Bag Toss▶Play

The backyard bean-bag game. Flick your finger up to throw: a bag left on the board scores 1, a bag in the hole scores 3. Ten rounds of four bags, best possible 120 — a steady, repeatable flick is everything.

How to play

You stand about 27 feet (8 metres) from a slanted wooden board, two feet wide and four feet long, with a six-inch hole near its far end. The view looks down on the board from above, and your bag waits at the bottom of the screen.

To throw, put your finger on the screen and flick it upward, then lift. The speed of your finger at the moment you let go decides how far the bag flies: a faster flick throws farther. The direction of the flick decides left and right — flick straight up to throw down the middle. There is no aiming line; a small white × marks where your previous bag landed, so you can adjust. A flick has to travel at least a short distance upward to count, and if your finger stops before you lift, the bag is thrown softly and lands short.

A bag that lands on the board slides forward for a little while, roughly a foot and a half on a normal throw, and drops in if it slides over the hole. A bag that lands straight in the hole counts too. Bags that land short of the board, beyond it or off to the side score nothing, and a bag that slides off an edge is lost. Bags collide: a later bag can push one already on the board into the hole — or knock it off.

Each round you throw four bags. When the last one stops, the round is scored from where the bags ended up: 3 points for every bag in the hole and 1 for every bag still on the board. The board is then cleared for the next round. After ten rounds the game ends; the best possible score is 120, and the result card shows each round's points. You can save your score to the Hall of Fame.

Tips & strategy

Do not try to throw straight into the hole. The reliable way to score 3 is the slide: land the bag on the board a little short of the hole and let it glide the last foot or so. On a normal throw the bag slides about a foot and a half, so the sweet spot is roughly halfway between the front of the board and the hole. Use the × from your last bag to see whether you need a touch more or less speed.

Consistency beats power. Your score depends almost entirely on how similar each flick is to the last, so find one rhythm and repeat it: the same starting spot near the bag, the same length of swipe and the same snap at the end. Change one thing at a time — if a bag lands long, flick very slightly slower next time rather than changing your whole motion. Flicking straight up matters as much as speed: three degrees off is enough to miss the hole, and about six degrees slides the bag off the side.

Think about the bags already on the board. A bag sitting just in front of the hole is a blocker: your next bag will hit it. Hitting it squarely can push it into the hole for 3 points and leave your new bag on the board for 1 more, which is often the best play available. A bag off to one side is better avoided — aim a little to the other side so you do not knock it off the edge. A bag that lands right in the hole without touching the board avoids all of this, but it needs exactly the right distance.

Count what each round is worth. Four bags on the board give 4 points, one in the hole and three on the board give 6, and four in the hole give the maximum of 12. Bags that stay on the board are steady points, so a safe throw that stops short of the hole is never wasted. The backyard bean-bag game, known in North America as cornhole, is played at parties, tailgates and tournaments; this version keeps the regulation board size and distance and asks you to play the whole game on your own, chasing a better total each time.