Block Dominoes

Players and equipment

Two to four players and a double-six set of 28 tiles: every pairing of the numbers blank to six, seven doubles among them. The plainest domino game there is — no drawing, no spinners, just the line growing across the table. The spots on a tile are its pips, its two halves are its ends, a double has the same number on both ends, and a tile is heavy or light by how many pips it carries. You also want something to keep score on.

The deal

Tiles face down, shuffled by hand on the table. Seven each for two players, five each for three or four. The rest stay face down and out of the game — in Block, the boneyard is never touched. Stand your tiles on their edges so that only you can see them.

Play

Whoever holds the highest double leads it; if nobody holds a double, the heaviest tile leads. Play then goes to the left. In turn, each player adds a tile to either end of the line, matching pips to the open end: with a five at one end and a two at the other, any tile carrying a five or a two can be played, the matching end against the line and the other end facing out to become the new open end. A double is laid across the line but plays like any other tile — the next tile on that end matches its number, and nothing is played off its sides.

Cannot match either end? Knock and pass — there is no drawing. You may not pass while you hold a tile that fits. The hand ends when somebody plays their last tile, which is going out, or when the line blocks: nobody can play at all, and everybody has knocked in turn.

Who leads the next hand is a table's own habit — the winner of the last one, or the next player round — and the tiles are shuffled and dealt again.

Scoring

Only the winner of a hand scores, and what they score is the pips the others are left holding.

Going out

The pips left in every other hand

Playing your last tile

A blocked hand

The difference from each other hand

Lightest hand wins

A blocked tie

Nobody scores; redeal

Two hands equally light

Count a double as its full pips — the 6-6 is twelve against you, which is why it gets played early and mourned late. A player who goes out holds nothing, so the difference from each other hand is simply everything in it.

A worked hand

Three players, five tiles each, and the line blocks with everybody holding something.

Alice

10 + 6 = 16

6-4 and 3-3 left

Ben

7

5-2 left

Cara

12 + 5 + 2 = 19

6-6, 4-1 and 2-0 left

Ben scores

9 + 12 = 21

16 minus 7, then 19 minus 7

Ben has the lightest hand, so the hand is his. He takes the difference between his seven and each of the others: nine from Alice and twelve from Cara, twenty-one in all. Alice and Cara score nothing. Cara's double-six, twelve pips on one tile, is more than half of what she gave away, which is the lesson of the game in a single tile.

The totals build over the hands. In the first hand Alice went out while Ben held nine pips and Cara fourteen, so Alice scored 23. The second is the blocked hand above, 21 to Ben. In the third Cara goes out with Alice holding five and Ben eleven, so Cara scores 16. Three hands in, the totals are Alice 23, Ben 21 and Cara 16, playing to 61 — most of the way still to go, and nobody out of it.

Ending

First to an agreed total wins: 100 is the usual line for two players or two partnerships, 61 for three or four. A quick game plays a fixed number of hands and takes the highest total. Keeping score on SquareScores, set the target when you launch the game and the app ends the match at the line.

Play the heavy tiles early

Every pip left in your hand at the end is a point to somebody else, so the tiles you most want rid of are the heavy ones — the 6-5, the 6-6, the 5-5. Play them the moment they fit, and when you have a choice of tiles to play, play the heavier one unless there is a strong reason not to. A hand that goes out gains nothing extra for the tiles it went out with; a hand that gets blocked pays for every pip it kept.

Doubles

A double matches only one number, so it is the hardest kind of tile to place, and a double left in your hand at the end counts its full weight. Play doubles as soon as an end offers the chance, and lead with your heaviest double when you have the lead. The one time to hold a double is when it belongs to a number you are long in: if you hold four of the sixes, the 6-6 can wait, because you will have other chances to play it and it is a tile nobody else can use against you.

Counting suits

There are seven tiles carrying each number, and you can see the ones in your hand and the ones on the table, so you always know how many of a number are still out. If six of the fives are in view, the one left is either in one opponent's hand or nowhere, and an end showing five is nearly dead. Turning both ends of the line to a number you hold plenty of, or to one that has run out, is how you make the other players knock while you keep playing.

Blocking

When your hand is light and the others look heavy, a blocked hand can be worth more to you than going out. A pass is information: a player who knocked when a four was open holds no fours, and will still hold none next turn unless the ends change. Steer the ends towards the numbers the others have passed on and towards numbers you hold most of. When your hand is heavy, do the opposite: keep the ends open on numbers that are plentiful, so that the hand runs to somebody going out rather than everybody being counted.

Draw Dominoes

The boneyard comes into play. A player who cannot match either end draws tiles from it one at a time until they draw one that fits, and plays it; only when the boneyard is empty does a player who cannot play knock and pass. Many tables leave the last two tiles in the boneyard undrawn. It gives a stuck player a way back and makes blocked hands rarer, and the scoring is otherwise the same.

All Fives

Also called Muggins. As well as the count at the end, you score during the hand whenever the pips on the open ends of the line add up to a multiple of five — a five and a blank, a six and a four, a double counted with both its ends — scoring that total at once. A score that goes unclaimed can be taken by the next player who calls muggins. It plays to a higher total, often 250, and is usually pegged on a cribbage board.

Mexican Train

A game for a bigger table with a bigger set, where every player builds their own train out from a central double and there is a shared train anybody may play on. It has its own page here.

Double-nine sets

A double-nine set has 55 tiles and ten numbers, blank to nine, so the hands can be larger and the table can be too: deal seven or more each and there is still a boneyard. Doubles run up to eighteen pips, which makes the end count sharper and a blocked hand costlier.

Partnership Dominoes

Four players in two pairs, partners sitting opposite, with the two hands of a pair counted together at the end. A partner can leave an end open for the other to use and can steer the line to block the opposing pair. It has its own page here.

Winner takes all

In a blocked hand some tables give the lightest hand the full count of every other hand rather than the difference, so the winner's own pips are not taken off. It makes a blocked hand pay the same as going out and is worth agreeing before the first tile is turned.

How many dominoes do you start with in Block Dominoes?

Seven each with two players and five each with three or four, from a double-six set of 28. The tiles left over stay face down and are not used for anything in the block game.

Who goes first in dominoes?

Whoever holds the highest double leads with it. If nobody was dealt a double, the heaviest tile — the one with the most pips — leads instead. After the first hand, tables differ: some let the winner of the last hand lead, others pass the lead round to the left.

What happens when nobody can play?

The hand is blocked, and everybody counts the pips left in their hand. The player with the fewest wins the hand and scores the difference between their count and each of the others. If two players are level on the fewest, nobody scores and the tiles are shuffled and dealt again.

What is the boneyard and do you use it?

The boneyard is the pile of face-down tiles left after the deal. In Block Dominoes it is never touched: a player who cannot play simply knocks and passes. The game where you draw from it when stuck is Draw Dominoes, and that is the main difference between the two.

How do you score in Block Dominoes?

Only the winner of a hand scores. A player who goes out by playing their last tile scores every pip left in the other hands; the winner of a blocked hand scores the difference between their own pips and each other player's. Doubles count their full pips, so the double-six is twelve. Play to 100 with two players or 61 with three or four.

Do you have to play a tile if you can?

Yes. You may only knock and pass when neither end of the line matches any tile you hold. Holding back a tile that fits in order to block the table later is against the rules of the game, not merely poor manners.

What is the difference between Block and Draw Dominoes?

Only what happens when you cannot play. In Block you pass; in Draw you take tiles from the boneyard until you find one that fits. Everything else — the lead, the matching, doubles laid across the line, the scoring at the end — is the same in both.