by Lenna Gonya

Created on: April 13, 2010   Last Updated: April 21, 2010

No one is actually sure where the game originated, but Cornhole is a backyard game that has swept the country in the past several years. Whether you call it beanbag, or cornhole, or soft horseshoes, it’s all the same game.

No one is actually sure where the game came from or how long it’s been around, but there is a rumor that it has been recorded in history in one form or another since the 13th century and in Kentucky for the last 100 years.

To play corn hole, you need two wooden boxes, called platforms and corn filled bags. The platforms are elevated at a slight angle, and the players take turns throwing their corn bags at the platform. The object is to get the bag to go through a hole in the top of the platform.

A corn bag that goes into the hole is worth 3 points, and one that lands and stays on the top of the platform is worth 1 point. When a player reaches 21 points, he or she wins.

You can play the game as singles or doubles. In doubles, you have a partner. In singles, each player pitches their corn bag from their own platform, toward the other platform. However, in doubles, one partner pitches from one platform and the other partner from the other platform.

Once four corn bags have been pitched by each player, or four from each partner in doubles, one inning is over.

While a corn-in-the-hole bag is the object of the game, a bag that comes to rest on the platform is still worth 1 point. However, a bag that skids off the platform onto the ground is worth nothing.

Just like in baseball, if there is a tie of 21 points, another inning is played, and if anyone scores during the tie breaking inning, they win the game.

If, during the inning, one team goes over twenty one by scoring seven points in the inning, they may win before the end of the inning. This is called a skunked game.

Scoring gets a little more complicated because of the cancellation rule. A corn-in-the-hole bag from one contestant in an inning will cancel out a corn-in-the-hole bag from another contestant in the same inning. No one gets points counted.

The same holds true for the corn bags in the corn-in-the-count, on platform position. By cancelling these out, the game can continue for quite awhile.

This is a fun game, easy to play and cheap to buy, or better yet, to make on your own.

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