Domino Games

PIP - The Ultimate Domino Game

Price: $25.98*
(Are You Game)

PIP takes over where the other domino games leave off! PIP consists of a 70-piece set of professional size, Double 9 tiles with uniform-sized colored dots, and includes 15 special dominoes that act as wild and special action dominos.

Merchant: Are You Game

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Great Book of Domino Games

Price: $24.99*
(KB Toys)

The Great Book of Domino Games includes a 55-piece Double-9 domino set. This 96-page book has rules to 68 domino games, 55 of which can be played with the attached domino set. A domino centerpiece is included.

Merchant: KB Toys

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Wildfire Dominoes Game with Aluminum Case

Sale Price: $27.99*
Retail: $34.99 (20% off!)
(OhToy)

Dominoes have never been so WILD! Wildfire Domino game is the newest domino game with wilds and features a unique electronic hub which plays “fire” sounds in the background. The hub also calls out what the “wild” numbers are going to be during play.

Merchant: OhToy

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Thomas & Friends Domino Game

Sale Price: $10.39*
Retail: $12.99 (20% off!)
(Stuff Kids Like)

Thomas & Friends Domino Game

Merchant: Stuff Kids Like

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Great Book of Domino Games

Price: $24.99*
(ToysRUs)

Great Book of Domino Games

Merchant: ToysRUs

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Scholastic Teachers Friend Dominoes - Beginning Letter Sounds - Grades Pre-K-1

Price: $12.99*
(Office Depot, Inc)

Add fun to learning with this set of 66 colorful domino cards that reinforce phonemic awareness. Following the rules of the classic game, children match cards with the same beginning letter sounds.

Merchant: Office Depot, Inc

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Common domino games

Most domino games are block games or draw games. In draw games, players draw from the boneyard when they have no matching bone. In block games, players pass and forfeit the turn when they have no matching bone. Otherwise, there is no difference. Both generally consist of several hands of dominoes played until one of the players accumulates an agreed upon number of points and wins the series. Points are generally earned only by the first player in each hand to go out (play his or her last bone, also called to domino) and win the hand. The primary object is thus to play all one's bones before an opponent does.

There are many existing rules for determining which player is the leader (or downer), the player to make the first play of the hand. In some rules, the lead is determined by lottery. The bones are shuffled face down on the table, and each player draws one bone. The player with the highest double, or heaviest bone, or other agreed upon prize is designated the leader. By this rule, the leader then reshuffles the bones before the final deal. By other rules, the final deal determines the leader. Playing the first bone of a hand is sometimes called setting the first bone, leading the first bone, downing the first bone, or posing the first bone, and the bone so set, led, downed, or posed is called the set, the lead, the down, or the pose. After the first hand, the winner of the previous hand is usually the leader for the next. By some rules, however, the lead rotates player to player across hands.

After the final shuffle the bones are dealt; each player in turn draws the number of bones required. The stock of bones left behind is called the boneyard, and the bones therein are said to be sleeping. If the leader was determined by lottery, the leader sets by placing any bone face up on the table. If the leader was not determined by lottery, the player with the highest double leads with that double, and if no player has a double, the hand is reshuffled and redealt.

The next player, and all players in turn, must play a bone with an end that matches one of the open ends of the layout. Play continues until one of the players goes out (and calls "out!" or "domino!") and wins the hand or until all the players are blocked. If all the players are blocked the player with the lightest hand wins.

In block games, players who cannot match on their turn must forfeit the turn by knocking (passing)--accomplished by rapping twice on the table or by saying, "go" or "pass". In draw games, players who cannot match must draw bones from the boneyard until obtaining a playable bone. According to most rules, the last two bones in the boneyard may not be drawn. If the boneyard is exhausted (only two bones left), the player knocks.

The winning player scores a point for each pip on each bone still held by each opponent. If no player went out, however, and the win was determined by the lightest hand, the winning player sometimes scores a point for each pip on each bone still held by each opponent, and sometimes only the excess held by opponents. A game is generally played to 100 points, the tally being kept with paper and pencil or on a cribbage board.

Muggins (or, All Fives or Five Up)

Points are earned when a player plays a bone with the result that the count (the sum of all open ends) is a multiple of five. The points earned are equal to the sum of the ends. Therefore, if in the course of play a player plays a bone that makes the sum of the ends 5, 10, 15 or 20, the player scores that number. All pips on a crosswise doublet are included in the count.

Each player takes five bones (four players) or seven bones (two players). If the leader plays the 6-4, 5-5, 5-0, 4-1, or 3-2, the count is evenly divisible by five and so the player scores. If, later, the ends before play are 2 and 4, the next player can play the 4-4 crosswise and score 10. Each player must play if holding a matching bone. A player who cannot match must draw until obtaining a playable bone. Scores are called and taken immediately.

The player who goes out wins additional points based on the pips still in other players' hands. Each opponent's hand is rounded to the nearest multiple of five and the result is given the winner. For example, the winner scores 25 for 27 pips in an opponent's hand and 30 for 28 points. If all players are blocked, the lightest hand wins, still earning points based on the pips in opponents' hands.

All Threes

All Threes is played in the same manner as Muggins, except that points are earned for multiples of three.

Fives and Threes

Fives and Threes is similar to Muggins and All Threes, but points are scored for multiples of five and multiples of three at the open ends. Multiples of five and multiples of three are worth one point each. These can be scored in combination, however. If Player A plays the 6-5 and Player B the 6-1, then Player B scores 2 points because 5 and 1 sum to six (two threes). Player A then plays the 1-5 and earns 2 points because 5 and 5 sum to 10 (two fives). If Player B then plays the 5-5 crosswise, Player B scores 8 points, 5 for five threes and 3 for three fives.

Fives and Threes can be played with or without a sniff (see Playing a domino piece). Games are often played to 31, 61, or 121 points using a cribbage board to score.

Matador

Matador, meaning "killer" (of the bull in a bull fight) in Spanish, is a common draw game with the usual object of going out first and collecting points based on the bones still in ones opponents hands. The rules governing play of a bone, however, are different.

New bones are not played matching end to matching end. Instead, bones are played so that the sum of the open end and the new end touching it sum to seven. If one of the open ends is a 3, for example, any bone with a 4 can be placed abutted with the 3. If a 4-2 is played, the 4 is placed against the 3 and the 2 becomes the new open end. As Matador is played with bones no higher than six, a blank means the blocking of that end because there is no tile that can sum with zero to seven. No further play can take place at that end excepting by playing a matador, which may be played at any time.

There are four matadors, the 6-1, 5-2, 4-3 and 0-0--that is, all the tiles whose two ends sum to 7 and the 0-0. It is often better to draw one or more fresh bones than to play one's last matador, as it may save the game at a critical juncture. In playing, a double counts as a single number only, but in scoring the full number of pips is counted. When the game has been definitely blocked the player with the lightest hand scores the number of the combined hands (sometimes only the excess in his opponent's hand), the game being usually 100. Matador can be played by three people, in which case the two having the lowest scores usually combine against the threatening winner; and also by four, either each player against all others or two on a side.

A player who cannot make a seven on either end must draw from the boneyard until securing a playable bone (although two bones must remain in the boneyard). If the boneyard is exhausted, the player must knock. A player may also draw a bone even when holding a playable bone.

Dominoes (or "dominos") generally refers to the individual or collective gaming pieces making up a domino set (sometimes called a deck or pack) or to the games played with these pieces. (In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two squares edge to edge.) Standard domino sets consist of 28 pieces called bones, cards, tiles, stones, spinners or dominoes. Each bone is a rectangular tile with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of black spots (also called pips) or is blank. The spots are generally arranged as they are on six-sided dice, but because there are also blank ends having no spots there are normally seven possible faces. Standard domino sets have ends ranging from zero spots to six spots (double six set), but specialized sets might range from zero to nine (double nine set), zero to twelve (double twelve set), zero to fifteen (double fifteen set), or zero to eighteen (double eighteen set). The back side of a domino is generally plain. Dominoes have been made of bone, ivory, plastic, metal and wood, and occasionally are made of cardstock like that for playing cards. Dominoes are rather generic gaming devices--just as are playing cards. Many different games can be played with a set of dominoes.