Guide
How to Play Shut the Box
Shut the Box is a centuries-old counting and dice game of pub tradition — folklore traces it to Norman fishermen, and it has been a fixture of English pub wagering for generations. Nine tiles numbered 1 to 9 start up; each roll of two dice, you must flip down tiles that sum exactly to the roll. Shut all nine and you have literally shut the box.
The OPKA table plays one solo round from a seeded dice stream, so every finished game can be replayed and verified on the server before it ranks. Scoring is flipped from pub tradition to suit leaderboards: 45 minus the sum of the tiles still up, so higher is better and a perfect shut scores 45.
How a turn works
Roll two dice, then shut any set of up tiles whose numbers add up exactly to the roll total. A 9 can be shut with the 9 tile, with 4 and 5, with 1, 3, and 5 — any exact combination of tiles that are still up.
After each shut you roll again. The round continues until you shut every tile or a roll arrives that no combination of your remaining tiles can match.
- Nine tiles numbered 1-9, all up at the start.
- Every shut must sum exactly to the roll — no change given.
- A new roll follows every successful shut.
The one-die rule
Once tiles 7, 8, and 9 are all down, you may choose to roll a single die instead of two. That is the traditional endgame rule: with only low tiles left, one die's 1-6 range often fits the remaining tiles better than the 2-12 spread of a pair.
The choice is yours each roll — two dice stay available, and picking wrong is how endgames slip away.
Locking and shutting the box
When no combination of up tiles matches your roll, the box locks and the game is over on the spot. Whatever you shut before the lock still counts.
Shutting all nine tiles — shutting the box — is the outright win. In pub play it traditionally claims the whole pot; on OPKA it posts the perfect score of 45.
Scoring on OPKA
Pub tradition counts the tiles left up against you, lowest total winning. OPKA ranks the same result as 45 minus the sum of your remaining tiles, so higher is better: a locked game keeps its partial score, and a shut box scores the full 45.