Bocce Ball Rules | Bocce Rules

How to Play Bocce

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Bocce is without a doubt one of the most exciting and enjoyable sports. You may be interested in playing bocce ball competitively, or you might just want to play a friendly game in your back yard. No matter your level of competition, the rules of bocce are relatively basic, and allow you to start playing and enjoying this wonderful game within minutes.

Open Bocce

Bocce Ball Set

Open Bocce is the most popular form of bocce by casual players. The great thing about open bocce is that it can be played almost anywhere there is open space. This includes grassy surfaces such as a front lawn or back yard, dirt surfaces, sandy surfaces such as the beach, and even paved surfaces like parking lots. The places that you can play bocce are only limited to your imagination. Try playing bocce on a surface with hills or slopes to add a new element of strategy to your game.

Bocce is played with eight large balls and one smaller ball (called the pallino). The game can be played with 2, 4, or 8 players. Divide the bocce balls evenly between the number of players. You will notice that your bocce ball set has balls with several different colors or designs. Ideally, each bocce player will use balls from the set that are unique in design or color from all the other balls in play. This is helpful in distinguishing your bocce balls from those of another player.

Bocce Balls and Pallino

At random, choose a player to throw the pallino. After the pallino is thrown, the same player will throw his first bocce ball. The purpose of the game is to get your bocce balls as close as possible to the pallino. After the first player has thrown his first bocce ball, he is considered "inside" because his ball is closer to the pallino than any of the competitors balls. All other players are considered "outside." Whenever a player is considered "inside," he will forfeit his turn throwing bocce balls. All "outside" players will take turns throwing their bocce balls until they until one of theirs gets closer to the pallino than the "inside" player.

After all players have thrown their bocce balls, the player that is "inside" will be awarded points. One point will be awarded to this player for every ball that is closer to the pallino than his closest competitor's ball. After the points are awarded, the frame is completed. Start a new frame by electing a new person to throw the pallino and to throw the first bocce ball. A game is won when a player reaches 13 points. Play as many frames as necessary until a player reaches this point level. Of course, this point level can be be decreased or increased depending on time constraints between players.

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