Mexican Train

Players and equipment

Two to ten players and a double-twelve set of dominoes, which is 91 tiles running from the double-blank up to the double-twelve. You also want a hub for the middle — most sets come with one — and a small marker for each player: a coin, or the little plastic trains from the box. Every player builds a personal train, and there is one shared train for the whole table, the Mexican train.

The deal

A game is a set of rounds, one for each double in the set. The first round starts from the double-twelve, the next from the double-eleven, and so on down to the double-blank, which makes thirteen rounds. Put the round's double in the hub. Shuffle the rest face down and draw hands, as evenly as the table allows: a common guide is fifteen each for two to four players, twelve for five or six, ten for seven or eight, and eight for nine or ten. Whatever is left is the boneyard, face down, to draw from when you cannot play.

Stand your tiles on edge so only you can see them. Agree who plays first in the first round; after that the start passes one seat to the left each round.

Play

On your first turn, build your own train out from the hub, matching end to end, and lay as many tiles as your hand allows in one line. A tile plays if one of its ends matches the open end of the train: a train from the double-nine begins with a tile carrying a nine, and the next tile matches the other end of that one.

After the first turn it is one tile a turn, on your own train, on the Mexican train, or on any train wearing a marker. The Mexican train is a shared train that anybody may start from the hub at any time with a tile matching the round's double, and once started anybody may add to it. It is never marked and never closed.

If you cannot play, draw one tile from the boneyard. If it plays, play it. If not, keep it and put your marker on the end of your train: your train is now public, and anybody may play on it, until you next play a tile on it yourself and take the marker off. With the boneyard empty, your marker goes on and the turn passes.

A double is a tile with the same number at both ends. It is laid crosswise, and it must be covered — satisfied, in the game's word — by the next tile played, before any other play is legal. If the next player cannot cover it, they draw, and if they still cannot they mark their own train and the job passes on round the table until somebody covers it.

Scoring

The round ends the moment a player plays their last tile, or when nobody can play and the boneyard is empty. Everybody else adds up the spots on the tiles still in their hand — the spots are called pips — and writes that number down against themselves.

Going out

0 this round

Playing your last tile

Everyone else

Against you

The pips left in hand

The double-blank

50 against you

Where the table plays it hot

The double-blank has no spots and would otherwise be a free tile to be caught with, so many tables score it as fifty; agree before the first round whether you play it that way.

A worked round

Four players, playing the round of the double-nine. Cara plays her last tile, so the round ends and the other three count what they hold.

Cara

0

Went out

Dev

13

The 2–2 and the 5–4 left

Alice

20

The 4–1, the 6–6 and the 3–0 left

Ben

23

The 12–11, one tile

Dev's two tiles carry four spots and nine, which is thirteen. Alice's three carry five, twelve and three, which is twenty. Ben is down to one tile, but it is the heaviest in the set and costs him twenty-three, more than Alice's three together — what you are caught holding matters far more than how many.

The totals run on from round to round. Suppose the first four rounds go like this:

Alice

69

20, then 31, then went out, then 18

Ben

72

23, then 15, then 22, then 12

Cara

82

Went out, then 27, then 14, then 41

Dev

57

13, then 8, then 36, then went out

After four rounds Dev leads on 57 and Cara, who won the first round outright, is last on 82. Nine rounds remain, and one bad round of forty or fifty undoes three good ones. Keeping score on SquareScores, each round is a row on the table, everybody enters their own count, and the lowest total wins.

Ending

Lowest total after all thirteen rounds wins. Shorter games start at the double-nine and play ten rounds.

Sort your tiles into a train before you play

The first turn is the big one: the more tiles you lay in that first line, the fewer you are left to get rid of one at a time. So before anyone plays, find the tiles that match the round's double, try each as the start of a line, and look for the arrangement that uses the most tiles. A player who lays nine tiles on the first turn and holds three is in a different game from one who lays four and holds eight.

Doubles

A double has to be covered by a tile matching its number, so a double you hold is only safe to play if you also hold a tile to cover it. Where the table lets you play a second tile straight after a double, a common rule described below, that is two tiles gone in one turn. Playing a double nobody can cover late in a round stalls the whole table and leaves everybody marking their trains: fine if you are ahead, dangerous if you are not. Doubles are also heavy to be caught with — the 12–12 is twenty-four against you — so get the big ones out early.

When to open the Mexican train

Starting the Mexican train costs you a tile, which is good, but it gives everybody else a second place to play, which is not. Open it when you cannot play anywhere else and would otherwise have to draw, or when the tile you would start it with is one nobody else seems able to use. Opening it early with a common number on the end hands three or four opponents a way to keep their markers off.

Keep your marker off your own train

A marked train is a public train, and the players who are stuck will empty their hands onto it while you watch. So before you play on the Mexican train or somebody else's, ask whether you will still be able to play on your own train next turn, and keep a spare tile that matches its end for as long as you can. When your train is marked, play on it as soon as you can to take the marker off.

The endgame

With a few tiles left, count spots rather than tiles. If you cannot go out this turn, play the heaviest tile you can, because that is what you will be caught with if somebody else finishes first. When somebody is down to one tile the round may end at their next turn, so dump your biggest tile now.

Playing a double earns another play

Many tables let a player who lays a double play a second tile straight away, and require them to: the double is covered by its own player where possible, and only if they cannot does the duty pass to the next player. It makes doubles a way of shedding two tiles in a turn instead of a hazard for the table.

Whoever holds the double starts

Instead of the round's double going in the hub by right, all the tiles are shuffled and drawn, and the player holding it plays it to start. If nobody holds it, players draw from the boneyard in turn until somebody finds it.

The double closes its own train only

A gentler reading of the double rule: an uncovered double closes the train it sits on and nothing else, so play continues elsewhere and the double waits for a matching tile. A train can stand closed for several turns.

One tile on the first turn

Every turn is one tile, the first included. A slower and more even game, with much less depending on the shuffle, and a good version for a table with children at it.

A smaller set

A double-nine set of 55 tiles plays the same game in ten rounds, from the double-nine down, with about eight tiles each. Two to four players find it a better fit.

How many dominoes do you start with in Mexican Train?

It depends on how many are playing. With a double-twelve set, a common guide is fifteen tiles each for two to four players, twelve for five or six, ten for seven or eight, and eight for nine or ten. The rest go face down as the boneyard to draw from.

What happens when you cannot play in Mexican Train?

Draw one tile from the boneyard. If it plays, play it. If not, keep it and put your marker on your train, which makes your train public: anybody may play on it until you next play a tile on it yourself.

What is the Mexican train?

A shared train that anyone may start from the hub at any time with a tile matching the round's double. Once started, anybody may add to it. It never carries a marker and never closes, and it is a second place to play when your own train is stuck — which is why you should think twice before opening it for everyone else.

Do you have to satisfy a double in Mexican Train?

Yes. A double must be covered by the next tile played, and nothing else may be played anywhere until it is. If the next player cannot cover it, they draw, and if that does not cover it either they mark their train and the duty passes on. Many tables let the player who laid the double cover it themselves with a second tile; agree which you are playing before you start.

How do you score Mexican Train?

Nobody scores for winning a round. The player who goes out writes down nothing, and everybody else adds up the spots on the tiles still in their hand and writes that against themselves. The totals run on from round to round, and the lowest total after the last round wins.

Can two people play Mexican Train?

Yes. Take fifteen tiles each and play as normal, with the Mexican train open to both. The double-nine set suits two better than the full double-twelve.