Official Shut the Box Game Rules
Learn how to play Shut the Box with 2-4 players and spice it up with betting and score variations
Shut the Box is a popular game at pubs and poker nights for a reason. It’s both fun and addictive and easy to learn, and there are all kinds of variations you can try (including a gamble version, if you want to make things more interesting). All you need is just 2-4 players, a wooden game tray, a few dice and preferably some delicious snacks and drinks. See the rules below to start playing!
Video tutorial on how to play the game
Things You Should Know
- Players take turns rolling the dice and landing wooden blocks corresponding to their results.
- When a player cannot knock down any more wooden blocks, their turn is over. The total number of wooden pellets left standing is added to their score.
- The player with the lowest score wins the game.
Steps
Overview
Shut the Box is a classic pub game where players roll a pair of dice and land boxes on the game tray that match the number of points they rolled. The object of the game is to land as many tiles as possible in one roll of the dice before running out of chances. Any tiles left standing after a player’s turn are added to their score. The player with the lowest score wins!
- Shut the Box is usually played with 2-4 players, but you can also play alone. Just compete with your lowest score.
- If you don’t have a Shut the Box tray, you can still play with a deck of cards and 2 dice. Create a row of 10 cards, from Ace to 10, to represent the cells. Instead of taking out the tiles, turn over the cards to indicate that they have been ‘knocked out’.
Rules & Games
During a player’s turn, they roll the dice into the game tray and calculate the total of their roll. They then land 1 or more tiles whose total is equal to the number of points they rolled. For example, if a player rolls a 4 and a 3, their total is 7. Therefore, they can choose to roll one of the following combinations:
- 7
- 4 & 3
- 5 & 2
- 6 & 1
- 4, 2, & 1
After taking down the tiles, players continue to roll the dice and knock down tiles until they reach the point where there are no more tiles that match the total they rolled. For example, if a player’s roll totals 6 and only 7s and 2s remain standing, they cannot take any of them and their turn ends. When one player’s turn ends, the next player begins his turn with all tiles in the standing position. This continues until each player has had a turn.
- When all boxes with a score of 7 or more have been drawn, the player can choose to roll with 1 die instead of 2.
- If a player successfully knocks down all the boxes on their turn, they ‘shut the box’ and automatically win the game!
Scores
Players add the total number of squares standing at the end of their turn to their score. The player with the lowest score wins!
- For example, if a player ends their turn with 1, 2 and 7 standing, their final score is 10.
Variant
Final Player In this version of Shut the Box, play the game over multiple rounds instead of just one, adding each player’s score to their total at the end of each round. If a player reaches 45 points, they are eliminated. The last player remaining wins.
Two-Player Battle In the two-player version of the game, player 1 tries to knock down tiles while player 2 tries to stand up the same set of tiles. Players take turns rolling until all the boxes have been knocked down or stood up.
Gambling Session Maker If you want to make Shut the Box a little more interesting, give each player an additional $1 (or some other agreed upon amount) to an initial game pot. The player with the lowest score wins the pot.
Alternative Score Method Instead of adding up the total of the standing squares at the end of the player’s turn, players read the standing squares from left to right to determine their score. For example, if the remaining boxes are 1, 4 and 9, the player’s score is 149.
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