Cornhole Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Cornhole is two angled boards facing each other and eight fabric bags. Players alternate throws, aiming for the hole at the top of the board or, failing that, for the board itself. The subtraction at the end of each round is what keeps the game tense: a strong round can be almost entirely wiped out by an opponent's equally strong one.
Overview
Cornhole is two angled boards facing each other and eight fabric bags. Players alternate throws, aiming for the hole at the top of the board or, failing that, for the board itself. The subtraction at the end of each round is what keeps the game tense: a strong round can be almost entirely wiped out by an opponent's equally strong one.
Setup
Two sides, either one player each or two. Boards face each other 27 feet apart, front edge to front edge. Each side has four bags of one colour. In doubles, partners stand at opposite boards and throw at the far one. Decide who throws first by a coin toss.
How to play
Players alternate single throws until all eight bags have been pitched — that is one round, also called an inning or a frame. You must throw from beside your board without stepping past its front edge. Bags may knock other bags around; a bag pushed into the hole counts just the same as one thrown in. The side that scored in a round throws first in the next.
Scoring
Count each side's bags at the end of the round, before clearing the board:
- A bag through the hole — 3 points.
- A bag resting on the board and not touching the ground — 1 point.
- A bag on the ground, or one touching the board and the ground at once — 0.
That gives each side a raw round total between 0 and 12. Now cancel:
Round score = higher side's raw total − lower side's raw total. The side with the higher raw total records that difference and the other side records zero.
Worked examples. One side throws two in the hole and one on the board for 7; the other throws one in the hole and two on the board for 5. The first side records 2 and the second records 0. If both sides make 4, both record 0 and nothing changes. If one side gets all four bags in and the other gets nothing, the score is 12, the round maximum.
With straight scoring turned on there is no subtraction — each side simply records its own raw total, so both sides can gain in the same round.
Ending the game
Rounds are always played out in full. At the end of a round, a side that has reached or passed the target — 21 by default — wins. There is no need to hit it exactly and no need to lead by two, though both are common backyard additions. With a bust rule set, a side whose total would go past the target is instead knocked back to 15 or to 11, or simply has the round voided, depending on which option you picked.
Common variations
Playing to 11 shortens the game. Requiring exactly 21 with a drop back to 15 is the most popular house rule. Straight scoring removes cancellation entirely.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 21 points by default |
| Score sheet | Counting up to or down from a limit |
| Typical round score | 0 – 12 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | With cancellation on, only one side records anything each round and the number is the net margin, from 1 to 12. The other side records zero. A round where both sides tie is entered as zero for both. |
Cornhole — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: targetScore: 21, scoringMode: cancellation, holePoints: 3,
boardPoints: 1, bagsPerPlayer: 4, bustRule: off, winByTwo: false.
Sides: Red and Blue.
Only one side records a number each round, and that number is the net margin. The raw columns are what each side actually threw — they are the arithmetic behind the entry, not something the sheet stores.
| Round | Red raw | Blue raw | Red | Blue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| 4 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 5 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 7 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
Round 3 is the round maximum: all four Blue bags through the hole, 4 × 3 = 12, against nothing from Red.
Running totals:
| After | Red | Blue |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 2 | 12 |
| 4 | 8 | 12 |
| 5 | 13 | 12 |
| 6 | 17 | 12 |
| 7 | 23 | 12 |
Expected standings after round 7: Red 23, rank 1 — winner; Blue 12, rank 2.
finished: true.
What this catches:
Overshooting the target is normal and still wins. Red finishes on 23, not 21. With
the official bustRule: off there is nothing to land on exactly, and a scorer that
insists on an exact hit never ends a real game.
A tied round is a zero for both sides, not a skipped round. Round 2 is 4-all: both cells hold 0 and the round is played and recorded. Treating it as no round at all would throw off any round count and any "who throws first next" logic.
The bust rule turns the same sheet into an unfinished game. With
bustRule: backTo15, Red's round 7 would carry 17 past 21, so Red snaps back to 15
and nothing has been won — under a bust rule only an exact hit ends the match. The same
seven entries therefore give a different total and a different finished, which is why
the rule has to be applied while folding the rounds forward rather than to the final sum.
Win-by-two delays the finish without moving the crossing. With winByTwo: true, a
side that reaches 21 while the other sits on 20 has crossed but not won; play continues
until the lead is two clear.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Cornhole a little differently. These are the 7 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Play to: what is the default in Cornhole?
The score a side needs to win. Twenty-one is the tournament standard; eleven makes a quick game when a lot of people are waiting for the boards.
Default: 21. Adjustable from 11 to 31 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Play to”.
Scoring method: what are the options in Cornhole?
Cancellation is the normal game and keeps scores close. Straight scoring lets both sides bank points every round, so matches finish much faster.
Default: Cancellation — the round totals subtract from each other. Two options:
In the app: “Scoring method”.
Points for a bag in the hole: what is the default in Cornhole?
What a bag that drops through the hole is worth, whether it was thrown in or knocked in later.
Default: 3. Adjustable from 1 to 5 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Points for a bag in the hole”.
Points for a bag on the board: what is the default in Cornhole?
What a bag resting on the playing surface is worth. A bag touching the ground at all is worth nothing.
Default: 1. Adjustable from 0 to 3 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Points for a bag on the board”.
Bags per player per round: what is the default in Cornhole?
How many bags each thrower has in a round. Four is standard, giving a maximum of twelve points in a round with cancellation.
Default: 4. Adjustable from 2 to 8 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Bags per player per round”.
Going past the target: what are the options in Cornhole?
Whether you have to land on the target exactly. The official game has no bust; the bust rules are backyard tradition and make comebacks far more likely.
Default: No bust — reaching or passing the target wins. Four options:
In the app: “Going past the target”.
Must win by two: on or off in Cornhole?
Keep playing rounds past the target until one side leads by two clear points. Not part of the official rules.
Default: off.
In the app: “Must win by two”.
Variants of Cornhole
Quick eleven
Play to 11 with everything else unchanged. Useful for tournament pool play or when a queue has formed.
Exact twenty-one
You must finish on exactly 21. Overshoot and your score drops back to 15, which turns the endgame into a game of blockers and precise counts.
Straight scoring
No cancellation — both sides bank whatever they threw each round. Games are short and much higher scoring.
Cornhole is also known as
Bags, Bag Toss, Corn Toss, Baggo, Sack Toss. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.