If you head to your local park, beach, campsite or community center these days, it’s almost rare when you don’t see people playing the fun game known as cornhole. Since its inception in the Midwest part of the country, the game of cornhole has exploded across cities and states in America and is now one of the most played and highly enjoyed pastimes out there.
However, before you can actually go out and play a game of cornhole, you will first need to understand the basic rules of the game, as well as the style of play, what is allowed and what is not, and the general scoring system for tracking winners and losers. Fortunately for you, it is these topics and more that we will address within the confines of this piece. In this article we will breakdown the game of cornhole into its various parts so that the next time you see a cornhole game ready to kick off you can jump right in and play.
Table of Contents
What You Need to Play Cornhole
One of the great things about the game of cornhole is that players need just a couple pieces of equipment to get a game or a tournament going. These equipment pieces include two regulation-sized cornhole boards, and eight bean bags—four in one color, usually blue; and four in another color; usually green. The bean bags are colored so that players can keep track of their own set of four bean bags, and so that those bean bags do not get confused with your opponent’s bean bags.
Cornhole Boards Described
Cornhole, which is played similarly to the game of horseshoes, is a fairly simple game with very simple equipment. Perhaps that is why the game is loved throughout the country and why its popularity is even spreading to other countries like Canada, Australia and some of the western nations in Europe such as Spain. So just what does a cornhole board look like and consist of? Here we will answer that question in some detail.
A cornhole board is always a rectangular piece of wood (sometimes it is made from other materials) that measures four feet long by two feet wide. The target hole in the cornhole board, into which competitors will try to toss their “bean bags,” is supposed to measure 6 inches in diameter. The hole is placed exactly 9 inches from the top or high side of the board and exactly 12 inches from each side, which locates it in the top-center portion of the cornhole board.
A cornhole board also consists of an underneath frame that allows the board to slant downwards from top to bottom. This frame can be made of wood, metal like aluminum or even tough plastic materials, but should be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the board. When the frame is assembled, the bottom or front side of the cornhole board should be anywhere from 2.5 inches to 4 inches off the ground, and the top or back portion of the platform should be raised to 12 inches. These measurements create a gentle slope from top to bottom and are very important to the game.
Cornhole boards are usually made from plywood or MDF material, but some manufacturers are now using lighter weight plastics and metals to reduce the weight of the cornhole setup. Te best cornhole boards are typically treated with a non-skid coating, although this is not mandatory for your particular setup. Many of the frames on cornhole boards will have rubber backing on the feet—where the frame makes contact with the ground—which allows players to move their game indoors without worrying that the frame will scratch or mar their flooring surfaces.
Some cornhole boards even have built-in levels and yaw adjustments to get the pitch of the board just right. Most cornhole boards weigh about 30-40 pounds when fully assembled, although there are some available that are much lighter and a lot more portable. Finally, the frame on many of the newer cornhole boards will usually have a back plate to ensure the bags do not fall all the way through to the ground, making retrieval of said bags much easier and hassle-free.
Bags Described
The official bags for the game of cornhole should measure 6 inches by 6 inches, thus forming a perfect 6-inch square. The regulation cornhole bags, at least when the game was first popularized, consisted of duck hides with uncooked corn inside, thus lending to the name of “cornhole” and giving the bags a bean bag-like feel. Today, many of the newer bags are made from cloth and filled with small plastic pieces. This change makes the bags water and weather-resistant, as the old corn-filled bags would not stand up very well to the weather. A set of eight bean bags is the minimum number of bags you will need to play cornhole, with four colored blue and four colored green, or generally any two colors you wish. These bags are fairly easy to make, but if you decide to purchase them instead you can pick up a set of eight for about $20-$35 dollars.
The Rules of Cornhole
The rules of cornhole are actually quite simple, with the ultimate goal of the game being to throw your cornhole bags into the hole at the opposite-positioned cornhole board. However, there are some little nuances in the game of which you need to be aware. Here are the general rules of cornhole:
- The teams or sides. Cornhole is played by two teams or sides, with each team consisting of one or two players—one for singles and two for doubles.
- Who goes first? At the start of a round, the team that gets to go first is determined by a coin toss. In ensuing games, the team that wins the round will have that honor.
- Distance between cornhole boards. The two cornhole boards are to be placed seven feet apart for tournament play, although competitors can agree to a different distance when played recreationally.
- Foul Line. When throwing their cornhole bags, players must stand behind the foul line, in this case, behind the front of the cornhole board on their own side of the court.
- Where do I stand? When playing singles, players will of course face each other. Similarly, when playing doubles, one player from each team will stand on one side and vice versa, just as it is done with horseshoes.
- Order of throwing. In each round, players alternate throws until all eight bean bags have been thrown and tabulated.
- Who calls the fouls, if any? There is no referee to determine whether or not a rule has been broken. Cornhole is an Honor-system game, and players are expected to calmly work out any differences.
The Scoring System in Cornhole and How to Play
How to Play
Once the cornhole playing field is set up, with the boards 7 feet apart from each other and the low sides of those boards facing inward, a coin toss will be held to see who gets to go first. Once this is determined, the sides will then alternate turns, throwing the cornhole bags towards the target on the cornhole board, until all eight cornhole bags have been thrown. For instance, in a game of singles, Player A will throw his cornhole bag at the board placed 7 feet away, and this will be followed by a throw from Player B. Play continues in this way until each player has thrown all four of his or her color-designated cornhole bags.
As we said, when cornhole is played one-on-one, the competitors will throw all four of their bean bags in a round. However, when played by teams of two (doubles), each player on that team will throw just two of the bean bags per round.
The Scoring System in Cornhole
The goal of cornhole, of course, is to throw your colored cornhole bags through the hole on the opposing team’s board. And when the bag makes it through that hole, this is called a “cornhole” and the shot is worth 3 points for that team.
Cornhole bags that do not make it into the hole but still manage to stay on top of the cornhole board are worth one point to the team that threw that bag. These shots are appropriately nicknamed “woodies.” Even if the bag is leaning over the wood on the cornhole board, it will score one point, provided no part of that bag is touching the ground, in which case that bag is not worth any points.
And of course, bags that end up totally off the cornhole board and on the ground, nicknamed “dirty bags,” are worth 0 points.
At the end of each round of cornhole, the team that scored the most points will subtract the points earned by the other team to get their net score. For instance, if Team A scored 9 points in a given round, and Team B scored only 5 points, the winning team’s net score for that round would be 9-5—or 4 points.
The scores for each round are then tabulated and recorded and the game continues to be played in the same way until one side reaches or exceeds 21 points. Note: In certain variations of the game, the winning team must beat the losing team by at least 2 points to be declared the winner.
And that’s really all there is to the game of cornhole. Once you have all the right equipment, have memorized the rules and the scoring, and practiced your game a bit, you’ll be ready and able to take on all challengers at your next mancave gathering, campout, picnic or tailgating party.
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