Hole-y moly: bar patrons battle for prizes in cornhole

For three weeks, I’ll examine a staple bar game that is played locally. I’ll talk to some Sarasotans to get outside opinions, and I might even inject some of my own. To be clear, the debate is not which game is the most fun. It’s which game works best in a bar setting. After the three weeks are done, an online poll will give readers a chance to vote for their favorite. Last week: Billiards.

Research into the second bar game in our summer series resulted in me getting heckled.

Ultimately, that has nothing to do with anything. I just feel like you all should know.

The heckling was over the literal name of the game. When I walked into Old School Bar and Grill on June 27, a crowd was cheering while participants launched a small sack through the air, trying to land it inside a hole in a wooden base from 40 feet away.

I’m being purposefully deliberate in my wording, here. You probably know the game to which I’m referring. When I asked a group of bar patrons what they like about the game, I called it “bean bag toss,” because I’m from the mid-Atlantic.

I should have known better from my Missouri days, but I didn’t. Sarasota’s Shane Swezey called me out on my dialect.

“Bean bag toss,” he muttered, eyes turned away from me in disgust, head shaking in disbelief. “We don’t desecrate the game like that. It’s cornhole.”

This was said in a joking manner (I think), but Swezey was serious about the game itself.

Like last week’s bar game, pool, there are many variations to play. The most common, from both personal experience and from talking to patrons, is two on two, played outside. In that setting, players should stand 30 feet from the hole, according to American Cornhole Association, which I promise is a real thing. They have a website and everything.

The holes themselves are 6 inches in diameter. A shot that lands in the hole is worth 3 points. A shot that lands on the board, but does not fall in the hole, is 1 point. Teams can knock their opponents’ bags off the board with bags of their own. Conversely, they can also knock opposing bags into the hole. There are more rules, but I won’t bore you with them.

Old School used to use the standard format, but decided to move the boards inside and increase the distance. It’s now an individual game. Each Tuesday night, there’s a competition to see if anyone can sink a shot on their first try. If someone can, that person wins $100 in cash. If a full round goes by with no winner, another round is played, but the reward drops to a bottle of liquor.

No one went home $100 richer on the 27th, but Swezey did earn himself a bottle of Cruzan.

The game looks simple, but Gabe Hernandez said it’s harder than it looks, especially indoors. Normally, players want to arch their shots high to reduce the chance the bag slides off the board. That’s not possible when there’s a roof, so players have to improvise.

“You have to throw it with some backspin,” he said, acting out his technique. “You have to make sure it doesn’t slide.”

So, why is cornhole a popular game at bars? You don’t have to put down your drink, for one, though do be careful of spillage on the follow-through if the glass is full. You also are fully in control of how much you consume. There’s low risk of injury if a toss goes astray and hits someone (looking at you, darts). It’s easy for anyone to pick up and play. It breeds social comfort. The more you play with a specific partner or group of people, the more comfortable you get, and the more often you want to come back and drink, er, play.

That’s the situation for Swezey, Hernandez and their friends, Nick and Brittany Caraccio. They attend each Tuesday session. Of course that $100 is an attraction, but it’s also to spend time with people they care about.

Nah, who am I kidding? It’s about the potentially free booze.