New Game "Two Thirds"

The Finnish player Marko Kantele invented this game years back that he used for his training, and the main idea with the game was that “two out of three is enough”. Last year a few of GoDartsPro members requested this game and at the WDF World Masters in Budapest in October I discussed the game with Marko.

Marko Kantele at the WDF World Masters in Budapest 2024, playing games on GoDartsPro with a Scolia Home 2.

Both Marko Kantele and my late colleague Mikko Laiho (both Finnish and friends playing darts together years back) were strong believers that players who hit the most 140’s more often wins the game. The player with most 180’s wont necessary be the player winning in the end. I remember my discussions with Mikko about this and he had compared stats from many games (thousands of games according to him) that also supported this theory.

The original game (Expert mode) consists of both scoring and doubles phases. For the scoring phase hitting two big trebles and a big single is enough and for the doubles phase hitting two doubles using three darts is also enough. You start with the scoring phase and every second throw will be towards doubles of different kinds.

The Expert mode is very tough since you for the scoring phase need to hit at least 131 and for the Intermediate mode, teh score to reach is 95.

To make the game usable for more players we also added a “Intermediate level” and an option to use the “Burn-dart-rule” (introduced in Mikko’s Megatrain with similar approach).

If you for example would hit Treble 5 and Single 1 in the scoring phase, you can not reach the requested score with your last dart, which would make the last dart useless. For the games on GoDartsPro we strongly believe that it is important to always practise in a way that also the last dart is very important (which it often is in a tight game of 501). For this reason we also introduce the “Burn-dart-rule” in this game.

If your first 2 darts missed the big trebles, make sure to refocus with your last dart. The score you hit with your last dart will also be used together with the first 2 darts of your next throw, thanks to the burn-dart-rule.

So let’s say you hit Treble 5, Single 1 and Treble 20 with your first three darts. The score 60 with your last dart will be saved for next throw. For your next throw you hit Treble 19, Single 19 and Single 7. This throw will not reach the limit on its own.
But since you got the score 60 from the burn-dart-rule, adding this with the first two darts of your new throw gives you:
60 + 57 + 20 = 137
and you managed to reach the limit.
The burn-dart-rule is also applied on the doubles phase so if you hit a double with your last dart, it will count together with the following two darts in your next throw. So always focus 100% with your last dart!

There are 3 different ways available to track the darts in the game. First if you have a Scolia device, the darts will of course be automatically tracked for you.
If you don’t own a Scolia-device (yet!), you can choose if you want to track the details for each dart or the “Simplified registration of the throws”. To make use of the “Burn-dart-rule” the game need to know the score for each dart but if you just want to play the game and don’t care about the detailed stats, you can use the simplified way and just tell the game if you hit or miss the current score/target.

This is also a very good game that will need your full focus. Since you both need to be able to score well and hit the important doubles, you will practise the most important parts of the game of 501.
The game will put you under pressure but you will not be punished if you miss. So take your time, focus on each throw and each dart and finish the game bit by bit. This is not a game for beginners and even the Intermediate mode can be challenging, even with the burn-dart-rule.

Try it out today and see if you like the game and if it is a game for you to add to your weekly training!