Types of domino games: nine ways to play one set
The same 28 tiles support games that feel nothing alike. Here is what separates them, and which one to reach for.
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Most people know one domino game and assume it is the game. It isn’t. A standard double-six set of 28 tiles supports dozens of distinct types of domino games, and the differences run far deeper than house rules. In some you win by emptying your hand. In others you score points on almost every turn. One is a trick-taking game with bidding that has more in common with bridge than with anything you’d call dominoes.
These are the nine you are most likely to meet, what separates them, and which set each one needs.
The nine games at a glance
| Game | Set | Players | You win by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | Double-six | 2–4 | Going out first, or the lightest hand if the board blocks |
| Draw | Double-six | 2–4 | The same, but you draw from the boneyard when stuck |
| All Fives (Muggins) | Double-six | 2–4 | Scoring whenever the open ends total a multiple of five |
| Fives and Threes | Double-six | 2–4 | Scoring on multiples of five and of three |
| Bergen | Double-six | 2–4 | Scoring by making both ends of the line match |
| Matador | Double-six | 2–4 | Going out, where touching ends must add up to seven |
| Mexican Train | Double-twelve | 2–8 | The lowest pip total after thirteen rounds |
| Chicken Foot | Double-nine | 2–8 | The lowest pip total across the rounds |
| Texas 42 | Double-six | 4, as partners | Taking the tricks your team bid for |
Two families: matching games and scoring games
Before the individual rules, one distinction does more to explain these games than any other. Every one of them belongs to one of two families.
Matching games are about getting rid of your tiles. You place a tile only if it fits an open end, points are counted once the round is over, and the whole game is a race to go out before your opponent does. Block, Draw, Matador, Mexican Train and Chicken Foot all work this way.
Scoring games reward the shape of the table as you play. After every tile you add up the open ends, and if the total hits the right number you score immediately. You still want to go out, but a player who scores well along the way can lose the race and win the game. All Fives, Fives and Threes and Bergen are scoring games.
If you like planning several moves ahead, pick a matching game. If you like arithmetic and short-term tactics, pick a scoring game. Most arguments about which game is “better” are really arguments about which family someone prefers.
Block dominoes
The oldest and plainest form, and the base every other game here is built on. Each player takes seven tiles, the highest double leads, and you must match one of the two open ends or pass. There is no drawing: the tiles nobody was dealt stay out of play for the whole round.
That last rule matters more than it sounds. With two players, only 14 of the 28 tiles ever reach the table, so numbers run out fast. When we simulated 10,000 two-player rounds, 57% of them ended with nobody able to move (the board had blocked) rather than with someone going out. Block rewards counting what has been played more than any other game on this list. The full rules of Block dominoes cover the deal, the lead and the blocked-board count in detail.
Draw dominoes
Draw is Block with a lifeline, and probably the version you were taught first. The undealt tiles form the boneyard, and when you can’t match an open end you take from it until you can. You may pass only once the boneyard is empty.
One rule changes the whole character of the game. In the same 10,000-round simulation, Draw blocked only 5.7% of the time, against 57% for Block, and rounds ran longer: 17.7 tiles reached the table on average, against 11.2. Draw is the more forgiving game, and a bad starting hand can recover in a way it rarely does in Block. The Draw dominoes rules include the common house rule about the last two tiles.
All Fives, or Muggins
The best-known scoring game. After you place a tile, add up the pips on every open end of the layout. If the total is a multiple of five, you score that total on the spot: a count of 15 scores 15. In most versions the first double is a spinner, which can be played off on all four sides, so the layout can have up to four open ends to add together.
The name comes from the penalty. You must announce your score as you play; forget, and any opponent who calls “Muggins!” takes the points instead. The word is old cribbage slang for a fool. Under the rules published in 1864, two players play to 200 and three or four play to 150, and the player who goes out also collects the pips left in opponents’ hands, rounded to the nearest five.
Fives and Threes
The pub game, especially in Britain, and traditionally scored on a cribbage board to 61. It works like All Fives, but you score for multiples of three as well as five, and you score the number of fives and threes rather than the total. A count of 15 contains five threes and three fives, so it scores 8, the highest single play in the game. A count of 6 scores 2 (two threes); a count of 10 scores 2 (two fives).
Doubles are played crosswise, and a double sitting at an open end counts both of its halves. That makes the double-six a heavy scoring piece when it lands at the right moment, and a dangerous one to leave an opponent.
Bergen
A quieter scoring game with an unusual target. Instead of adding the ends, you score when a tile makes both ends of the line show the same number: two points for that, and three if one of those ends is a double. It rewards reading which numbers your opponent can no longer answer, since a matched pair of ends is only worth making if they cannot break it.
Matador
Matador throws out the basic rule of dominoes. Tiles are not placed against a matching number; the two touching halves must add up to seven. A six goes against a one, a four against a three, a five against a two.
That leaves the blank with no partner, so blanks are closed to ordinary play. The tiles that can open them are the matadors: the double-blank and the three tiles whose halves already total seven, the 6–1, 5–2 and 4–3. A matador can be played at any time, on anything, which makes each one precious. Hold them until an opponent is close to going out.
Mexican Train
The social game of dominoes, and the one most likely to come out at a family gathering. It uses a double-twelve set of 91 tiles and seats up to eight. Every player builds their own train outward from a central hub, and a shared train, the Mexican Train itself, is open to everyone. The game runs thirteen rounds, starting with the double-twelve and working down to the double-blank, and the lowest total wins.
It has more moving parts than anything else here, so it has its own page: Mexican Train dominoes rules, with the deal for every player count and the double rule that catches almost everyone.
Chicken Foot
A close cousin of Mexican Train, usually played with a double-nine set. Each round starts with a double in the centre, and all four sides of it must be filled before play goes anywhere else.
The defining rule arrives when someone plays another double. Play everywhere stops until three tiles of that number have been added to the double’s far side, splaying out like the toes of a chicken’s foot. It forces everyone to deal with the double at once, and it can leave you drawing for a tile you do not have. Holding the double-blank at the end of a round costs 50 points.
Texas 42
The outlier. 42 is played by four people in two partnerships with a double-six set, and it is a trick-taking game with bidding: players bid on how many points their team will take, then play tiles one at a time much as they would play cards. By one account it was invented in Garner, Texas in 1887 by two boys looking for a game that avoided playing cards, which were frowned on by many Protestants at the time. In 2011 Texas made it the official State Domino Game.
Which domino game should you play?
It depends almost entirely on how many of you there are and what you enjoy.
- Two people, new to dominoes: start with Block. It has the fewest rules and it teaches the habit that matters most in every other game, which is keeping track of what has been played. Move to Draw when Block starts to feel short.
- You like arithmetic: Fives and Threes, or All Fives if you want bigger numbers and longer games.
- Five or more players, or mixed ages: Mexican Train. Nobody sits out, and a weak player is never knocked out of a round.
- Four regulars who enjoy card games: Texas 42.
Whichever you choose, the skill that transfers between them is the same one. Every game above rewards remembering which numbers have gone. Our dominoes strategy guide starts from exactly that.
How many tiles does each game need?
Seven of the nine games use the standard double-six set of 28 tiles. Mexican Train needs a double-twelve set (91 tiles) and Chicken Foot is usually played with a double-nine (55 tiles), because both seat more people than 28 tiles can supply. If you are buying one set, buy a double-six. If you host big groups, add a double-twelve for Mexican Train. The guide to how many dominoes are in a set works through every size.