Three games with one set of tiles

Dominoes with a double-six set, for two: Draw, Block and All Fives.

The tiles

Twenty-eight tiles, one for every pair of numbers from blank to six. Each tile has two halves with no dots or up to six. Seven of the tiles are doubles, with the same number on both halves. Rule books call the dots pips.

Seven tiles each. The tiles are shuffled face down and each side takes seven. Yours lie face up along the near edge. The computer's lie face down along the far edge, with their number in chalk beside them.

The other fourteen are the boneyard. They wait face down on the green patch at the top right, and the chalk number there says how many are left.

Three games are played with them here. You choose under Game in the panel: Draw, Block or All Fives. Each keeps its own unfinished game and its own record.

Laying a tile

A tile joins an open end that shows one of its numbers. The first tile starts the line, and after that the line has two open ends. A tile goes down with its matching half against the end, so the number on its other half becomes the new end.

Doubles lie across the line. A double has the same number on both halves, so it leaves the end as it was.

If one of your tiles fits, you have to play one. You may not pass or draw while you hold a tile that fits. Many house rules are looser about this, and this table is not.

On this table you tap the tile. If it fits one end only, it goes there at once. If it fits more than one, chalk dots mark the ends and you tap the one you want. With Show moves on, the tiles that fit are pushed forward and underlined in chalk.

Five dominoes in a line on oak: 4-2, 2-5, the double five lying across the line, 5-3 and 3-1. Chalk rings mark the outer halves at both ends, a four on the left and a one on the right. — The two open ends are the four and the one. A tile with a four or a one can be played, and nothing else.

Who starts

The highest double decides the first round. Whoever holds the highest double among the fourteen tiles dealt starts. In Draw and Block that double must be the first tile on the table.

With no double in either hand, the heaviest tile decides. That is the tile with the most dots, and between two with the same count, the one with the higher half.

After that, Draw and Block take turns. The side that did not lead the last round leads the next one, with any tile it likes.

All Fives lets the leader choose from the start. The holder of the highest double leads the first round with any tile. The side that went out leads the next round, and after a blocked round the highest double decides again.

Draw

When nothing fits, you draw. Tap the boneyard and take a tile, and keep drawing until one fits. That tile then has to be played.

The last two tiles are never drawn. When only two are left in the boneyard, a side with nothing that fits passes, and the turn goes over.

The round ends when someone lays their last tile. That side has gone out, and scores the dots on the tiles left in the other hand.

It also ends when the game is blocked. That is when neither side has a tile that fits and nobody may draw. The side with fewer dots in hand wins the round and scores the difference. With the same number of dots, nobody scores.

First to 100 points wins the game. A game is several rounds, and the panel shows the round and both scores.

Block

Nobody draws. The fourteen tiles in the boneyard sit out the whole round. A side with nothing that fits passes, and here the table passes for you and says why.

Everything else is as in Draw. Going out scores the dots in the other hand, a blocked round goes to the lighter hand for the difference, and the game is played to 100.

It is the stricter game. There is no way to find a new tile, so a hand that cannot answer the ends stays that way, and what you keep back matters more.

All Fives

You score while the round is being played. After every tile the numbers on the open ends are added up. If the sum can be divided by five, the side that laid the tile scores it: 5, 10, 15, 20, and now and then more.

A double at an end counts both its halves. A double four at the end of the line is worth eight in the sum. The first tile of the round is counted too, with both its halves.

The first double of the round is the spinner. When both its long sides have a tile against them, the line may grow from its two short ends as well, so there can be four ends to play on and to add up. Only the first double is a spinner. A short end counts for nothing until a tile lies there.

When nothing fits, you draw until something does. No tiles are held back in this game: the boneyard can be emptied, and only then does a side pass.

Going out scores the other hand, rounded to the nearest five. Twelve dots give 10 points and thirteen give 15. In a blocked round the lighter hand scores all the dots in the heavier one, rounded the same way, and with equal hands nobody scores.

First to 250 wins, at once. The game is over the moment a side reaches 250, even in the middle of a round. The chalk number by the line is the sum of the open ends right now.

A double five standing upright with tiles on three sides: 6-5 on its left, 5-4 and then a double four across the line on its right, and 5-1 above it. Chalk rings mark the six, the double four and the one. — Three ends count: the six, the one and the double four, which is worth eight. Six, one and eight make 15, so the tile just laid scores 15.

Sources

Checked against pagat.com, the card and tile game rules site kept by John McLeod: its pages on Draw Dominoes, Block Dominoes, All Fives and Muggins. The rule that the highest double leads is from Wikipedia's article on Muggins. All of it is checked against the engine that runs this table.

Questions people ask

What happens if I cannot play?

It depends on the game. In Draw you take tiles from the boneyard until one fits, and pass only when two tiles are left there. In Block you pass straight away. In All Fives you draw until a tile fits or the boneyard is empty.

The line under the status always says which of these applies, and when you pass it says why.

Can I draw when I already have a tile that fits?

Not here. Some rule books let a player draw by choice, to hide a tile or to look for a better one. On this table a tile that fits has to be played, in all three games.

Why do two tiles stay in the boneyard in Draw?

That is the rule of the Draw game as pagat.com gives it. It has one clear effect: two tiles are never seen by anyone, so neither side can work out the other hand exactly, however carefully it counts.

All Fives is played without it. There the boneyard can be drawn to the last tile.

What is a blocked game?

A round where nobody can lay a tile and nobody may draw. It happens when the numbers on the open ends have run out: all seven tiles with that number are on the table, or the ones that are left sit in the boneyard out of reach.

The round is then settled by the dots in each hand, and fewer is better. The line under the status gives both counts and what was scored.

Who wins a blocked round when both hands have the same dots?

Nobody. No points are given and the next round is dealt.

What is the spinner?

The first double laid in a round of All Fives. A tile can be played on all four of its sides: first on the two long sides, and when both of those are covered, on the two short ends as well. Later doubles are ordinary doubles.

Draw and Block have no spinner. Their line has two ends from the first tile to the last.

Does a double count twice?

In the sum of the ends in All Fives, yes. A double lying at an open end counts both halves, so a double five there is worth ten. A lone double five as the first tile of a round scores 10 at once.

In a hand that is counted at the end of a round, every tile is worth the dots on it, and a double six is simply twelve.

Why did twelve dots give me 10 points?

Because All Fives rounds the hand to the nearest five. Everything in that game is counted in fives. Eleven and twelve dots become 10, thirteen and fourteen become 15, and one or two dots become nothing at all.

Draw and Block count the dots as they are.

Is All Fives the same game as Muggins?

Nearly. As pagat.com and Wikipedia describe them, Muggins is the same scoring game played in a single line, without a spinner. All Fives has one spinner, and the game called Five Up makes every double a spinner.

Some rule books deal nine tiles each when two play All Fives. This table deals seven, which the same sources give as a common way to play.

How many tiles have a given number?

Seven. Each number from blank to six is on seven tiles: once with every other number and once on its own double. The whole set has 168 dots.

That count is the most useful fact in the game. When you can see six tiles with a five, on the table and in your hand, there is one five left to worry about.

Is dominoes luck or skill?

Both, and the luck is real. The tiles are shuffled, half of them are hidden, and a single round is often decided by what was dealt. Over a whole game to 100 or 250 the better player wins more often, but far from always.

The figures further down show it. The strongest level here wins about two games in three against the level below it, not nine in ten.

Does Undo reshuffle the tiles?

No. Undo takes back your last tile and the computer's answer. Nothing is dealt again: the hands and the order of the boneyard are as they were, so a tile you drew will be drawn again.

By then you have seen what the computer answered, and that is the price of it. If you take a move back after a game was decided, the first result stays in your record.

Can two people play on one phone?

Yes. Choose Two players under Opponent. The side to move always sits at the near edge. After every tile both hands lie face down, and the next player taps the lid to turn their own tiles face up.

How games are won

Get the heavy tiles out first

Whatever is left in your hand when a round ends is counted against you. If the computer goes out, it scores your dots. If the round is blocked, the lighter hand wins.

So when two tiles fit, the one with more dots is usually the one to play. A hand of small tiles late in a round is safe in a way a hand of sixes never is.

Play doubles while you can

An ordinary tile fits two numbers. A double fits one. That makes doubles the tiles most likely to be left in your hand when the ends turn against you, and a stuck double six is twelve dots.

When a double fits and nothing speaks against it, lay it. It also leaves the end as it was, so the tiles you were planning to follow with still fit.

Keep a hand that can answer

Before you lay a tile, look at what you will hold afterwards. A hand with five different numbers in it can meet almost any end. A hand of three tiles that all need a four is one tile away from a pass.

In Block this matters most, because a pass gives the computer two turns in a row. In Draw a miss costs you tiles: every one you draw is more dots in your hand.

Count the sevens

Every number is on seven tiles. Count the ones you can see: on the table, and in your own hand. What is left is in the computer's hand or in the boneyard.

If you hold the last tiles of a number, an end with that number is yours alone. Turn both ends into it and the computer cannot play at all.

Remember what it could not play

When the computer draws or passes, it has just told you something exact: at that moment it held no tile with either of the numbers on the ends. In Block that stays true for the rest of the round.

Bring those numbers back to the ends and it is stuck again. The strongest level here does the same to you.

In All Fives, count before every tile

Add up the ends as they would be after each tile you could play. A tile that makes the sum 10 or 15 is worth more than getting rid of a few dots, and the round's first tile can score as well: the double five, the six and four, and any tile whose halves make five.

Then look at it from the other side. If your tile leaves a sum that one common tile turns into a multiple of five, you may be handing over the points. A sum the computer cannot easily fix is the better one to leave.

Use the hint as a second opinion

The Hint button asks the engine what it would play from your seat. It sees your hand and the table and nothing more, so it can be wrong about the tiles it cannot see. When it picks another tile than you did, work out what it is keeping and why.

How the computer plays here

Five levels. Four of them play by rules of thumb, and the fifth deals out the tiles it cannot see and plays those deals to the end.

What it can see

The computer gets what a player in its seat would see. That is its own hand, the tiles on the table, what each side has drawn and passed on, and how many tiles are in your hand and in the boneyard.

It is never given your tiles. Your hand and the order of the boneyard are not part of what the program is handed, at any level. What it cannot see, it has to guess.

All of this happens on your own device, in your browser.

Hidden tiles and luck

Dominoes has hidden tiles and a shuffle, and both decide a great deal. Half the set is face down when a round begins, so the best play can lose and a careless tile can win. A stronger level is one that wins more often over many games, not one that wins every game.

That is why the steps between the levels look small next to the board games on this site. Sixty percent against the level below is a clear edge here.

Beginner

Plays the first tile in its hand that fits, on the first end it fits. It does not look at dots, doubles or points.

Easy

Follows the first advice a new player is given: doubles go first and heavy tiles before light ones. In All Fives it takes points whenever a tile offers them. It thinks no further than the tile it is laying.

Medium

Looks after its own hand. It still sheds doubles and heavy tiles, and it now weighs how many of its remaining tiles will fit afterwards. It has only a faint sense of which numbers are running out.

Hard

Counts the tiles it can see, and prefers to leave ends with numbers you are unlikely to hold. In All Fives it avoids leaving a sum that you can turn into points with your next tile. It does not remember what you have passed on.

Expert

Remembers. When you draw or pass, it notes that you held no tile with those numbers, and it follows which of your tiles came from the deal and which from the boneyard.

For every move it then deals the hidden tiles out in up to 120 ways that agree with everything that has happened, plays each one through as if all the tiles lay face up, to the end of the round when it can, and picks the tile that does best on average. It gets at most one second for a move.

It plays for the game, not the round: a point counts for more when either side is close to the goal.

The levels against each other

Each level has played the level below it in whole games to the goal. Every shuffle was played twice, with the seats swapped, so that neither side had the better tiles. The figure is the share of games won.

Easy against Beginner: 81.0 percent in Draw, 92.0 in Block and 97.1 in All Fives, over 1,000 games of each.
Medium against Easy: 72.7 percent in Draw, 67.9 in Block and 60.2 in All Fives, over 1,000 games of each.
Hard against Medium: 63.6 percent in Draw, 61.3 in Block and 61.6 in All Fives, over 1,000 games of each.
Expert against Hard: 65.0 percent in Draw over 200 games, 70.8 in Block over 400 and 67.5 in All Fives over 200.

The last row rests on fewer games, because Expert takes much longer over a move.

What the hint is

The Hint button is Expert, seated in your chair, with seven tenths of a second in place of a whole one. It is given your hand and the table, never the computer's tiles, and it guesses those in the same way.

Using it does not make the level you are playing any stronger. Hints are counted, and the count is shown with your record at the bottom of the page.

The other barrels

Checkers is the one where a jump has to be taken, and where a piece that reaches the far row becomes a king, two pieces high.

Backgammon is a race with dice: fifteen pieces a side, and a piece left on its own can be hit and sent back to the start.

Shut the Box is nine numbered tiles and two dice: every roll has to be paid for with tiles that add up to it, and the lower sum left open wins.

Farkle is six dice and a race to 10,000: bank what a turn is worth, or roll again and risk losing all of it.

Yatzy is five dice and a scorecard of thirteen rows: three rolls a turn, and every turn has to be written in a row, even when it is worth nothing there.

Reversi has one kind of move: put a piece down so that it traps a row of the other color, and the row turns to yours.

Mancala has no dice and nothing hidden: you empty a pit, sow its stones round the board one at a time, and count what ends up in your store.

Chinese Checkers is a race across a star of 121 holes: marbles hop over one another in chains, nothing is ever captured, and the first side to fill the point opposite wins.

Nine Men's Morris is the old game of mills: nine pieces a side, three in a row along a line takes a piece off, and a side left with two pieces or no move has lost.

Tic-Tac-Toe is three in a row on nine squares, and next to it Ultimate tic-tac-toe, where every square holds a small board and each move decides where the next one is played.

Four in a Row is the standing rack laid flat: seven lanes of six places, a piece slides down its lane until it is stopped, and the first side with four in a row wins.

Chess is the old game of kings: six kinds of pieces that each move their own way, and a win when the other king is attacked and cannot escape.

Gomoku is five in a row on a board of fifteen lines each way: pieces go where the lines cross, and three in a row with both ends open has to be answered at once.

Ludo is the race with one die: a six brings a piece out of its yard, landing on another color sends that piece back, and the first side with all four pieces home wins.

Draw

No games played yet.

Red for the games you won, white for the ones you lost. A game is a whole match to the goal, not a round. Draw, Block and All Fives are counted apart, and this is the record of the one on the lid. It is kept in this browser and nowhere else.

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