Dominoes are a great way to pass the time and have some fun. They can be arranged in long rows and knocked down, or they can be used to make other shapes. The word domino comes from the Italian term for “flip.” This is what makes them a great tool for teaching kids to count!
A domino is a flat, thumb-sized rectangular block, either blank or bearing from one to six pips or dots. A complete set of dominoes consists of 28 such tiles. Several different types of games are played with dominoes, most involving blocking or scoring. Some games of a very different nature, such as solitaire or trick-taking, are also played with dominoes.
When a player has no more dominoes to play, he or she “chips out,” and the game stops. The winner of the game is the player whose combined total of spots on all his or her remaining dominoes is the lowest.
A complete domino set consists of 28 tiles, although larger sets are available for those who want to play dominoes on a larger surface area. The number of pips on a domino varies from set to set, with some having fewer and others more. Traditionally, dominoes were made of bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory, or a dark hardwood such as ebony, with black or white pips inlaid or painted on them. More recently, dominoes have been made of plastic, and even cardboard.
After the tiles have been shuffled and sorted into a stock, each player draws a hand of dominoes according to the rules of the game being played. The player who draws the heaviest tile for his or her hand makes the first play, and other players follow in turn. If a player draws more than the number of tiles permitted to him or her by the rules of the game, those extra dominoes are called overdraws and are returned to the stock, which is then reshuffled before the next player draws.
Many domino games involve a line of play, with the tiles played end to end, or crosswise. Depending on the game, some of the tiles in a player’s hand may be bought. In these cases, the pips on the purchased tiles must match those of the domino being played.
The most common type of domino game is a blocking game, in which the object is to empty a player’s hand while blocking his or her opponent’s. Some games also involve scoring, in which the winners are the players whose hands contain the most pips at the end of the game. Some of the most popular blocking and scoring domino games are listed below.