Block Dominoes

Block Dominoes Sometimes called bones or just plain old “dominoes,” this is the dominant form of the game played informally at parties or other gatherings. This is generally the game you see being played in saloons and jails in the old movies, and it’s a kind of precursor to tons of other dominoes variations. Most variants of dominoes follow the template of block. Here’s how it works – the dominoes are shuffled facedown, and each player (up to four per game) draws seven tiles and keeps them hidden from the other players. If only two or three players are playing, PGSGAME168 the leftover dominoes are formed into a pile known as the boneyard. Lead starts with the double-six, and players take turns laying tiles onto the open ends of the layout, same number to same number. Doubles are often placed horizontally, and play can continue off these tiles in any open direction. The purpose of most games of block is to form combinations of pip totals in units of 5 – 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc. Players score by creating pip totals in these five-pip chunks, and by being the first to relieve themselves of their stack – they then earn the pip total remaining in their opponents’ hand. While scoring variations and house rules abound, this is the basic pattern for folk dominoes games and by far the most common way the game is played in North America.