Shut the Box rules

The goal

Close tiles that add up to your dice, and finish with the lowest total of open tiles.

Setup

A Shut the Box board with tiles 1 to 9 all open, and two dice. One to four players. Lowest first roll starts.

The first roll

There is no deal. Each player takes a turn with all nine tiles open.

A turn

• Roll both dice and add them up.
• Shut one tile, or several tiles, that add up to the total.
• Roll again. Your turn ends when no combination fits.

Special rolls

• When tiles 7, 8 and 9 are shut, roll one die.
• Shut all nine tiles to win at once.

Scoring

• Add up the numbers on the open tiles.
• Lower is better.

Winning

After everyone has had a turn, the lowest total wins, and shutting the box wins at once.

House rules

• Twelve tiles. The board has tiles 1 to 12. You roll one die when tiles 7 to 12 are all shut, and the total of all tiles is 78.
• Match play. Play to a set number of rounds or to a total score, such as 100, instead of a single turn each.
• Solo. Play alone and write down your score each time. A score under 10 is good; zero is rare.