Cornhole Rules

These rules serve as a basic guideline and mirror tournaments. There are many variations that are played among friends and family. If you are unsure about the rules of a recreational game or tournament, make sure you ask the person in charge before you start playing.

The Basics
  • For competitive play, place a set of cornhole boards 27 feet apart from front edge to front edge. Beginners, juniors and recreational players may want to start at a shorter distance. We recommend decreasing the distance in three foot increments to find a comfortable beginning playing distance
  • There are 4 bags per set. 2 sets of different colors are needed to play singles or doubles
  • The front of the board represents the foul line. Players may not step in front of the board or behind the board. Players must remain within three feet of their side of the board
Scoring
  • Bag on Board = 1 point
    Bag through Hole = 3 points
    Bags that hit the ground prior to landing on the board or going into the hole do not count.
  • Any bag hanging off the board and touching the ground does not count.
  • Any bag hanging in the hole only counts as 1 point.
  • Cancellation scoring is used at the end of each round. After all 8 bags have been thrown; the score is calculated based on the bags that remain on the board and have gone in the hole. If Team A has 4 points and Team B has 3 points, Team A will get 1 point.
  • A game is played to 21+. There is no win by 2 or bust rule for going over 21
Gameplay
  • Coin toss takes all – The player that wins the coin toss choses the initial side of board to throw from and whether to start out throwing first or second

    Players will alternate throwing their 4 bags down to the board on the other end
  • Throwing out of turn or outside the throwing box is a foul. The bag that was thrown when the foul occurred does not count and is immediately removed from play.
  • In Singles, once the first round is completed, players will walk down to score the round, stay on the same side and then throw back for the next round. This means that if Player A throws down from the right side of the board in the first round, Player A will be throwing back from the left side of the board in the second round

    In Doubles, partners stand on the opposite side from each other. This means that one player from Team A will throw from the right side of the board on one end and the partner will be throwing from the left side of the board on the other end
Let’s Play Now!!