Dominoes (also known as bones, cards, men or pieces) are a great way to pass the time and have some fun. The basic rules of domino are simple, but there are many variations and rule sets.
After the tiles have been shuffled, each player draws a hand. Usually the player who draws the highest double plays first.
Rules
There are many variations of domino, but most have very similar rules. Each player draws the number of tiles allowed by the game’s rules and places them in front of himself. He may place a tile on his personal train, a public train, or a Mexican train (an extra train that can be created with a double). A player can also mark his domino with a marker to prevent opponents from adding to it.
Each player takes turns placing dominoes in the line, joining to matching ends of the line. If a double is played, it must be perpendicular to the line and the pips on both ends are counted. The first player who completes his own train is awarded points based on the number of opposing players’ spots still held. The total is often rounded up to the nearest five. The game ends when the last player plays his last domino. The winner is the player who earns the highest score.
Variations
Like playing cards, dominoes have a unique arrangement of dots or “pips” on each face. These pips indicate what kind of domino it is, whether a double or a single. The other side of the domino is blank or identically patterned to the first. The pips help players identify which domino they have in hand, and determine the type of game in play.
The most basic of all domino games is called draw or the draw game, and most characteristic domino games are elaborations of this game. Initially each player draws seven tiles from a double-six set and starts the line of play. Players alternately extend the line by placing a matching domino on one of its ends.
A domino may be played on its own or as a part of a train. Trains are a group of matching dominoes that add up to a certain number of points. Some games require the entire line to be occupied by a player’s tiles before any other players can play on it, while others use markers to identify the end of the train that a player cannot play on.
Materials
Over the centuries, domino pieces have been made of many different materials. The most common are polymers like plastic, but wood and stone are also used for the more luxurious sets. Some people even make their own, using things like Lego bricks or foam for giant yard dominoes.
A domino is a small rectangular piece that is marked with numbers on one side and blank or identically patterned on the other. These markings are called pips. The number of pips on a domino represents its value. The most popular domino set contains 28 unique pieces.
The unique structure of 2D domino-structured gallium telluride (QLDS-GaTe) unveils a special interaction paradigm, characterized by a skewed angle of inclination between its layers and the substrate. This enables the amplification of interlayer coupling forces, and simultaneously enables entropy minimization and structural reinforcement. This is accomplished through a synergistic amalgamation of vdW forces and covalent bonding in the two layers.
Scoring
Dominoes are small rectangular blocks with one or more dots resembling those on dice. The dots on a domino are called pips and a domino is considered to be of a higher rank when it has more pips. Each domino has a value, determined by the number of pips on each end of the tile. A double has more pips on its left and right ends than a single, but it is not considered to have more rank than a single.
Most domino games involve emptying the players’ hands while blocking their opponents from making a play. In scoring games such as bergen and muggins, points are counted by the number of pips in the losing players’ remaining dominoes. The player with the lowest negative score wins. Other games, such as matador and chicken foot, use a different scoring method. The winning player is rewarded with points based on the total number of dominoes exposed in the winning players’ hands.
