How to play Bob's 27
Everyone starts on 27. Twenty rounds, one double each: round 1 is double 1, round 2 is double 2, all the way up to double 20. Every dart you put in the round's double adds twice that number to your score. Miss with all three and twice that number comes straight off. Highest score above zero after twenty rounds wins.
Also played as 27s, Bobs 27.
Chuck Darts scores this game to exactly the rules on this page, and keeps the card open mid-match so anybody at the board can check one. A full leg of 501, a board of Cricket and six practice drills are playable right now with no account at all.
THE TARGET
Round N's target is double N and nothing else. Round 7 is D7 — a single 7, a triple 7, a double 6 and a double 8 are all misses. The bull is not a target in this version and is a dead dart in every round. (The original drill adds a 21st round at the bull; this app stops at D20.)
WHAT IT PAYS
Every dart in the round's double pays 2 x N, and they stack. One dart in D20 is +40, two is +80, three is +120. Miss with all three darts and it is a flat -2 x N — that is -40 on D20, -2 on D1. There is no middle ground: a round is either up 2 x N per hit or down 2 x N. Best possible finish is 1287. Worst is -393 — start on 27, miss all twenty rounds, and 2+4+6+...+40 = 420 comes off.
YOUR SCORE GOES BELOW ZERO
It does, often, and nothing stops it. The app marks you busted and shows the total in red, but you are not out, nothing resets, and you keep throwing to the end of D20. The harder version knocks you out the moment you reach zero — this app does not play that version.
HOW A ROUND IS SETTLED
A round settles only once all three of its darts are in, so the app takes a round's three darts together. Submit stays off until the third dart is in — enter a Miss for a dart that missed — and a turn of one or two darts is refused rather than left open, because a round left open would stay open for good. A round nobody ever threw is not a free round. Every player has to complete all twenty before the game can be decided.
HOW YOU ENTER A SCORE
Dart by dart. This game is scored from the darts, so the app rejects a turn typed in as a bare total — it cannot tell D7 from a single 14, and the whole game turns on that difference.
WINNING
Every player completes all twenty rounds. Then the highest score wins, but only if it is above zero and only if it is alone at the top. - Level at the top: no winner. The app records no result and no placings. Settle it at the throw line (the oche). - Nobody above zero: no winner. Twenty rounds of misses is -393, and that is not a win. A turn logged with no dart detail leaves a round unpaid, and the BOARD stops naming a winner rather than guess — it cannot tell a round of misses from an unread one. A turn still waiting on confirmation does the same thing for a different reason: it leaves the drill unfinished. Either way the game can still be ended, and the highest score on the board at that moment is recorded as the winner.
TURNS, CLOCKS AND CORRECTIONS
With two or more players you can only submit on your own turn. If a turn clock is set in a ranked online game and you run it out, the app throws three misses for you — which in this game means the round's double comes off your score. Corrections: a turn typed as a number is refused — the score comes from the darts. A turn the clock forfeited is the clock's own record: neither you nor the host can undo it or correct it afterwards. The two repair doors do different things. Undo removes the last turn completely and replays the drill without it: the round goes back to unthrown, your score returns to what it was before that turn, and you take the round again. Correcting a turn to 0 stores it as a single recorded miss, which leaves that round two darts short and permanently open, so the drill can never settle on the board and an End records the score leader. Pencil to zero only if you mean to abandon the strict result — if you simply mis-entered, UNDO it. If someone has to leave, the host — or that player themselves — can take their seat out of a live game, as long as two players are left at the board: the app refuses a removal that would leave one player throwing alone, so a two-handed game has to be ended instead. The app keeps the seat in the running order so everyone else's turn order holds, but nothing more is scored for or against them: their board stops where they left it, and they are placed after everyone who finished. It cannot be undone, and Rematch will not bring them back: it carries only the seats that were still in, so start the next game and add them to it yourself.
PLAYERS
One to eight is what it is built for. Both setup screens hold you to eight and the server holds you to it too, so a ninth trying to JOIN is refused — and so is a game created with nine in it. Solo is a proper drill and a solo run that finishes above zero is a win. A solo run the host ends before all twenty rounds are in records no winner and no place, whatever the score at that moment.
HOUSE RULES THIS APP DOES NOT PLAY
No governing body publishes this drill; it comes from a former world champion's practice routine, and the published descriptions of it agree closely with each other. Chuck Darts plays twenty rounds, double 1 up to double 20, and a player who goes below zero keeps throwing. Two differences to know about. Every published version adds a twenty-first round at the bull, paying 50 a dart, which makes a perfect game 1437 rather than the 1287 possible here. And most of them play the hard ending, knocking you out the moment your score reaches or passes zero; the easy ending, which lets you play on for practice, is the one this app plays. If your venue wants one of those, agree it out loud before the first dart — the app will still score the version above.