Dominoes are tiles that can be arranged to form a variety of shapes. They are made from many different materials, including bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (MOP), ivory, and hardwoods.
Most domino sets consist of 28 tiles; seven doubles and 21 singles. They have either a number or a blank on each side, and are usually twice as long as they are wide.
Rules
Dominoes is one of the oldest and most popular games available. It is a simple game with many variations of play and can be played by two, three or four players.
The game is played with a set of dominoes that consist of 7 doubles and 21 singles. The first player places a tile on the table that starts the line of play, and each player extends this line with a matching tile at its end.
After the tile line is extended, each player takes a turn laying down a tile. Each tile must be placed so that it matches a domino in the line of play, with the matching ends touching.
In some domino games, a score is made by completing the end of the domino chain with a tile that has pips on it that total a multiple of five.
There are many popular variations of the game, including Mexican Train and Spinner Dominoes. These variations are more complex than the basic game.
Materials
Dominoes are small, flat, rectangular blocks containing a number of black dots or spots. They are often called “bones,” “tiles,” or “men.”
Today, dominoes come in various colors and shapes; they may be made of plastics or metals. Some even have a variety of designs printed on them to make them more interesting and fun to play with.
One of the most popular types of modern domino sets are made of plastics, such as polystyrene or bakelite. Some sets are even colored, such as red or green.
In addition, some modern sets use color dots to make it easier to match up tiles. For example, a one-spot might have black pips while a two-spot might have green.
Originally, dominoes were made from ivory inlaid with ebony pips. However, production of ivory dominoes is now illegal because of the endangered status of elephants.
Variations
Dominoes are a popular variant of playing cards. They are similar to a standard deck of playing cards, but instead of having a face that shows a number or blank, they have identifying marks on one side and are blank or identically patterned on the other.
The number of spots or pips on each domino varies depending on the variant. The most common set is a double-six, which has 28 tiles.
Players begin by drawing seven tiles from the stock or boneyard. They then place the tiles on edge in front of them, so they can see their own dominoes but not their opponents’.
Each player takes turns laying a single domino onto the table so that one half of the domino matches the numbers on an adjacent domino. Typically, a ‘double’ domino with the same value on each end can be used as a’spinner’ – this is played at a right angle to the rest of the line, and new dominoes can be placed on all three open sides of the spinner.
Scoring
In a domino game, the scoring system can be complicated. It depends on the rules of the game and the number of players. Generally, the highest score wins.
A common scoring scheme is to count the pips on the tiles in each players hand and round up to the nearest multiple of five (5). This is a good way to gauge how much each player has played and is useful for teams when the match is a knockout style event.
Another common strategy is to play the best possible tile that will not go out in the next turn. This strategy usually leads to a better score but can also lead to a worse one.
A similar concept is a concentration variant in which a chain of tiles with matching ends touching is the main goal. The most impressive part of this method is that the pips on each open end are scored as well.
