Dominoes Rule Variations

Ask three families how they play dominoes and you may get three slightly different answers. None of them is wrong. Here are the differences we hear about most often, what each one does to the game, and which ones you can switch on in our free game under Settings → House rules.

Draw Game or Block Game

This is the big one. In the Draw game, a player who can't match either end draws from the boneyard until they can. In the Block game, the boneyard is never touched: if you can't play, you simply pass.

• The Draw game is the usual American kitchen-table game. Hands last longer, more of them end with someone going out, and being stuck costs you tiles.
• The Block game is older and sharper. With 14 tiles out of play, nobody knows what is missing, more hands end blocked, and points pile up quickly. Counting tiles matters even more.

Our game plays the Draw game unless you choose "Pass (Block game)" in Settings.

Leaving the Last Two Tiles in the Boneyard

Many players were taught that the last two tiles in the boneyard are never drawn. When only two are left, a player who can't play passes instead. The idea is that some tiles should always stay unknown, so that a player can't be sure exactly what their opponent holds near the end of a hand. It makes very little difference most of the time, but it does keep the end of a hand from turning into pure arithmetic.

Turn on "Leave the last 2 tiles in the boneyard" in Settings to play this way. It only applies to the Draw game, since nobody draws in the Block game anyway.

Playing to 100, 150 or 250

Our standard game ends when someone reaches 100 points, which usually takes four to eight hands. Some families play to 150, and in many homes the game goes to 250 over a long evening, or even to 500 across several. A longer game rewards steady play, because a single lucky hand matters less. You can choose 100, 150 or 250 in Settings.

Three or Four Players

The Draw game works well with three or four people. Each player takes five tiles instead of seven, so that enough tiles are left to draw from. Play passes around the table. A player who goes out scores the dots in everyone else's hands; in a blocked game, the player with the fewest dots scores the difference to each of the other hands, added together.

In our game, pick three or four players in Settings and the extra seats are filled by computer players. Four players can also play as two partnerships at a real table, with partners sitting opposite; our game keeps everyone on their own.

Other Variations You May Know

Who opens

We open every hand with the highest double. Some players have the winner of the previous hand lead any tile they like, and others draw tiles to decide who goes first. If nobody holds a double, some families reshuffle rather than opening with the highest tile.

Scoring a blocked game

We give the lighter hand the difference between the two hands. A common alternative gives the lighter hand all the dots in the heavier hand, which makes blocking more attractive. Another rounds every score to the nearest five.

Spinners and scoring by fives

If your family's game had the first double branching four ways, or you scored whenever the ends added up to a multiple of five, you were playing a close cousin of this game, often called All Fives or Muggins. Those games use the same tiles but count points during play.

Bigger sets

With a double-nine or double-twelve set, the same game works with more players and larger hands, but most groups that own big sets play Mexican Train or Chicken Foot instead.

The Rest of Our Settings

Besides house rules, Settings let you choose how strong the computer is (Easy, Normal or Hard), how fast it plays, and a deal number to play a particular deal again or share it with a friend. At the end of every hand, Show All Hands lets you see every tile, including the boneyard. New to the game? Start with the full rules.