🀄 Dominoes
🎲 Board · 0 playsDominoes
Match the open ends, count what has gone, and close the game at the right time.
About Dominoes
Dominoes is played by matching a tile to one of the open ends of the line, and the version here scores the pips left in your opponent's hand when you play out. Underneath the matching lies a counting game: seven tiles carry each number, so once you have seen most of the fives you can work out whether a five is safe to leave exposed. Watching which number an opponent passes on is the clearest information in the game, and leading that number repeatedly will lock them out. When your own hand is heavy, playing to block the line rather than to empty your hand is often the better route, since a blocked game is won by the lighter hand.
How to Play
Play a tile whose number matches one of the two open ends of the line. Draw from the boneyard when you cannot go, and pass if it runs out. Go out first, or hold the fewest pips when the game is blocked. Play continues to 100 points.
💡 Tips & Strategy
Count what has been played. Twenty-eight tiles with seven of each number means you can work out exactly which numbers are still live, and a player who tracks this knows what their opponent can and cannot answer.
Play your doubles early. A double is hard to place later and it is the tile most likely to be stranded in your hand when the game closes, which costs points.
Watch which number your opponent cannot follow. When they pass on a five, steering both ends of the chain to five forces them to keep drawing and hands you tempo for several turns.
Keep both ends of the chain in mind, not just the one you are playing to. Good players choose between two legal plays by asking which end it leaves open, not which tile they want to shed.