Shut the Box Rules

Shut the Box is a pub dice game for one or more players, traditionally played for small stakes. A wooden box holds a row of tiles numbered 1 to 9; you roll two dice and flip down tiles that add up to your roll, and you keep going until a roll cannot be used. Shut every tile and you win outright. It takes a minute to learn, a turn lasts a couple of minutes, and there is more strategy in it than it looks. This guide covers the Shut the Box rules, how scoring and betting work, the best move for every roll, and the exact odds of shutting the box.

Shut the Box Rules at a Glance

How to Play Shut the Box

1. Open every tile. All nine tiles start upright, showing 1 to 9.
2. Roll both dice and add them up.
3. Shut tiles that make that total. Flip down any one combination of open tiles that adds up to exactly your roll. A roll of 8 lets you shut the 8, or 7 and 1, 6 and 2, 5 and 3, 5, 2 and 1, or 4, 3 and 1.
4. Roll again and keep shutting tiles for as long as you can make your total.
5. One die or two. Once the 7, 8 and 9 are all down, you may choose to roll a single die instead of two.
6. End of your turn. As soon as no combination of open tiles matches your roll, your turn is over. Add up the tiles still standing: that is your score.
7. Next player. Reopen every tile and pass the box on. When everyone has played, the lowest score wins.

An example turn

You roll 9 and shut the 9. Then 7 (shut the 7), 8 (shut the 8), 6, 5 and 4, shutting each matching tile. Only 1, 2 and 3 are left, adding up to 6, and the high tiles are down, so you roll one die: a 4, and you shut the 1 and 3. With just the 2 open you roll a 6, which you cannot make, so your turn ends with a score of 2.

Scoring, Winning and Betting

• Standard scoring (“golf”): your score is the sum of the open tiles; the lowest wins. With 1 to 9 open the worst possible score is 45.
• Missionary: your score is the number of tiles left open, not their total.
• Digital: read the open tiles left to right as a number, so 1, 2 and 5 left open score 125.
• In the pub: each player puts an agreed amount in the pot before the game, and the lowest score takes it.
• Canoga payouts: each loser pays the winner the difference between their scores (lose with 15 against a winning 11 and you pay 4). Shutting the box doubles the payout and also wins the kitty.

Agree ties, scoring and the one-die rule before the first roll: as a traditional pub game, Shut the Box has many house rules.

Shut the Box Strategy

A 1–9 box has 512 possible positions, and the best move in each one, for every roll, can be calculated exactly. Three simple rules capture almost all of it:

1. Shut the tile that matches the roll. On your first roll, the best move for every total from 2 to 9 is the single matching tile. On 10, 11 or 12, shut the 9 plus the remainder (1 and 9, 2 and 9, 3 and 9).
2. Use fewer, higher tiles. Splitting a roll into small tiles leaves you with big numbers that only a big roll can clear. Rolling 9 first and shutting the 9 gives you a 14.5% chance of shutting the box from there; shutting the 8 and 1 instead leaves you only 6.5%.
3. Roll one die when the open tiles add up to 6 or less. With 7 or more still open, two dice are better, even when you are allowed one.

Most of the time the same move is best whether you are trying to shut the box or simply to finish with a low score: the two goals agree in 96% of decisions. Playing for a low score, the one-die rule changes in just one spot: with exactly 1, 2 and 4 left, roll one die.

Shut the Box Odds

With two dice, 7 is the most common total (6 ways out of 36), then 6 and 8 (5 ways each). 2 and 12 come up only once in 36 rolls, and two dice can never make 1, so the 1 tile goes down alongside other tiles or with a single die.

• With best play, you shut the box in 9.76% of turns, about 1 in 10.
• Following the three simple rules above gets you 9.56%, very close to perfect.
• Without the one-die rule, even best play drops to 7.14%, about 1 in 14.
• Playing for the lowest score, the average final score with best play is 11.0.
• On a 12-tile box, with one die allowed once 7 to 12 are down, best play shuts the box only 0.47% of the time, about 1 in 211.

Shut the Box Variations

Where Shut the Box Comes From

The game’s origins are traditional stories rather than records: it is said to have been played by sailors and fishermen in Normandy and the Channel Islands for a couple of centuries. One account credits a man called ‘Chalky’ Towbridge with bringing it from the Channel Islands to southern England in 1958, and from the 1960s it was played in British pubs, for small stakes, alongside darts and dominoes. The game is also known as Canoga, batten down the hatches and trick-track, and it was the basis of the US television quiz show High Rollers.

More Dice Games

If you enjoy rolling for totals, casinos have their own dice games: craps, where 7 is also the key number, and sic bo, played with three dice. For another British pub classic, try Three Card Brag.

If you play for money, agree the stakes in advance and keep them small. Free, confidential support is available at BeGambleAware.org. 18+ only.

Also worth a look: the one-card game Chase the Ace — keep or swap, and do not end up with the lowest card.

Another dice game to try: Farkle, the six-dice push-your-luck game where you bank points or risk them all on one more roll.

More dice: our liar’s dice rules cover bidding, Perudo and the odds behind every bid.

Another game where the lowest score wins: the Golf card game, played over nine holes.

More dice fun: Bunco, the team dice game behind thousands of Bunco nights.

Another quick game for five dice: Ship, Captain and Crew, three rolls to find a 6, a 5 and a 4.

More dice fun on a board: Trouble, the Pop-O-Matic race game.

Shut the Box: frequently asked questions