Bean Bag Toss Game Rules
Boxes are placed 30 feet apart from center of hole to center of hole.
Rules for Players:
The bean bag toss game can be played with 2 or 4 players.
Each team gets 4 bean bags to throw.
When 4 players are used, team members stand at opposite ends and may throw from either
side of the box.
Each player throws from behind the front of the boxes. This is the foul line. The player
must not pass the foul line or the players throw does not count and the bag is removed from
play.
Each team alternates shots beginning with the team that had scored last.
Scoring is as follows:
Points are scored when a player has a bag on the board or in the hole.
Only one team can score per round. Therefore points cancel each other.

There are two ways to score:
IN: A bean bag that goes into the hole of the platform earns the tosser three points.
It doesn't matter whether the bag goes in on the toss or if it lands on the platform
and then, perhaps by wind or by being nudged by another tossed bean bag,
subsequently goes in.
ON: A bag that lands anywhere on the platform and remains after all bags are thrown
is worth one point -- however, no part of the bag may touch the ground. If a bag
touches the ground at any point, either during the toss or after it lands, it must be
removed from the platform before play continues.
Bean bag toss uses cancellation scoring, which means only "unique" scores count. In
other words, if one player tosses two bags into the hole and one onto the platform,
and his opponent also tosses two bags into the hole but none on the platform, the
first player receives one point. Neither player scores for the bags in the hole
because they were "matched" by his opponent.
An example of cancellation is as follows: Team one has 2 bags in the hole and 1 bag on the
board equalling 7 points (3 pts. + 3 pts. + 1 pt. = 7 pts). Team two has 1 bag in the hole and 1
bag on the board equalling 4 points (3 pts. + 1 pt. = 4 pts.). The lowest score is subtracted
from the highest score to get the points earned for team one (7pts. - 4 pts. = 3pts.). Team
one earns 3 points in this round and gets to throw first in the next round.
A bag that is tossed in play and knocks another bag off or in the hole is legal.
A bag that bounces from the ground onto the board is not a legal play. This bag must be
removed from the board and play is then continued.
Winning

One player or team must get at least 21 points to win. However, each inning must be
completed before a winner can be decided. In other words, if one team scores 21
points during an inning, but the opposing player has yet to throw, the game goes on.
During doubles, even if one team scores 21 points in the top half of an inning, the
entire inning must be played out. Thus scoring 21 points is not necessarily a guarantee
of winning until the entire inning is over.
In the event of a tie at 21 (or more) at the end of an inning, more innings are played
until one team outscores the other when an inning is completed.
History

Prior to 2003, there were no official rules for bean bag toss, or cornholing. It was
simply a game passed down through generations and played anywhere there was space,
from festivals to someone's back yard. But that year, Mike Whitton and his sons went
to a family reunion, saw the game being played, and realized there were no consistent
rules. So he formed the American Cornhole Association in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The ACA now serves as the official sanctioning body of the game, setting rules and
offering a national ranking system for players in ACA-sanctioned events. As of 2008,
it had 25,000 members across the United States.