A few years ago, the Belgian star Kim Huybrechts sent me a list of the games he’d been playing the past 10-15 years or so, before he found GoDartsPro.
“Practicing under pressure is very important to prepare you for when you need to perform”
The game Five Checkouts was one of them and I added a few twists to the game to make it more fun and challenging for all levels of players.
One of the most important things to practice if you want to win a game of 501 is finishing.
No matter how many ‘ton-plus’ scores you hit, if you can’t finish a leg you will lose the game.
Therefore it is important to find good training games for your current level to sharpen your finishing skills. Five Checkouts is a really great game you should add to your training.
Since there also are 5 different levels to choose from, the game is suitable for all players.
The Rules & Gameplay
You need to finish 5 check out scores in three darts on a double to unlock the next checkout. Choose
5 random scores between the parameters below and try to try to finish them. But only the first one will be visible for you on GoDartsPro.When you’ve managed to finish all five scores the game is finished.
Variations:
Luckily for most of us, there are now more levels to the game than just the Professional level in the original game suggestion by Kim. Here are the different levels for the game:
- 41-99 Professional
- 41-99 Expert (3 lives)
- 2-99 Intermediate (3 lives)
- 2-40 Novice (5 lives)
- 2-40 Beginner (No restart)
If you choose to play professional mode and fail to finish a checkout, you’re back at the first again.
So if you manage to finish the first four checkouts you can imagine the pressure you will feel when throwing for the last checkout.
With the other options you have 3 or 5 lives and lose a life for each missed checkout. When your lives are down to zero you’re back at the first checkout again. The game continues until you finished all 5 checkouts
For the Beginner level there’s no restart so you can continue to throw until you manage to finish the current checkout to unlock the next. You can easily play side by side with a player of different ability and simply play to your own targets.
Conclusions:
Practicing under pressure is very important to prepare you for match situations when you need to be able to perform under pressure and hit that important double with your last dart.
Start at a lower level and try to finish the game. Once you’ve finished one level, next time you play the game pick a higher level. The tougher level you pick the more pressure you will feel during the training session.
Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t manage to finish the Five Checkouts. The game can be really demanding and sometimes you’re also randomly dealt, or select for yourself, a few tougher checkouts.
Have a break and choose a few other games to play for a while before you get back to another session of Five Checkouts. Also, don’t forget that you don’t have to be as fast as Kim!
Enjoy your darts and make it count!
/Anderson
—–ENDS—–
Go Darts Pro are the Official Practice Partner of Darts World Magazine
Grab a 50th Anniversary Darts World package 581 here or the most recent print Issue 583 here :
The Darts World 50 limited edition dart set is available to order (Here) in your choice of pack/bundle.
Also Available Free: Darts World Extra 12 – The Hard Way
Catch up with our digital publication and read/download Darts World Extra 12 here
Darts World Magazine‘s fantastic value bundles:
Subscribe or purchase your copy
