How to play
Dominoes
Also known as Domino, Bones, Tiles, Block Dominoes, Draw Dominoes
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- On Google Play since 2022
- Free to play
What is Dominoes?
Dominoes is a family of games played with rectangular tiles whose faces are split into two ends, each marked with a number of pips. The most widely used set is the double-six: 28 tiles running from blank-blank to six-six. Block and draw are the two basic games, and most other domino games layer extra scoring or extra shapes onto the same idea of matching one end to another.
How to play Dominoes
Setting up the board
A double-six set holds 28 tiles, one for every pairing of the numbers 0 through 6, including the seven doubles. Shuffle them face down and let each player draw a hand: seven tiles each is standard for two players, while three or four players usually take five or six, though hand sizes vary between rule books. Whatever is left stays face down as the boneyard.
The rules, step by step
- Decide who opens. The common convention is that the player holding the highest double lays it first; many rule sets simply have everyone draw a tile and give the lead to the highest.
- On each turn after that, add one tile to either open end of the line, matching the number you touch, so a 5 must be laid against a 5.
- Doubles are placed crosswise, at right angles to the line. In plain block and draw games they are not spinners, so the line still has only two open ends.
- In the draw game, a player who cannot go takes tiles from the boneyard one at a time until a playable tile appears; by convention the last two tiles are left undrawn.
- In the block game there is no drawing at all. A player with no matching tile simply passes and the turn moves on.
- The round ends the moment someone plays their last tile and calls domino, or when the game is blocked because nobody in turn is able to play.
How to win
A round is won by the first player to shed every tile, or, if the game blocks, by whoever is left holding the fewest pips. The winner scores the pips remaining in the opponents' hands, with some rule sets subtracting their own leftover pips, and rounds continue until a player or partnership reaches an agreed target such as 100 or 250 points.
Strategy tips
- Track what has been played, and pay even more attention to what opponents pass or draw on, because that tells you exactly which numbers they cannot match.
- Lead from your longest suit. If you hold four fives, opening on a five keeps the line running on a number you can always answer.
- Get your heavy doubles out early. A double matches only one number, so a 6-6 stranded in your hand at the end is twelve pips of scoring handed to someone else.
- Once you know a number is short in an opponent's hand, try to leave that number on both open ends, which forces them to pass or draw.
- In the block game especially, count the tiles that are gone before you commit; with no boneyard to rescue you, a hand that cannot match the line is dead weight.
Origin and history
Domino tiles are recorded in China long before they appear in Europe; the earliest known mention comes from Former Events in Wulin, written by the Song-era author Zhou Mi (1232-1298).
Chinese sets are built from the 21 combinations of a pair of dice and contain no blanks, so they are not the same object as the modern Western set.
The European 28-tile double-six set, which adds the blank suit, appears in 18th-century Italy, with Venice and Naples the usual attributions, and passed from there to France where the game became a craze.
It reached Britain in the late 1700s, reportedly carried by French prisoners of war, and historians have not established a confirmed link between the Chinese and European traditions.
Frequently asked questions
The standard double-six set has 28 tiles, covering every pair of numbers from blank to six. Two players normally draw seven each, while three or four players take smaller hands, commonly five or six, and everything left over becomes the boneyard. Larger sets exist for bigger groups, notably double-nine with 55 tiles and double-twelve with 91.
That is the main split between the two basic games. In the draw game you must take tiles from the boneyard one at a time until you can play, stopping once the boneyard is down to its agreed minimum, usually two tiles. In the block game there is no stock to draw from, so you pass and play moves on to the next person.
Whoever goes out scores the total pips left in all the other hands, and some rule sets have the winner subtract their own remaining pips from that total. If the game is blocked instead, the player with the lowest pip count wins the round and scores the same way. Rounds are repeated up to an agreed target, with 100 and 250 both common.
Only the boneyard. In block dominoes the leftover tiles are dead and a stuck player must pass, whereas in draw dominoes a stuck player keeps drawing until they can move. Draw is the more forgiving game because a poor hand can be improved, while block rewards careful counting and blocking.
Not in plain block and draw dominoes, where a double is laid crosswise but the line still has only two open ends. Games such as All Fives and Muggins make the first double a spinner that can be played on all four sides, and Mexican Train treats doubles differently again.
