Board and Points

• About 6 million people play darts on a regular basis and they all throw darts at the same basic dartboard: a perfect circle divided into 20 pie slice-shaped scoring areas, alternating between two colors. A dart thrown into the small circle that is at the dead center of the board is a bull's-eye and scores 50 points. Three bull's-eyes in a row in one turn is known as a hat trick.
  
  

English vs. American Darts

• While hat tricks play a part in both, there is a big scoring difference between typical American games of darts and the original English version. Americans often count up points, while English games subtract them.
  
  An American game of darts starts at zero. Each player throws three darts and adds the darts' point values for his running total. For example, if he throws a 10, a 20 and a bull's-eye, he would have a running total of 80. American games often end once one player hits a specific number, such as 500.
  
  In English darts, a certain number is decided upon before the game, then players throw three darts at a time and subtract their points from that number in order to get to zero as quickly as possible. For example, in a game of 301, a player throws a 10, a 20 and a bull's-eye. He subtracts his total of 80 from 301 for a running total of 221.
  
  

The Trick of the Trick

• The hat trick is always beneficial in American darts because players can go over the designated scoring total needed to win a game. But thanks to the scoring difference, the English darts hat trick does not always mean victory. If a player starts a game with a score of 150 and throws a hat trick, he would win with a score of zero. But if he started with 149 points and throws a hat trick, his score would be -1. His first two darts would count, bringing his score to 49, but his third bull's-eye would be thrown out. He would remain at 49 for his next turn.
  
  

The Terms

• The term "hat trick" originated in England with the game of cricket in the 19th century. If a bowler took three wickets in succession, he was awarded a hat. The term has since been adopted in many sports, but it always referring to some achievement performed three times.
  
  The term "bull's-eye" either came from shooting contests in which the target was a black spot that resembled the eye of a bull, or from the old British coin of the same name. The coin, which circulated in the early 1800s, was said to have been bet on games of darts and thus lent its name to the high-point value of the center of the board.