Tool 01 · Squares
25 square pool
Five by five, for a family room rather than an office.
How it works
- 01
Set the game
Name the pool and type in the two teams. Everything else is optional.
- 02
Get the names in
Tap squares one at a time, or paste a list like “Jamie x5” and draw at random.
- 03
Draw the numbers
Do this after the squares are sold. Both axes are drawn with your browser's secure randomness.
- 04
Print or send it
A clean sheet as PNG, PDF or paper. No ads, no menus, no site chrome.
Four endings per square
A 25 square sheet is five by five, and both axes carry two digits. That is the whole trick, and it is worth understanding before you run one, because it changes what a square feels like to own.
On a hundred-box sheet your square wins on one exact pair of final digits. Here it wins on four. A square sitting on columns 1 and 6 and rows 0 and 5 takes a 21–10 game, a 31–25 game, a 16–30 game and a 26–15 game. One in twenty-five, four ways.
That makes the sheet livelier. On a hundred boxes most people are out of it by the second quarter and know it; on twenty-five, almost everyone is still plausibly in until the scores land. With five to ten people in the room, that is the right feeling to be chasing.
The trade is precision. Because both axes are doubled, a square can win a quarter on a score nobody expected, and explaining why takes a sentence rather than a glance. Print the sheet after the draw so the digit pairs are written down where everyone can see them — it turns a confusing win into an obvious one.
Bigger group? A 50 square sheet keeps one axis exact, and the full hundred gives every square a single ending of its own. The rules work the same way at every size.
Questions
How can 25 squares cover 100 possible endings?
Both axes carry two digits instead of one. A column might be 1 and 6, a row might be 0 and 5. That makes each square responsible for four different digit pairs — 1-0, 1-5, 6-0 and 6-5 in that example. Twenty-five squares times four pairs is a hundred, so every ending still has exactly one owner.
Is a 25 square pool good for kids?
It is the size most families land on. Everyone in the room can hold a square or two, the sheet is readable from across a kitchen, and nobody has to buy five boxes to feel involved. Keep the buy-in small or make it free and play for the last slice of pizza.