get back to trying to throw the winning dart. Clearly it's advantageous to always have an even number remaining near the end of the game even if you miss your intended target. That's where double 16 comes in.

Assume for just a moment that you throw at a double but miss it and hit the single instead. If you'd been throwing at double 7, for example, life suddenly seems so unfair because now you have seven points remaining and before you can go for the win you gotta spend a dart setting yourself up on an even number again. Boo, hiss, right? This is why I rarely throw at a "double odd" number.

What if you'd been throwing at double 20 instead? Ok, you miss and hit the single 20. No prob, you can still go for the win by pegging the double 10. Acck! You miss and hit the ten and now you're on an odd number. Curses! Is there no way to avoid this mathematical tragedy? (By now some of you are smugly thinking, "Hey, Dave, it'd be simpler to just hit what you were aiming for!" These folks forget one thing. You shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.)

For those of you not so grammatically challenged, let's fit double 16 into our example. Well bust my buttons and call me Pete! Suddenly life seems full of opportunity! Miss and hit the single 16? No worries, mate! You've got 16 remaining, so go for double 8. Hit the single 8 by mistake? It's cool, go for the win on double 4. Drat! A single 4. Again, it's casual. Just pop a double 2. Missing it by hitting a single two STILL leaves you with a chance to win on double 1.

No other number on the board gives you this many chances to hit the single by mistake and still have a winning shot available. So be sure to set aside time during your practice sessions to hit on your new best friend, double 16.