Shut the Box Rules: How to Play the Classic Dice Game

Shut the box is a dice game played on a wooden box with a row of numbered flaps, usually 1 to 9, sometimes 1 to 12. You roll, you close flaps that add up to your roll, and you keep going until you cannot. Whatever is left standing is your score, and low wins. It takes a minute to learn and has been played in pubs, on ships and at kitchen tables for a very long time.

What you need

A shut the box board and two dice. That is all. Most boards have the dice tray built in, so the dice stay on the felt.

How to play

1. Start with every flap open — all the numbers showing.
2. Roll both dice and add them up.
3. Close any flaps that add up to the total. Roll an 8, and you could close the 8, or the 7 and 1, or 6 and 2, or 5 and 3, or 5, 2 and 1. You choose which.
4. Roll again, and keep closing flaps.
5. Your turn ends when you roll a total that no combination of open flaps can make.
6. Count your score. Add up the flaps still open. That is your score for the round.

If you close every flap, you have shut the box, and in most house rules you win the round outright.

The one-die rule

Once the 7, 8 and 9 are all closed, most players roll a single die instead of two, because with only 1 to 6 left a single die gives you a fair chance. Some play that you may roll one die at that point; some say you must. Agree before you start.

Scoring: two ways to count

• Add them up (the usual way): flaps 2, 4 and 9 left open scores 15.
• Read them as a number (the old pub way): the same flaps score 249. It makes the high flaps matter far more.

Either way, lowest score wins.

Shut the box with two players

Take turns. The first player plays until they are stuck and scores. The second player then tries to beat it. Play an agreed number of rounds and keep a running total, or play first to a points limit — whoever reaches, say, 45 first loses.

Shut the box with four players

On a four-sided board each player has their own row of flaps, so all four can play at once with the dice passed round, or simply in turn. Each player's score is whatever is left on their side. This is the version that suits a family table: nobody sits out.

Variations worth knowing

• 1 to 12 boards use two dice throughout, and are longer and harder.
• Doubles in some houses earn a bonus roll.
• Golf scoring: nine rounds, lowest total wins, like nine holes.

A little history

Shut the box has a long, cloudy history. It is often said to have been played by sailors and in the pubs of northern France and southern England, and versions turn up under different names across Europe. Nobody can point to an inventor, which is usually the sign of a game that has simply always been around.

Why it works

Every roll is a small decision: close the high flaps early to cut your risk, or keep combinations open for later. It looks like pure luck, plays like a puzzle, and is one of the few games a grandparent and a teenager can play on genuinely level terms.