Hobbies And Interests
Equipment
Standard cornhole play uses a propped-up board with a hole in it. The official specifications for a cornhole board require a 24-inch-by-48-inch board with a 6-inch-diameter circular hole centered 12 inches from each side and positioned 9 inches from the top of the board. The board should be propped up with 12-inch legs at the top that are nearly perpendicular to the board, and the surface of the front of the board should be about 4 inches from the ground. Some rules specify that the boards should have four solid sides rather than legs. An official game of cornhole uses two boards and eight bean bags, four bags for each team. A bean bag should measure 6" by 6" and be filled with no more than 1 pound of corn.
Set Up
Before play can begin, the cornhole field should be set up to official American Cornhole Association standards. Those standards say that the lower part of each board should be 27 feet apart, making the holes in the boards 33 feet apart. On either side of the cornhole board is an invisible 4-foot-by-3-foot box designated as the "Pitcher's Box." This is the area in which the thrower stands to throw the bean bag.
Players
The game of cornhole can be played with either two or four people. If two people play, it's a single's game; if four people play, it's a double's game. The game progresses with the two sides going back and forth throwing one bag at a time. In a single's game, one team will throw a bag, then the other team throws. This is the same for a double's game, but as the teams alternate, so do the players on the team. For example, team A's player 1 will throw, followed by team B's player 1. The next person to throw will be team A's player 2.
Innings
A game of corn hole consists of innings during which players pitch their bean bags. Once all the bags have been tossed, the inning is over and a score is calculated. The person throwing the bag must choose which side of the thrower's box he wishes to use, and use that side for the entire inning. Once he enters the pitcher's box, he has 20 seconds to pitch the bag or lose his turn in the round.
Scoring
There are three possible scores for a single bean bag in cornhole. If the bag goes into the hole, either by toss or being knocked in, the pitcher earns 3 points. This is called a Bag-In-The-Hole. If the bag simply lands on the board, but does not go into the hole and does not touch anything but the board, the pitcher receives a score of 1 point. This is considered a Bag-In-The-Count. However, if a future bag knocks that bag into the hole, the score will be changed to a Bag-In-The-Hole, bringing the total score for that bag up to 3 points, rather than 1. A foul is called on the pitcher if the bag doesn't land on the board at all. If the bag lands in any position where it is touching the ground it is considered a foul and the bag is removed from the playing area.
Winning
A game of cornhole is played to a total score of 21, and the winner is the team who reached that score after a complete inning has been played. The game cannot end in the middle of an inning. If a team reaches 21 during the course of an inning, the other team will still be able to throw its bags for the inning. Once all bags have been thrown, the game is over. If the game is tied, extra innings will be played until a winner is decided.