Pocket Games

Shut the Box

Tiles numbered 1 to 9, two dice, and one rule: you lower the tiles that add up to your roll. Whoever leaves the lowest total showing wins. The wooden box has been doing the rounds of English and Norman taverns for centuries.

The rules

In front of you sit the tiles 1 to 9, all raised. You roll two dice and lower the tiles that, added together, make the result. If you roll an 8 you can close the 8, or 5 and 3, or 6 and 2, or 1, 3 and 4: any combination as long as the sum matches.

Under the classic rule you keep rolling as long as a combination is possible. When the dice give a number you can no longer make, your turn ends and your score is the sum of the tiles still raised: the lowest total wins. Closing every tile, “shutting the box”, is the perfect game.

There is also a classic rule: when the tiles still raised add up to 6 or less, you may roll a single die. It is a real privilege, and knowing how to earn it is half the strategy.

On Pocket Games

Before you start you pick the mode, Against the bot or 2 Players on the same phone, and the box: tiles 1 to 9 or 1 to 12. Each player has a box of their own.

Two things differ from the pub rule. Players alternate on every roll: you roll, close your tiles and the dice go to the other player. Whoever gets blocked is finished, and the opponent carries on alone until they shut the box or get blocked too. And the winner is whoever leaves fewer tiles open: what counts is how many, not their sum.

The game spots a block for you: if no combination of your open tiles makes the roll, “Blocked!” appears and the turn passes. To close, you tap tiles one at a time; the button shows your selected sum next to the dice total, say 5/8, and turns into “Close” only when they match. When your open tiles add up to 6 or less, a choice between 1 die and 2 dice appears, with 1 die already selected.

How to choose, when the sum allows options

This is the only decision the game asks of you, and it comes up every turn.

Close the high numbers first. With two dice the most likely result is 7, and the middle numbers come up far more often than the extremes. High numbers are the hardest to shift because they need a high roll or a combination of several tiles: getting rid of them early, while you still have plenty of low tiles to build sums with, is nearly always right.

Use as few tiles as possible. If you can make 8 with the 8 or with 1+3+4, take the 8. Low tiles are your building blocks: they make future rolls workable, and burning three of them on a single roll leaves you disarmed.

Watch the gaps. It is not only about which numbers remain, it is about which sums you can still make. Being left with 2, 3 and 9 is a worse position than being left with 4, 5 and 6, even though the total is nearly the same: from the first you cannot survive a 7, from the second you can.

Aim for the threshold of 6. Getting down to tiles that add up to 6 or less unlocks the single-die roll, and with one die the game becomes hugely more manageable. It is worth choosing your closures with that threshold in mind in the late turns.

The odds, briefly

With two dice there are 36 combinations. A 7 comes up 6 times in 36, a 2 and a 12 just once each. In practice the 1 and the 2 tiles are the easiest to close (they fit into a huge number of combinations as addends), while the 9 rarely appears on its own and should be closed the moment the chance arrives.

Shutting the whole box is rare: in the 9 tile version it happens in a small percentage of games even with good play.

Frequently asked questions

Why can I not always roll one die?

The choice between 1 die and 2 dice only appears when your open tiles add up to 6 or less. With a 9 still raised, for instance, a single die could never close it.

How is the winner decided?

Once both players are finished, whoever has fewer tiles open wins. It is the number that counts, not the sum: being left with just the 9 beats being left with 1 and 2. With the same number of tiles, the game is a draw.

Is the 12 tile version just longer?

Longer and harder. The 10, 11 and 12 close on their own only with high, rare rolls (3, 2 and 1 combinations out of 36); otherwise they need several tiles together. And the starting total rises from 45 to 78, so the single-die threshold comes later.

Can the bot be beaten?

Yes. It rolls one die as soon as it can and always closes the combination with the fewest tiles, preferring the highest tile on a tie: a decent heuristic, not perfect play. Against it, what matters most is not wasting your low tiles.

Does my record carry over to another phone?

Yes. Your record against the bot, the tiles left in your best game, is saved to your account, separately for 1–9 and 1–12: sign in with the same account and it is there on the other phone.

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