Double-Out Strategy: How to Set Up Your Finish | Oche

Most legs are lost at the finish, not the start. You can score heavily and still leak leg after leg if your double-out strategy is sloppy. Good finishing isn’t about hitting harder — it’s about setting up the right number and giving yourself the most chances to land a double.

What double-out actually requires

In a double-out game your final dart must land on a double — a double segment (D1–D20) or the inner bullseye (50, which counts as the double bull). Hit exactly zero any other way and it’s a bust: your score reverts and the visit ends. The full rule, including bust scenarios, is on our double-out rules page.

That single requirement shapes everything about how you should finish.

Leave a number you can actually finish

The biggest gains come from your scoring darts, not your finishing ones. Whenever you have a choice, score down to a number with a clean double route:

• Good leaves: 40, 32, 24, 16, 8 — each splits straight into D20, D16, D12, D8, D4.
• Awkward leaves: 39, 25, 23, 17 — these force you onto odd doubles or fiddly setups.

Thinking one dart ahead — “if I hit this, what am I left on?” — is the single habit that separates steady finishers from streaky ones.

Plan all three darts before you throw

Pros decide their whole visit before the first dart leaves the hand. On 96 you don’t just “go for it” — you know it’s T20, D18, and you know that if you miss the treble high into the 20, you’re still on a finishable leave. Planning ahead removes the panic that causes rushed, busted visits.

Our double-out strategy guide walks through the standard setups for the most common finishes.

Always keep a bail-out double

The mark of a smart finisher is a route that survives a miss. On 50 you could go bull, but leaving D25 logic aside, a safer play on many finishes is to arrange darts so a missed first dart still leaves a double. For example on 32 (D16): if you miss into a single 16, you’re left on 16 (D8) — still a clean double. Compare that to leaving yourself on an odd number where a miss strands you. Always ask: if this dart misses, can I still finish?

Practise the doubles you actually use

You don’t need all 21 doubles sharp — you need the five or six you really leave: D20, D16, D12, D8 and the bull. Concentrated practice on those moves your real checkout percentage far more than spreading attempts thinly across the board. We rank them in the best doubles to aim for.

Let the scorer do the thinking

Under match pressure, mental arithmetic is where finishes fall apart. Offloading it frees you to focus on the throw.

The Oche X01 scorer suggests the optimal checkout the instant you’re in range, keeps a double in play wherever possible, and tracks your double percentage by segment — so you know exactly which finishes to trust and which to drill next. You can also explore any number in the checkout calculator to see every route before you commit.