Shut the Box

Shut the Box. You roll the dice. You look for all the unused numbers that could, in fact, be used to total up to the number rolled. You move the slides over the numbers you've chosen, hoping to cover all the slots before you come up with a number you can't play.

Each number can be used only once, so you have to more or less strategize (as much as you can, given the random roll of the dice). A popular pub game, Shut the Box is often played for money, but it is interesting enough to play just for fun. There's even a free demo software version for kids.

No matter who plays it, Shut the Box is a game worth knowing. There's enough depth to make the game worthy of mathematical analysis (read Durango Bill's Shut The Box Analysis for a complete description of the game, its strategies, and its inherent mathematical properties), and enough plain luck to keep the game fun.

You can play the game online for the cost of a couple pop-ups.