Domino Play

Domino Play: Written instructions

The following information was taken from:

https://www.pagat.com/domino/line/caribbean.html

Dealing the dominos:

In Haiti the most usual game is for four players in fixed partnerships using a set of 28 dominoes. These are shuffled face down and each player takes 7.

In the first round, the holder of the [6:6] domino starts by playing it. The next rounds are started by a member of the team that won the previous round.

Rules:

The direction of play is anti-clockwise: each player in turn must, if possible, extend one of the two ends of the line by playing a domino that matches the end where it is played. The round ends when a player wins by playing their last domino or if the game becomes blocked and no one can play another domino.

Advanced rules:

During the play, players are allowed to communicate with their partners through gestures. Gestures are used when playing a domino to indicate the player's strength in the number on the free end. The usual system of meanings is as follows.

  • Hit the table with the fist: the player is strong in this number, and has plenty more dominoes that match it.

  • Slide one finger over the table: the player has at least one more domino with this number.

  • Show the palm of the hand: the player has no more of this number.

It is accepted that partners may secretly agree before the start of the game to alter the meanings of these gestures in order to confuse the opponents.

Scoring

  • If a player manages to play all their dominoes, they win and their team normally scores one point.

  • Dekabès. If a player wins by playing their last domino which is not a double, and the two ends of that final domino match the two open ends of the line, the winning team scores two points. If the game is blocked, the individual player with the fewest spots on their unplayed dominoes wins, and their team scores one point.

  • If the game is blocked and two opponents tie for least points, there is no score for the tied round. The next round is started by the same team that started the tied round, and scores two points instead of one for the winning team. If there are two or more consecutive tied blocked rounds, the score for the next round with a winner is not further increased: it is still two points.

  • If the round after a tied blocked round is won with Dekabès (the winning domino is not a double and can be played on either end), the winners will score four points instead of two, which is sufficient to win the whole game.

Winning

Both teams start at zero. At the end of each round the winning team adds their points to their score and the losing team's score is reset to zero. The first team that achieves a cumulative score of 4 or more points wins the game.

Variations:

Two-Player Game

There are three ways that the game may be played by two players:

  1. A draw game, in which each player draws 7 dominoes. The remaining 14 dominoes are placed face down in a 'boneyard'. A player who has no domino to play at their turn must draw dominoes one at a time from the boneyard until they obtain a playable domino and then play it. If the boneyard becomes empty a player who cannot play must pass.

  2. A block game, in which each player draws 7 dominoes, the remaining 14 dominoes are out of play, and a player who has no domino to play must pass.

  3. A game in which each player draws 14 dominoes, and a player who is unable to play must pass.

The first round of the game is begun by the holder of the highest double. If neither player has a double the holder of the domino with the highest pip-count starts.

The scoring is the same as in the 4-player partner game, A player needs to score 4 or more points consecutively to win: a player who loses a round has their score reset to zero.

Three-Player Game

The double blank is removed from the set and each player draws 9 tiles. The play and scoring are the same as in the partnership game, except that players do not use gestures to signal their strength. A player needs to score 4 or more points consecutively to win and the losers of a round have their scores reset to zero.

Four-Player Individual Game

Each player draws 7 dominoes. The play and scoring are the same as in the three-player game: a player needs to score 4 or more points consecutively to win and the losers of a round have their scores reset to zero. It is quite rare to play this way - four players normally play the partner game.