A beginner's guide to Dominoes. Featuring the rules of the game, the tile value, and information on the rounds of the game.

DRAW

In a Draw game, the aim of the game is to be the first player to put down all of your Dominoes.

There are 28 unique tiles in a dominoes set. Each player begins with seven, drawn at random, and any remaining dominoes are placed into the boneyard.

 

Dominoes are placed face down or in a rack facing the player, so that all players can see how many tiles their opponents have remaining but can only see the pips on their own.

 

The player who has drawn the highest double (tile with the same number of pips on each side) begins the game by placing it, face-up, in the middle of the table. If no player has a highest double, the player with the highest value tile will go first. This creates the "line of play" and the other players, in turn, extend it by selecting tiles from their hand with matching numbers of pips on one side and placing them against the tile on the board.

In this example, the next player would need to either place a tile with 5 pips on the left, or 1 on the right.

 

If a player can't place any of their tiles on their turn, they must take a new one from the boneyard until they get a playable tile. Once the boneyard is empty, they pass. Play goes on like this until one player wins the round by downing their last tile.

 

If no player can make a move, then the round is blocked, and the winner is the player with the lowest pip count on their remaining tiles.

 

The winner's score is the total pip count of all the dominoes the losing player or players have in their hands. Games continue with new rounds until a player reaches the target score of 60.

BLOCK

A Block game follows the same rules as Draw, but there is no boneyard, so players cannot draw new tiles.

 

ALL THREES

In an All Threes game, points can be earned at the end of every turn by totaling the number of pips at each open end of the chain. If this edge value is a multiple of 3, then the player scores that number of points.

 

In this example, the edge score is 5 + 4 + 3 + 3 = 15, so the person who last played scored 15 points. For their next turn the player could play any tile which has a 5, 4 or a 3 on either end. A point-scoring move in All Threes would be to play 3-3 on the right, bringing the edge score to 5 + 4 + 3 + 6 = 18.

 

In some circumstances a player might choose to make lower scoring or non-scoring, but strategic moves. This could serve to block other players, bluff about the tiles they have in hand, or save the most valuable tiles for later when they may be worth more points.

 

As with Draw and Block games, the round ends either when a player downs their last tile, or the round is blocked. The winner receives the total of their opponents' pips, rounded up or down to the nearest 3. Games continue with new rounds until a player reaches the target score of 90.

ALL FIVES

All Fives games follow the same rules as All Threes, but players only score points when the edge score is a multiple of five - 5,10, 15 or 20. At the end of the round, points won are rounded up or down to the nearest 5. Games continue with new rounds until a player reaches the target score of 100.

SPINNERS

Double tiles are always placed at right angles to the other tiles. In All Threes or All Fives, the first double tile played is called a 'spinner'. Once tiles have been played off both sides of a spinner, the line of play can then branch out in four directions by playing tiles off each end of a spinner.

 

TIP

As a round of dominoes goes on, a canny player will be able to guess their opponents' hands by surveying the tiles already played and noting when other players have to draw or pass. This allows for strategic moves to block other players.