The rules in 60 seconds
Stand about three metres from the table. Throw ten metal fichas, one at a time, underarm. Every hole scores; the toad's mouth scores the most. Only fichas that fully drop through a hole count. Highest total after the agreed number of rounds wins. Land the mouth and shout ¡SAPO!
Everything below is detail, disagreement and technique. The paragraph above is enough to play tonight.
1. The distance. 2. How many fichas per turn. 3. The point values, especially the mouth. 4. Whether landing the mouth ends the round or just scores. Sapo has no continental governing body, so these are genuinely open — and settling them after a good throw is how friendships end.
What you need
- A sapo table. A waist-high wooden cabinet with a holed top, a cast metal toad at the centre with its mouth open, and numbered cajetines — drawers — underneath that catch the fichas.
- Fichas. Flat metal discs, also called tejos, petacos or palets. Traditionally bronze, brass or cast iron: about 3–4 cm across, 0.5–0.7 cm thick, 30–60 g. Documented
- A line. Chalk, tape, a stick, a crack in the patio tiles. It just has to be agreed and visible.
A full traditional board also has a molino (a spinning mill), two puentes (bridges), and flip-traps on the front edge. Simpler boards are just the toad and a grid of holes, and they play fine.
Setting up: the table and the line
| Source | Board | Height | Distance | Fichas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castilla y León federation (Spain) Documented | 50 × 50 cm | 80–90 cm | Varies by category; 7 × 2 m lane | 10 petacos, ~38 mm, ~60 g |
| French intangible heritage record Documented | 45 × 50 cm panel, 12 holes | 80–90 cm | 3–3.5 m adults / 2–2.5 m children | 10 palets, ~38 × 7 mm |
| Argentine reglamento Documented | Table with vieja and two molinetes | — | 3 m line, inside a 4 m box | 12 tejos per round |
| Common informal play Widely told | Whatever you have | Waist height | ~3–4.5 m | 10 |
Put the table on level ground with a wall or a fence behind it — a missed ficha travels, and brass on a tiled floor is loud. Give yourself two metres of clear width. Levelling the table matters more than people think: a tilted board sends everything to one side and everybody blames their wrist.
How a turn works
- Decide throwing order. In a friendly game, whoever lost last goes first.
- The player stands behind the line — not on it.
- They throw their fichas one at a time, underarm. Overarm throwing is possible but frowned on: it bounces the ficha off the board and it can dent the table.
- Fichas that miss or bounce off the table are collected and count for nothing.
- When the turn ends, pull out the cajetines and count. The drawers make the score self-evident, which is the whole reason they exist.
- Play passes to the next player. A full pass around all players is a round.
Scoring: what each hole is worth
There is no universal point scale. There are, however, real published ones, and they agree on the shape even when they disagree on the numbers: the mouth is worth roughly ten times an ordinary hole, the mechanisms (molino, puentes) sit in between, and the corners are worth the least.
| Target | Castilla y León (Spain) Documented | Typical Peruvian / Bolivian table Widely told | Our digital board |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boca del sapo (mouth) | 50 | Highest value; often takes the pot | 10,000 |
| Molino (spinning mill) | 25 | Second highest | 5,000 |
| Puentes (bridges) | 10 each | Mid | 3,000 |
| Ranuras (ordinary holes) | 5 each | Low, scaled by distance from the toad | 1,000–2,000 |
| Cajetines / flip-traps | — | Low, or a penalty on some tables | 1,000 |
| Miss | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The common Peruvian principle is simple and worth stating: the closer the hole is to the toad, the more it is worth. If your table has no printed numbers, that rule will get you a fair scale in thirty seconds.
Does the mouth end the round?
On many tables, yes — and traditionally it takes the whole stake. Widely told In tournament-style scoring it simply awards its points and play continues. Both are legitimate; pick one before you start.
How you win
- Fixed rounds. Agree a number of rounds — three is common — and the highest cumulative total wins. This is what our digital Quick Match uses.
- Target score. Play until someone reaches or passes an agreed total. Ties go to a playoff round.
- The mouth takes all. The traditional wagering form: the first sapo ends the game and takes the pot.
Fouls and the arguments they cause
- Stepping on or over the line. The classic. Written reglamentos void the throw and its points outright. It is also the single most disputed call in the game, which is why you mark the line properly. Documented
- Throwing out of turn. Voided.
- A ficha entering from above or from outside. Reglamentos void fichas that enter after bouncing off an external object, or that drop in from an unintended direction. Documented
- A ficha that comes back out. If it exits the way it entered, it did not score.
- Distracting the thrower. Formally prohibited. Informally, it is the entire point of playing with your family.
- Re-throwing. Once the ficha leaves your hand, it is thrown. No do-overs.
Technique: how to actually hit the mouth
- Throw with your wrist, not your arm. Peruvian players say le faltó muñeca — "not enough wrist" — for a reason. The arm sets the distance; the wrist sets the accuracy.
- Aim for a flat landing. A ficha arriving flat drops through. A ficha arriving on edge skids, spins and ends up on the floor.
- Arc it. A high, soft arc that comes down steeply into the mouth beats a fast flat throw that ricochets off the brass. The mouth is a target you fall into, not one you shoot at.
- Use the same grip every throw. Traditionally the ficha rests along the side of the middle finger, held between index and thumb. Consistency beats cleverness.
- Play the odds. Ten throws at the mouth from a cold arm scores less than eight safe holes and two attempts. Know when you can afford to hunt the sapo.
- Watch the board, not the ficha. Pick your hole before you start the motion and keep your eyes there.
Regional variations
- Peru. Informal and stake-based. Picantería and patio play, house rules, generally ten fichas.
- Bolivia. Similar to Peru, tightly bound to chicherías and social patios.
- Argentina. The most formalised South American version: twelve tejos, a 3 m line, six practice throws before the first round, and la vieja — a carved face on the back wall — as a high-value target that Peruvian and Colombian tables do not have. Documented
- Colombia. Called rana or bolirana. Organised recreation bodies publish reglamentos, and the bolirana cabinet is a distinct modern variant. Documented
- Spain. Federation rules, 50 × 50 cm boards, teams of up to two, ten rounds. In Asturias, ten-a-side teams throwing eighty petacos each in two halves. Documented
- France. Ten cast-iron palets, twelve holes, distance by age category. Documented
The rules in our digital sapo
The web version of El Sapo follows the common informal Peruvian shape, tuned for a screen:
- Ten fichas per turn, thrown one at a time.
- Three rounds in Quick Match; highest cumulative total wins.
- The mouth scores 10,000 and does not end the round — so a comeback stays possible, which makes for better games.
- Holes score 1,000 to 5,000, scaled by how close they sit to the toad, exactly as a traditional table would.
- Flip-traps on the front edge behave like the real thing: they swallow the ficha or tip it back out.
- Real physics. The fichas have mass, spin, bounce and friction, so the arc-it-and-drop-it advice above genuinely works in the game.
Practice mode gives you unlimited fichas and an optional aim guide, which is the fastest way to learn what a good arc feels like before you ever touch a real board.