peer2peergames

Jackpot

Nine tiles numbered one to nine, and two dice. Throw them, then cover exactly one open tile matching either die or their sum, and throw again. When nothing the dice can reach is still open your turn ends and you score the tiles you left. Shut all nine and that is a jackpot, which is how the match is won.

Play Jackpot Leaderboard

Your turn

  1. Throw the two dice. You may cover exactly one open tile: either die on its own, or the two added together.
  2. Two and three lets you cover the 2, the 3 or the 5. One tile, not two, and never the same tile twice.
  3. Cover a tile and throw again. A turn is as many throws as you can keep covering for.
  4. When nothing the dice can reach is still open, the turn ends. You score the sum of the tiles you left open, so a low score is a good turn.
  5. Cover all nine and you have shut the box. That is a jackpot, it scores nothing, and it is what wins the match.

Two things the dice cannot do

  1. Ten, eleven and twelve cover nothing, because the tiles stop at nine. Double six can only ever cover the 6, and if the 6 is already down that throw ends your turn.
  2. Only a die showing one can ever cover the 1, because two dice never add up to less than two. Leave the 1 until last and you are relying on a single number coming up.
  3. A double gives you two choices and not three. Three and three reaches the 3 and the 6, so you cannot cover the 3 twice.
  4. None of this is the page failing. When a throw can do nothing the page says so and the only thing left is to end your turn.

How a game ends

  1. The match ends when somebody shuts the box, and not a moment before the round is finished.
  2. A round is one turn each. If you shut the box on your third turn, everybody else still takes their third turn before anything is decided. Nobody is beaten by the seating order.
  3. If two people shut the box in the same round, the one who did it in fewer throws wins. The same number of throws is a draw.
  4. If nobody shuts the box, another round begins. There is no limit on how many rounds a match can take.
  5. Your running total is the tiles you have left open, added up over every turn. It is shown beside your name and it does not win the match: the jackpot does. The total only sorts out the players who did not get one.
  6. A player who resigns is out. At two players the other one wins; at three or four the match carries on without them and they are placed last.
  7. The move deadline you pick when the game is made is a deadline for each throw, not for a whole turn, so pick a short one: a turn is several throws and a match is many turns.

Worth knowing before you start

  1. Spending the two dice added together on a seven, an eight or a nine is usually better than covering them one at a time, because the high tiles are the ones a single die can rarely reach.
  2. The low tiles are the scarce ones. The 1 needs a one, the 2 needs a two or a pair of ones, and they are the tiles that strand.
  3. About one turn in twelve shuts the box when it is played well, so most turns end with something left open. That is the game working, not you playing badly.
  4. Every throw in the game comes from the seed, which is published when the match ends, so nobody can see a throw coming and anybody can check every one of them afterwards.
  5. The bot plays at one of three strengths, drawn per match from the seed: one always takes the lowest tile it can, one always takes the highest, and one plays the way the game is meant to be played.

This is the Thai version of shut the box, in which two dice are always thrown and exactly one tile is covered. The older pub version lets you cover any combination of tiles adding up to the throw, which is a different and easier game. Every throw comes from the seed and the seed is published when the match ends, so the whole match can be replayed from the log and checked.

Jackpot terms

A tile
One of the nine numbered lids, one to nine. It starts open and is shut for the rest of your turn once you cover it.
The sum
The two dice added together. It is a third thing you may cover, as well as either die on its own, and it is the only way to reach the seven, eight and nine most throws.
A jackpot
All nine tiles covered in one turn. It scores nothing, which is the best score there is, and it is what wins the match.
Your score
The tiles you left open when a turn ended, added up. Lower is better, and it sorts out the players who did not shut the box.

Playing it here

  • Against a person or the bot. The bot needs no account and starts at once. To play a person, be rated and keep your games, you need an account: an email address and a password.
  • At your own pace. Every move has a deadline you both see, from one minute to a week. A game can take an evening or it can take a fortnight.
  • Nothing to buy and nothing to win. No stakes, no prizes, no boosts, no undo. The only thing on offer is a place on a leaderboard, and only if you want one.
  • Every game can be checked. Anything decided by chance comes from the game's seed, and the seed is published the moment the game ends, so any finished game can be replayed and verified by anyone. See fair play.