Dominoes: Block

How to play Dominoes (Block)

Dominoes is a tile game for two to four players, played here with a double-six set, in which you match your tiles to the open ends of a line and try to be the first to play them all.

No drawing: pass when you cannot play.

About Dominoes (Block)

The Block game deals seven tiles to each player with two players and five with three or four, and the tiles left over stay out of play.

Nobody draws: a player who cannot play passes, so every tile in your hand has to go down on the ends the table leaves you. Hands block more often than in the Draw game, and a blocked hand goes to the lowest pip total.

Scoring is the same as in the Draw game: the winner takes the pips left in the other players' hands minus their own, playing to 100 points with two players and to 61 with three or four.

Each number appears on seven tiles of the set. If you hold four or five tiles carrying the same number, keep putting that number at the ends: the other players are likely to be short of it, and with no boneyard a player who cannot match simply passes.

Tiles nobody was dealt stay out of play, 14 of the 28 with two players, so a tile you have not seen may be in nobody's hand. A double fits only an end showing its number, so place yours while that number is still open. When you think your hand holds fewer pips than the others, a play that leaves ends nobody can match can end the hand in your favour.

With three players 15 tiles are dealt and 13 sit out; with four, 20 are dealt and 8 sit out, so at a four-player table a tile you have not seen is most likely in someone's hand.

The goal of Dominoes

Dominoes is played with a double-six set of 28 tiles by two to four players, each playing for themselves. You play against one, two or three computer players. Take turns adding tiles to the ends of the line, and try to be the first to play every tile in your hand.

How to set up Dominoes

The 28 tiles are shuffled and dealt. In the Draw game each player takes seven tiles, or six when four play; in the Block game and All Fives each player takes seven with two players and five with three or four. The tiles nobody is dealt are the boneyard.

The player who leads the first hand is chosen by lot and may lead any tile. In each later hand the winner of the previous hand leads.

Dominoes rules

Play passes clockwise. On your turn you place one tile at an open end of the line, with the matching number touching that end, and a double is laid crosswise. If you have a tile that can be played, you must play one.

In the Draw game and All Fives, a player who cannot play draws from the boneyard one tile at a time until they can, and passes only when the boneyard is empty. In the Block game nobody draws, so a player who cannot play passes. Drawing and passing happen by themselves, since there is never a choice to make.

A hand ends when a player plays their last tile, which is called dominoing, or when the table is blocked because nobody can play or draw. After a blocked hand with no single winner, the lead passes to the player on the left of the one who led it.

The full Dominoes guide, with strategy tips and common questions