Draw Dominoes Rules

How To Play Draw Dominoes

Watch a video showing you
how to play Draw Dominoes

Number Of Players: 2 to 4
Domino Set Required: Normally uses a double-six set, but larger sets may support more players

Draw Dominoes, also known as The Draw Game, is one of the simpler domino games, and among the most popular as well. It is the game that most often comes to mind when someone mentions "playing dominoes". Along with Block Dominoes, Draw Dominoes is the basis for many other descendant games.

Setup

After shuffling the dominoes, each player draws tiles to make up their hand. The number of tiles drawn depends on the number of players:

2 players draw 7 tiles each
3 players draw 5 tiles each
4 players draw 5 tiles each

The remainder of the tiles make up the boneyard (or "stock"), and are held in or reserve to be drawn upon at need.

Gameplay

The player with the highest double places the first domino. Play proceeds to the left (clockwise). Each player adds a domino to an open end of the layout, if he can. In the illustration to the right, for instance, the game is well in progress, and the "blank" and "1" are the open ends. Note that the layout may flow in any direction, turning as necessary. Note also that the 5-5 and 1-1 are placed in the customary crossways orientation, though may just as properly be placed in an inline orientation.

Drawing Tiles

If a player is unable to make a move, he must draw dominoes from the boneyard until he can make a move. If there are no dominoes left, then the player must pass.

Ending A Hand

A game ends either when a player plays all his tiles, or when a game is blocked. A game is blocked when no player is able to add another tile to the layout.

Scoring

When a hand ends, the player with the lightest hand (i.e. the fewest number of dots on their dominoes) wins the number of sum total of points in all of his opponents hands (minus the points in his own hand, if any).

A game of Draw Dominoes is typically played to a score of 100.

Variations

Domino Plaza lists a number of variations, including:

Gameplay with double-nine and double-twelve domino sets.
No tile may be played until all legal sides of the initial double have been filled.
A Dutch variant, in which tiles are drawn from the boneyard two at a time.

The How To Play Dominoes Video from VideoJug allows doubles to be spinners, and uses blanks as wild cards.