How to Play Block and Draw Dominoes

Block dominoes and draw dominoes are two of the easiest and most common domino games. Many other domino games are based on these two basic versions. You can play block or draw dominoes with any standard set of dominoes, including double six sets (28 dominoes, with double six as the highest domino), double nine sets (55 dominoes) or double twelve sets (91 dominoes). The more dominoes you have, the more table space the game will take, but having a large set of dominoes can be useful for playing games with four or more people, especially in the draw dominoes version.

Things You'll Need

• Domino set
• Table or large flat surface
• 2 or more players
• Paper and pencil

Instructions

1. Place all the dominoes face down on one end of the table and shuffle them. Leave the middle of the table empty, so you have room to play the game.

2. Have each player randomly pick 7 dominoes if you have two or three players, or 5 dominoes if you have four or more players. Place your dominoes on their sides with the dots facing toward you, so that only you can see them. The remaining dominoes are called "the stock" or "the boneyard."

3. Ask if anyone has the highest double domino (in a double six set, this would be the double six). If so, have that player place it face up on the table. If not, ask for the next highest double, until whoever has the highest double domino has played it. The player to the left takes the next turn.

4. Play one of your dominoes that matches the number of the domino on the board, if you can, by placing the matching dominoes end to end. In block dominoes, if you cannot play, you must pass. In draw dominoes, you must pick additional dominoes from the boneyard until you can play. When there are no dominoes left in the boneyard, then you must pass.

5. Continue playing, going around the table clockwise. If you want to play a double domino, place the double domino sideways rather than end to end. This allows players to continue playing on either end of the domino.

6. End the game when one player has used all of her dominoes, or when no one can play any dominoes.

7. Score the game by having everyone add up the number of dots on all the tiles they still have. The player with the lowest number of dots wins all the points of the other players, minus any points in his own hand.

Tips & Warnings

• If there is a tie between the score of two players, the player who has the tile with the lowest number of dots gets the points.

• After you have finished one round, you may want to start the game again and continue playing, adding each round’s score to the previous scores until one player reaches a total score of 100.

Resources

• Domino-games.com has rules for many domino games.