Dominoes are a popular game that is played with sets of tiles. These can be made of a variety of materials, but the most common are bone, silver lip ocean pearl (MOP), ivory or ebony with contrasting black or white pips.
The basic domino game is a block-and-draw game for two to four players. Each player draws the number of tiles required for the game, usually seven. The leader plays first, and the game continues until one player wins.
Origin
Dominoes are a popular game that has been around for many years. It is a game that combines luck with skill and patience, and it is played worldwide.
The origin of dominoes is unclear, but they are believed to have originated in China around the 12th century. There are also claims that they were invented by Egyptians or other cultures in Asia, but most historians agree that they came from China.
The markings on a domino are called “pips” or “dice.” These pips originally represented the results of throwing two six-sided dice. However, European dominoes differed from Chinese ones in that they added tiles with blanks to represent the throws of a single die. These extra tiles grew into the 28-tile set that we know today.
Rules
The game of domino is played in a series of rounds, and each round ends when no one has a play. If no one has a play, the player with the lowest value of dominoes in their hand wins that round.
During the round, players lay down dominoes from their hands with matching ends or passes if they cannot do so. The player to the left takes a turn first and places any of his dominoes face up in the center of the playing area.
Singles must be laid end to end; doubles may be played crosswise or lengthwise, but the next tile must be lengthwise for a double. Once a double is played, it cannot be played on its ends again until it is replaced by another domino.
Materials
A domino is a tile or bone, commonly used in games of chance and gambling. Like playing cards, each domino has a face and a back.
The face of a domino has a line across the center, dividing the tile into two square halves. On each half, a number is represented by spots called pips.
These pips are molded or drilled into the domino, and they are painted to create their colors. The most common color combination is white with black pips, but some sets also use colored dots or even numbers instead of dots.
There are a variety of materials used to make dominoes, including metal, wood, plastic, and stone. The earliest dominoes were made from animal bones or ivory, but today, domino sets are typically manufactured using less exotic materials.
Variations
Dominoes are rectangular tiles with a face and a back. The back of each tile is blank or decorated with a design. The front of each domino is divided into two square halves and each half is marked with an arrangement of spots, or pips, which represent numbers.
Some sets of dominoes have more than seven pips per end, which is called an extended set. These sets can be much more complex than normal because of the increased number of unique combinations of ends.
Straight dominoes, muggins and block dominoes are three popular variations of the game. In each variant, players begin laying one domino per turn and score any time the open-end pips on the layout add up to a multiple of five (5).
Scoring
Scoring in domino can be done by counting exposed ends or by determining how many tiles are outstanding at the end of the hand. Some players play that at the end of a hand each player subtracts the total pip value of the tiles left in their hands, rounded to the nearest five, from their running total.
The simplest way to score is to count the exposed ends of the dominoes you have played. The pips on each exposed end add up to a multiple of five and that is your score.
In addition, in some games there is a special “spinner” tile which can be used as a wild tile if you want to score with it. This is especially useful if you have a lot of blanks in your layout because it can be matched with another tile that has a blank side.