Often referred to as a tile, stone, card, or bone, dominos are a set of rectangular black and white squares, usually made of rigid material such as wood, plastic, or bone. Typically, they are divided into two squares called ends, and they are marked with a series of pips. They are used in many different games.
There are many variations of dominoes. The most basic variant is for two players, in which each player draws seven tiles from a stock of available tiles. The goal of the game is to knock the opponent’s tiles out of their hands, while blocking their own hand. If a tile is knocked out, a new one is drawn. If there is a match between the two, the player who played the last tile gains a point. In the popular Singapore game, Hector’s Rules, players who draw the last tile get the added bonus of being able to play an extra tile.
Traditional European style dominoes are made of dark hardwood, such as ebony or ivory. They are sometimes manufactured with a mother of pearl oyster shell. Some of the larger sets use Arabic numerals instead of pips.
Dominoes were first introduced in France in the mid-18th century. They were later brought to England by French prisoners of war. They were also played in Italy and Austria in the early 1800s. Unlike Chinese dominoes, which divide the tiles into two suits, these European versions have no distinctions between the suits.
Some of the more popular types of dominoes are trick-taking, scoring, and blocking. These games are played with different sets of tiles, and the player who wins the most points wins the game. The most common type of dominoes are called double six, and they contain 28 tiles. These tiles are usually twice as long as they are wide.
A double 21 set contains 253 tiles. A double 18 set has 190 tiles, and a double 15 set has 136 tiles. These sets are too large for most domino games. The larger sets are often used in games with more than four players. However, there is a popular variation, known as Concentration, which uses a double six set and a double twelve set, with each player having a different amount of tiles. A double twelve set has a total of 116 tiles.
There are several games based on dominoes, including Five-Up and Pai Gow. In 5s-and-3s, five or three tiles can be combined to form a single “end.” The same applies to all other domino games. A point is scored for each trick.
The first player to tip a domino in a row will cause the next domino in the line to tip. If the domino that is tipped is the last in a row, it will fall down, and the next one in the row will be tipped. Then the dominoes in the row will continue to tip until they all fall down. Lastly, if the last domino in a row is tipped, all the other dominoes in the row will tip as well.