Shuffleboard is an incredibly easy game to learn, and incredibly fun and intuitive once the rules are understood.
Shuffleboard is normally played with two players, the winner being the first to reach 15 points over a series of rounds.
How to Prepare the Plank
Before you can begin, you need to ensure that that plank is coated in a suitable amount of shuffleboard wax, to allow the weights to slide down the plank with ease. Ensure there isn't too much, or too little. Too much wax will cause drifts that the weights will struggle to get through. Too little wax will cause too much friction, and may cause the weights to stop prematurely.
How to Start The Game
Once your shuffleboard plank has been prepared with silicone wax, you can assign a colour to each player, and play a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who will go first. The winner chooses if they wish to go first or second (going second normally carries a strategic advantage).
The player going first starts the round by sliding their weight down the plank whilst standing behind the horseshoe. The goal is to land your weight as close to the end of the plank as possible without it falling off of the end or the sides into the gutters. The weight must also pass the minimum scoring line on the table (this will be marked on the plank either at, or beyond the halfway point). If a puck does not pass this line, it is removed and doesn’t count towards any scoring.
The second player then takes their turn, who also needs to try and land their weights as close to the end as possible. During the round, players can use several tactics to try and improve their chances of a higher score. For example, players can try to knock their opponent’s weights off the board, or strategically leave ‘blocker’ weights to either protect scoring weights, or to otherwise make shots more difficult for their opponent.
Players take it in turns sliding weights down the plank until all of their weights have been used, at which point the round’s scoring is calculated.
How to score a shuffleboard round
Once all the weights have been played, it’s time to see how the round has been scored. Scoring a round is almost identical to scoring a round of curling:
Only one player can score in each round.
The player who scores the points is the one who has the furthest weight down the plank.
From that furthest weight on the plank, count how many points it scores by seeing what scoring zone it has ended in.
From the weight you’ve just counted, work backwards and find the next one. If it’s another one of the scoring colours, then add its score. Keep doing this until you reach a weight of the opponent’s colour. eventually leaving you with a total.
Scoring Notes
Scoring Zone Boundaries
There are strict rules pertaining to what counts as in a scoring zone. For a weight to be counted in a higher scoring zone, it must be completely over the line to count. Being mostly over the line doesn’t count.
Hangers
Players can score an additional point if one of their winning weights is a hanger. A hanger is a weight that reaches the very end of the plank, and is partially over the edge.
Continuing the game
Take note of the player’s final score for the round, then swap ends and repeat. The winner of the last round will always go first when starting the following round.
The game ends when one player scores a total of 15 points or more.
Examples of Scoring
To better explain how scoring works, we have outlined some examples below.
Example 1:
On the above plank, the furthest weight down the plank is red, so it is red who scores the points.
There are 2 red leading weights, both are well within the 3 point scoring zone. There is another red weight in the 1 point zone, however it isn’t counted due to the blue weights being past it.
So the two red weights score 3 points each, giving the red player 6 points for the round.
Example 2
On this plank, you can see that once again, the furthest weight is a red weight, followed by another red weight, followed by a blue weight. So once again, the leading two red weights will score the points.
In this case, the leading-most weight is clearly in the 3 points zone. The next weight is on the line between 3 and 2 points. As this weight is not over the line, it will score two points. This is where the scoring ends as the next weight is the opposition’s blue weight.
So overall, 3 points and 2 points makes 5 points for the red player.
Example 3
On this plank, we have an interesting case. Here, the leading-most weight is blue, followed immediately by a red, so only the single leading blue weight will score for this round.
The weight is in the 3 point zone, so scores 3 points. However the weight is also overhanging the end of the plank, making it a ‘hanger’. This scores it an additional point.
So overall, the leading weight scores 3 points, and has an additional point added for being a hanger. This makes 4 points for the blue player.
Conclusion
Shuffleboard is very quick to learn and to play. Whilst the scoring is a little unintuitive on the surface, it’s very easy when you remember the basic rules:
- Play Rock, Paper, Scissors and decide who goes first in the first round (going second is better!)
- Take it in turns to slide weights down the plank
- Only the leading-most weights of one colour score the points
- Swap ends after each round
- First to 15 points wins
If you have any further questions, then check out our video guide at the top of the page, or just ask our team!
