Domino Games to Play with a Double-Six Set

A standard double-six set has 28 tiles, one for every pairing of 0 to 6. It is enough for dozens of games. These are the best, from the simplest to the most tactical.

The basics shared by most games

• Shuffle the tiles face down — the "boneyard".
• Each player draws a hand.
• Tiles are played end to end so that touching ends match.
• Doubles are usually placed crossways.

How to play dominoes — the basic game, step by step.

Block — the simplest game

2–4 players. Each takes 7 tiles (5 with four players). Take turns playing a matching tile on either end of the line. If you cannot play, you pass — there is no drawing. The first to empty their hand wins, scoring the pips left in everyone else's hands. If nobody can play, the lowest hand wins.

Draw — the classic

As Block, but if you cannot play, you draw from the boneyard until you can. Hands run longer and the game has more give. The game most people mean by "dominoes".

All Fives (Muggins)

2–4 players. The scoring game, and the favourite of serious domino players. Play as in Draw, but after each play, add up the open ends of the line. If the total is a multiple of five, you score it. The first spinner (the first double) can be played on all four sides, giving more ends to count. Games are often played to 61 or 121 points and pegged on a cribbage board.

All Threes, Fives and Threes

Variations on All Fives. In Fives and Threes, popular in British pubs, you score for multiples of five and three.

Bergen

2–4 players. Score when the two ends of the line match — a "double header" scores 2 points; a "triple header", with a double at one end, scores 3. First to 15 wins.

Matador

2–4 players. Instead of matching ends, the touching ends must add up to seven: a 4 goes against a 3, a 6 against a 1. Blanks are blocked except by matadors — the 0-0 and any tile adding up to seven (6-1, 5-2, 4-3) — which can be played anywhere.

Mexican Train

Up to 8 players — but it is designed for a double-twelve set of 91 tiles. Each player builds their own "train" out from a central hub, and a shared Mexican Train runs alongside. A short version plays well on a double-six set with two to four players. Mexican Train rules.

Solitaire dominoes

One player. Lay out tiles face up in rows and remove pairs that add up to twelve — the domino equivalent of patience.

Which game for how many

A good double-six set — heavy tiles with crisp pips — feels right in the hand and clacks properly on the table. That clack is half the pleasure.