Halve-It rules: seven targets, and a score you can halve away
Halve-It is the game that punishes a blank round rather than a bad one. There is a list of targets — classically 20, 16, D7, 14, T10, 17 and the Bull — and everybody throws three darts at each of them in turn. Hit it and you add points. Miss it with all three and your score is halved.
Play Halve-It, the classic seven →
How a round is scored
Every player throws three darts at the round's target, and each dart that lands on it scores what the target is worth — not what the dart is worth. That distinction is the whole game:
- 20 — a dart in the 20 is 20, so three of them is 60. The single, double and treble all count as a hit on the number.
- D7 — the target is the double seven, worth 14 a dart, so a perfect round is 42 and a dart in the single 7 is worth nothing at all.
- T10 — the treble ten, 30 a dart and 90 for the round, which is where a card is really built.
- Bull — 25 a dart, and the outer counts, so 75 is on for anybody who can find the middle three times.
A round with nothing on the target halves your score, rounded up. That rounding is not politeness: it means a card is never quite wiped out, so a player on 7 who blanks is on 4 and still in the game.
After the last target the highest score wins. There is no checkout, no bust and nothing to finish on — Halve-It is a card game played with darts.
Why it plays the way it does
The classic list is built so the punishment gets more expensive as the card grows. Blanking the opening 20 costs almost nothing; blanking the Bull at the end, sat on 250, costs 125 and the match.
That is also why the treble ten sits second from last. A big round there is the biggest single swing in the game, and the temptation to keep throwing at the treble after two have already landed is the mistake the game is designed to offer you.
It takes any number of players, which is why it is the pub's favourite game for a crowd: nobody is eliminated, nobody waits long, and the scores stay close enough that the last round decides it.
House rules this board plays
The part no other rules page has, because no other site implements them. Each one opens the setup screen with that rule already set.
- A blank round wipes the card The brutal version: miss the target with all three darts and you are back to nothing, not half of something. Two blanks and a big round is no longer a comeback, it is the whole game. Set it up →
- Halve it downwards The same halving, rounded down instead of up, with a floor of 1 for anybody who had a score at all. A point harsher on every odd score, and it still never quite kills a card off. Set it up →
- A trebles ladder The targets are yours to write, so here is the scoring practice version: T20, D20, 19, T19, D16 and the Bull. Six rounds, all of them at a bed a match actually asks for. Set it up →
- A doubles ladder The checkout version: D20, D16, D8, D4, D1 and the Bull. It is Halve-It as a finishing drill, and the D1 round is where the halving does its worst. Set it up →
The target list is editable on the setup card — up to twelve of them, typed as numbers, doubles (D7), trebles (T10) or the Bull — and a list you like can be saved by name or dealt at random, which is the version to play when everybody knows the classic seven too well.
Common questions
- What are the targets in Halve-It? Classically 20, 16, D7, 14, T10, 17 and the Bull, thrown three darts each in that order. The list is editable up to twelve targets, and it can be saved or dealt at random.
- What happens if you miss the target with all three darts? Your score is halved, rounded up, so a card is never quite wiped out. The house rules can wipe it to nothing instead, or halve it downwards with a floor of 1.
- How much is a dart worth in Halve-It? What the target is worth, not what the dart is worth. A dart in the 20 is 20 whatever ring it found, the D7 round pays 14 a dart, and a dart in the single 7 that round is worth nothing.
Play it
Halve-It is one of the twenty modes in Friendly Fire Casper, a free darts scoreboard that runs in a browser and keeps working when the wifi drops. It scores the game for you, undoes the dart you typed wrong, remembers who won, and can put the board on a TV while everybody scores from their own phone.