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How to play dominoes

Players take turns adding a tile to one end of a single line, and the touching halves must show the same number. If you can't play, you draw from the leftover tiles (the Draw game) or pass (the Block game). The first player to play every tile wins the hand and scores the dots left in the other hands. A standard set, the double six, has 28 dominoes.

By Emre Özen, updated October 8, 2026. These are the rules our free dominoes game uses. Each of its three versions follows one page on pagat.com, John McLeod's card and tile game site: Draw Dominoes, Block Dominoes and All Fives. We checked the set facts and the history of the names against Wikipedia's "Dominoes" and "Muggins" articles.

How many dominoes are in a set?

28. A double-six set has one tile for every pair of numbers from 0 (a blank half) to 6, doubles included. That's the set all three games on this page use.

Some quick counts, worked out from the set itself:

Bigger sets exist for bigger groups. Wikipedia lists a double nine at 55 tiles, a double twelve at 91 (the set used for Mexican Train), a double fifteen at 136 and a double eighteen at 190.

The three games, side by side

All three use the double-six set and the same line of play. They differ in what you do when you're stuck and in how points come.

Those hand sizes and targets are pagat's. The 61 for three or four players is there so you can keep score on a cribbage board. Our game plays all three with 2, 3 or 4 players, against the computer or with up to three friends online. Four players each play for themselves; pagat also describes partnerships, which we don't use.

Setting up

1. Turn all 28 tiles face down and shuffle them around the table.
2. Each player takes the number of tiles in the table above and stands them on edge, so only they can see the faces.
3. The tiles left over are the boneyard.
4. Draw lots for who goes first. Pagat calls the first play the lead or the set, and the leader may set any tile from their hand. It doesn't have to be a double.

After the first hand, the Draw and Block games pass the lead to the left. In All Fives, whoever went out leads the next hand; after a blocked hand, lots are drawn again. Our game draws the lots for you.

Playing a tile

On your turn, add one tile to either open end of the line. The half you play against must show the same number as that end. Doubles are laid crosswise, across the line, but the line still carries on from them in the same direction. In the Draw and Block games a double is just another tile.

If you can play, you must. On a real table the line bends when it reaches the edge, and our game does the same, so long lines snake back and forth.

The Draw game: when you can't play

Take tiles from the boneyard, one at a time, until you get one that fits. Play it, and your turn ends. The last two tiles in the boneyard are never drawn, so once only two are left, a player who can't play simply passes. Tiles you drew that didn't fit stay in your hand.

One difference from pagat's main rule: pagat lets you draw even when you could play, hoping for a better tile. It lists the stricter rule (no drawing while you hold a tile that fits) as a variation, and that's the one we use, because it keeps every turn simple.

The Block game: no drawing

Same play, but the boneyard is never touched. If nothing in your hand fits either end, you pass. With two players, 14 tiles sit out of play every hand, so nobody knows exactly where every tile is. That's why blocked hands are common in this version.

How a hand ends

• Domino. A player plays their last tile. Pagat uses "domino" as a verb for this: that player has dominoed.
• Blocked. Nobody can play, and nobody can draw (the boneyard is down to its last two tiles in Draw, or empty in All Fives). A line ending in two numbers whose tiles are all on the table blocks everyone at once.

Scoring the Draw and Block games

At the end of a hand everyone counts the pips (dots) on the tiles left in their hand. The player with the fewest wins the hand. Pagat's rule: the winner "is credited with the sum of the scores of the losers, minus his own total". If the lowest counts tie, nobody scores that hand.

The first player to reach 100 points (two players) or 61 (three or four) wins the game.

All Fives: scoring as you play

All Fives is a scoring game. After every tile, add up the numbers on the open ends of the layout. If the total is a multiple of 5 (5, 10, 15 and so on), the player who just played scores that total straight away. A 10 is worth 10 points, not 2. The first tile counts too: set the 6-4 and you score 10.

A double at the end of a line counts both halves: a 6-6 on an end counts 12. It keeps counting until someone plays a tile on its free side.

Only 5 tiles score when they're set first: 0-5 and 1-4 and 2-3 (5 each), and 4-6 and the double 5 (10 each).

The spinner

The first double played in a hand is the spinner. Pagat's rules for it:

• Both of its halves count until tiles have been played against both of its long sides.
• After that the spinner counts nothing. The line just counts its two ends.
• Then its two short ends open as new arms of the layout, one above and one below. An arm counts once it has a tile. With all four arms going, all four ends count.
• Only the first double is a spinner. Later doubles are laid crosswise and count while they sit on an end, as above.

Here's one hand's spinner, step by step:

With two ends, the most one play can score is 20 (6-6 on one end, 4-4 on the other). With four arms, pagat gives 35 as the most one play can score.

The end of an All Fives hand

• Domino: you score the pips left in all the other hands, added up and rounded to the nearest 5. Totals ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 round down; 3, 4, 8 or 9 round up: 12 counts 10, 13 counts 15, 17 counts 15, 18 counts 20.
• Blocked: the player with the fewest pips scores the others' pips, rounded the same way. With two or four players, a tie for fewest means nobody scores. With three players, if two tie for fewest they split the third player's points. Pagat doesn't say what to do with an odd split, so our game rounds each share down to a multiple of 5 (15 points split as 5 and 5).
• The game ends the moment someone reaches 250 (two players) or 200 (three or four), even in the middle of a hand.

All Fives or Muggins?

The names get mixed up, and the sources don't agree. Pagat says All Fives is sometimes called Muggins, but uses Muggins for the version with no spinner and Five Up for the one where every double is a spinner. Wikipedia's Muggins article says Muggins has no spinner and modern All Fives has one, and that the two names have been mixed up since about 1871. Wikipedia also describes the muggins call: a player who forgets to announce a score loses it when an opponent calls "Muggins!", and some rules let the caller take the points. Our game counts every score for you, so nothing is ever missed.

Words you'll hear

Boneyard

The face-down tiles left after the deal. Some players call them the stock.

Set, lead or down

To play the first tile of a hand.

Domino

A tile. As a verb, to play your last tile.

Pips

The dots on a tile. A blank half has none.

Double

A tile with the same number on both halves, like the 3-3.

Suit

All the tiles that show one number. Each suit has 7 tiles.

Weight

The number of pips on a tile. A heavy tile, like the 6-5 or the double 6, has a lot of them.

Spinner

In All Fives, the first double: once both its sides are covered, the layout can grow from its ends too.

Blocked hand

A hand that ends because nobody can play.

Common variations

Dominoes has a lot of house rules. These all come from our sources. Agree on them before the first tile goes down.

• Draw even when you could play (pagat's main Draw rule). Other tables limit drawing to one or two tiles a turn, or let you draw the whole boneyard.
• Highest double sets first. Wikipedia's Muggins article gives this rule; pagat lists it, and "the 6-6 must open", as variations.
• Partnerships. Four players in two teams, partners sitting across, as pagat describes for all three games.
• Double points for a fancy domino. Some British clubs double the score when the winner goes out with a double, or with a tile that would fit either end (pagat's Block page).
• Smaller All Fives hands: 7 tiles each for two players and 5 for three or four.
• Subtract your own pips. In some All Fives games each player loses their own rounded pip count at the end of a hand.
• One point per 5. Pagat's Muggins page gives this as another way to count: 10 scores 2, 15 scores 3.
• Different targets. Wikipedia notes the 1864 American Muggins rules played to 200 for two players and 150 for three or four.

Ready to try it? Play dominoes online against the computer, or read our dominoes strategy tips first.

Sources

• "Draw Dominoes", contributed by Joe Celko and maintained by John McLeod, pagat.com (deal, drawing, scoring, targets, variations).
• "Block Dominoes", by Joe Celko with additions by John McLeod, pagat.com (deal, passing, scoring, British club doubling).
• "All Fives", contributed by Joe Celko and maintained by John McLeod, pagat.com (deal, spinner, counting, rounding, blocked hands, targets).
• "Muggins", contributed by Joe Celko and maintained by John McLeod, pagat.com (the spinnerless game, one point per 5).
• "Dominoes", Wikipedia (set sizes, 28 tiles and 168 pips in a double six).
• "Muggins", Wikipedia (names, first tile scoring, the muggins call, the 1864 targets).

Keep playing

• Play dominoesDraw, Block or All Fives against 1 to 3 computer players, or with up to three friends online.
• StrategyWhat to set first, how to block, and how to score in All Fives, with our test numbers.
• Mexican TrainDouble-twelve dominoes with your own train and a shared one, 13 rounds.
• OkeyThe rummy tile game: build sets and runs on your rack, against the computer or a friend.
• CribbageFifteen two, fifteen four: race to 121 against the computer or a friend.