Court & Equipment
The shuffleboard court is 52 feet long and 6 feet wide, but the actual playing surface is only 39 feet long. There is a 12-foot neutral zone in the middle of the playing area, marked by a pair of "dead lines."
At each end of the playing area is a scoring triangle; the point is 3 feet from the nearer dead line, the base 13 1/2 feet from it. Each triangle is broken up into five scoring areas: a front triangle worth 10 points, two quadrilaterals worth 8 points each, two quadrilaterals worth 7 points each, and a wide rear area marked "10 off."
Each player has four disks, or pucks. The disk has a 6-inch diameter and a thickness of 1 inch, is 9/16 to 1 inch thick, and weighs 11 1/2 to 15 ounces. One set of discs is colored black, the other yellow. (Other sets of colors may be used, provided they're clearly distinguishable from one another.)
The cue (the stick used to propel the disk) is no more than 6 feet, 3 inches long, and has a tip shaped like a half moon, into which a disk is fitted for shooting.
Progress of Play
Shuffleboard can be played by two persons or by two rival teams of two players each. In singles, the player with yellow shoots first, from the right side of the "10-off " section.
That player slides a disk toward the other end of the court, attempting to score a 10. The opponent then shoots a black disk from the other side of the court, and they continue alternating until all eight disks have been shot.
It is permissible to knock an opponent's disk off the court or into a different scoring area, and to move or protect one's own disks by the same procedure. However, a disk that falls short of the farther dead line is removed from play immediately.
After one "end" is completed (eight disks shot by two players from the same end of the court), scores are totaled. A disk scores only if it lies entirely within a scoring area, touching no boundary lines. Players then move to the opposite end to complete the round by repeating the described routine.
Game may be 50, 75, or 100 points, as determined beforehand. A disk lying within the 10-off area results in the loss of 10 points for the owner.
In doubles, play proceeds as in horseshoes: Two opponents play against one another from one end of the court, and the other two play against one another from the other end, throughout the game.