How to Play Dominoes

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Have you only ever used domino tiles to make cool chain reactions, not to play the actual game they get their name from? Don’t worry! Dominoes is super easy to learn and a ton of fun to play. There are actually different variations of Dominoes, and we’ll walk you through how to play two of the most popular ones: Straight Dominoes and Mexican Train Dominoes.

Playing Straight Dominoes

• A double-12 set comes with 91 tiles, and a double-9 set comes with 55 tiles.
• If you need to buy a dominoes set, you can find one here.

• Because each game of dominoes involves playing several hands, trade off who shuffles at the beginning of each hand so everyone gets a turn.

Fun Fact: Every dot on a tile is an individual “pip.”

• Play on a hard surface if you can, as that will make it easier to stand the dominoes on edge in front of you.

• For example, if you lay down a tile with 3 pips on one side and 1 pip on the other but don't have any other tiles with 3 or 1 pips on a side, you wouldn't be able to take a turn unless someone else lays down a tile you can match.

• If you lay down a tile with a blank side, it can only be matched with another tile that also has a blank side. In some games, people choose to make the blanks “wild,” meaning you can ascribe any value to it. You can choose whichever option you like best!

Tip: If you start to run out of room on the table, you can lay down subsequent dominoes so that the line changes direction.

• In this way, you can end up with way more than 7 tiles in your hand during any given game.

• Though you may have won the round, that doesn't mean you've won the game! You'll have several hands to play before the entire game is finished.

• Because you have to get to 100 points before the game ends, there are multiple chances for every player to win rounds and ultimately come out victorious at the end!

Competing at Mexican Train Dominoes

• In Mexican Train, the game starts with the highest double-sided tile in the middle of the table. Each hand after that starts with the double-sided tile that is one number less than the one preceding it: the first hand starts with the double-12, the second hand starts with the double-11, the third hand starts with the double-10, and so on.

• Because there are so many rounds played in Mexican Train, have players take turns flipping and shuffling the tiles.

• Double-12: 2 to 3 players take 16 tiles each; 4 players take 15 tiles each; 5 players take 14 tiles each; 6 players take 12 tiles each; 7 players take 10 tiles each; 8 players take 9 tiles each.
• Double-9: 2 players take 15 tiles each; 3 players take 13 tiles each; 4 players take 10 tiles each.

• The “train yard” is also sometimes called the “bone pile.”
• Keep the tiles in the train yard face down.

• This starter tile is often referred to as the “engine tile.”
• Everyone can play off of the engine tile, though each person's personal train coming off of that engine tile isn't fair game to other players unless there is a marker on it, which appears when a player isn't able to take their turn.

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• The exception to the 1-tile per turn rule is if you lay down a double tile, meaning that the pips on each side of the tile are the same. If you lay down a double tile, take a second turn immediately and lay down an additional tile.

Using a Marker: If you can't take a turn even after drawing a tile from the train yard, place a small marker, like a penny, on your train. This means that other players can now play on your train as well as on their own. To remove the marker, you have to play a tile on your personal train and then it goes back to being just your own.

• A set of double-12 dominoes will have 13 rounds, and a set of double-9 dominoes will have 10 rounds.
• The only other way a round can end is if the entire train yard has been depleted and no one can make a move. In that case, everyone tallies up the pips left in their hand and those figures get added to the score sheet.

• The already-used double tiles just get mixed back in with the other tiles when you shuffle between rounds.

Printable Dominoes

Community Q&A

This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Picture dominoes is very similar to a game of straight dominoes with standard tiles. Instead of matching numbers, the players match pictures together. Just like in straight dominoes, you play until one person runs out of dominoes or nobody can make any more matches.

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In all fives, the goal is to make the open ends of the layout add up to either 5 or a multiple of 5. The players typically play to 100 or 200 points.

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A double 9 set is a domino set that comes with 55 dominoes, with the suits ranging from 0 (blank) to 9. A double 9 set allows you to play a larger variety of games than a double 6 set, which only contains 28 dominoes with suits ranging from 0 to 6. Dominoes also come in double 12 sets.

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Each dominoes game can have lots of variations depending on how you learned to play and who you're playing with, and that is okay! Just take a few moments to talk with your friends and make sure everyone agrees on the rules before you start playing.

Try playing dominoes online! It's a great way to play the game without having to actually own a set of dominoes.

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1. ↑https://iacac.fiu.edu/special-events/dodgeball-late-night-hospitality/straight-dominoes-rules-1.pdf
2. ↑https://iacac.fiu.edu/special-events/dodgeball-late-night-hospitality/straight-dominoes-rules-1.pdf
3. ↑https://www.dominorules.com/straight-dominoes
4. ↑https://www.dominorules.com/straight-dominoes
5. ↑https://www.dominorules.com/straight-dominoes
6. ↑https://www.dominorules.com/straight-dominoes
7. ↑https://youtu.be/9MeWPTqJsns?t=141
8. ↑https://youtu.be/9MeWPTqJsns?t=152
9. ↑https://youtu.be/0Ty6HHUxqKc?t=63

1. ↑https://www.fgbradleys.com/rules/rules4/Mexican%20Train%20dominoes%20-%20rules.pdf
2. ↑https://www.fgbradleys.com/rules/rules4/Mexican%20Train%20dominoes%20-%20rules.pdf
3. ↑https://www.mexicantrainrulesandstrategies.com
4. ↑https://www.mexicantrainrulesandstrategies.com
5. ↑https://www.mexicantrainrulesandstrategies.com
6. ↑https://www.mexicantrainrulesandstrategies.com
7. ↑https://youtu.be/0Ty6HHUxqKc?t=204

About This Article

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. This article has been viewed 3,018,085 times.

Dominoes is a fun game you can play with 2 to 8 players. The game starts with each player drawing one tile. Whoever draws the highest double, or tile with the same number on each end, goes first. If no player draws a double, the player whose tile has the most pips, or dots, goes first. Spread all of the tiles out face-down on the table. Each player draws 7 tiles from the pile for their hand. Then, the first player plays one tile from their hand face-up in the center of the table. The player to their left must play a tile that matches one end of the tile the first player played. The next player can play a tile off of either end of the chain. Doubles are played perpendicular to the chain. If a tile has a blank side, the blank side can only be played off of the blank side of another tile. If a player can’t play a tile from their hand, they draw one from the excess pile. If they’re able to play the tile, they can play it after drawing it. Otherwise, their turn is over. Once the excess pile is empty, players just pass if they can’t play a tile. Play continues like this until one player runs out of tiles first and wins the round. The other players count up the number of dots on the remaining tiles in their hand. Their scores are added up and awarded to the player who won the round, and a new round starts. Keep playing rounds until one player scores 100 or 250 points, depending on how long you want to play for. To learn how to play Mexican Train dominoes, read on!