How To Play Dominoes For Money
Ever thought of building a train with dominoes? As bizarre as it may sound, in Mexican Train, you can!
The Mexican Train Dominoes rules are quite similar to Tri-Ominos rules, with the basic gameplay revolving around strategic domino placement in both the games. The only differences here, besides the shape of the tiles, are the Mexican Train and the absence of a board.
The game is pretty straightforward with Mexican Train Dominoes rules being relatively uncomplicated. However, over the years, several variations have sprouted to add a tad bit of complexity here and there, including Swan Drive, Matching Doubles, and more.
This game requires a minimum of 2 players and a maximum of 4. Place the pieces face down on the table and mix them together with your hands to make sure they are properly mixed. Allow your opponent to get seven pieces of dominoes, and get seven for yourself. Leave the rest at one side of the table. Even better is the ability to bet real money on virtual dominoes games. Free dominoes games have been available online forever, but only recently has real money dominoes betting become a possibility. If you visit the right dominoes betting site, you can play against people from around the world for real money. In some domino games, the rules state that the first play must be made by the player with the highest double in his hand. Rules for other games state that the first play must be made by the player with the heaviest domino, double or single, as the case may be. Highest Double: After the tiles are shuffled, each player draws his hand from the stock. I was invited to play Mexican Dominoes with a group at my clubhouse. Although I was assured that the players would teach me, I read Mr Madsten's book to, at least, learn the basics. I highly recommend this book as it is written in a simple but thorough style. Join the Skillz community and compete in domino tournaments for cash. Best your opponents with the highest score before time runs out. Play the computer first in the classic domino game Fives then.
Ready to get your train started? Let’s find out everything there is about Mexican Train Dominoes!
What Is Mexican Train Dominoes
Mexican Train Dominoes is classic dominoes with an interesting twist. The game, for instance, revolves around building trains, branching from a ‘central station’. The dominoes are like the coaches. The faster a player can get rid of the coaches in hand to build trains, the better! Unlike the official classic dominoes which is played with up to 4 people, this game can be played with a larger group.
Number Of Players: 2-10.
Ages: Enjoyable for all ages.
Difficulty: Easy.
Length Of Play: 40 – 45 mins.
Main Objective: Matching the dominoes at the open end of the train with a domino in the hand until all dominoes are played.
Why We Love It: It’s the perfect game for a lazy afternoon, a drinks-filled night, or anytime when you want to have fun without putting much thought into the game. Since it only requires basic strategy, you can literally play Mexican Train anytime, anywhere, and with anyone!
Mexican Train Dominoes Equipment and Set-Up
The equipment required to play Mexican Train Dominoes is minimal and the set-up is super simple. You will simply need;
- a double-twelve Mexican Train domino set to get started.
Contents
In a typical set, you will find 91 dominoes and a few markers. These 91 dominoes are all pipped on one face and the other face is blank.
The pipped face is further divided into two sections. The pips on these sections can be of different numbers and colors or the same. In the latter case, it’s called a double domino. (For instance, a domino with 5 pips on both sections is a double-five domino).
This cool set by Spin Master Games has 91 dominoes along with 4 cute plastic trains as markers. Additionally, they also have the starter piece to keep the trains arranged and ‘in their track’.
Double Twelve Mexican Train Dominoes in TinSet-Up
Follow these simple steps below to set-up Mexican Train Dominoes:
- Place all the dominoes upside down on a flat, large surface. Shuffle them thoroughly.
- Distribute a set number of dominoes among each player. Follow the chart to find out that number:
- Ask each player to flip their dominoes horizontally upwards so that the other players cannot see what they have got.
- Put all the remaining dominoes to the sides. These make the bone pile.
- Place the starter piece at the center. Place 1 double-twelve domino at the center. This is the Mexican Train and will mark the start of each player’s personal train.
Mexican Train Dominoes Rules and Instructions
Mexico Train Dominoes is divided into 13 rounds from double-twelve to double-blank at the center. Once your game is set-up, you can decide amongst yourself who would like to go first and continue in the clockwise direction.
How to Play Mexican Train Dominoes
Throughout the game, the players have to match one of their dominoes with the closing domino on the train. To begin with, making their personal trains, each player will need a domino with twelve pips on at least one section of a domino.
Let’s say player A has a domino with 12:5 pips, A has to place the side with 12 pips towards the center so that 5 will be at the closing end. If the player has another domino with 5 pips on a section, A will place that adjacent to the closing end to elongate the train.
In this way, A will keep matching the numbers on the closing end and play the dominoes until A doesn’t have any more dominoes that match. The turn passes on to the next player who will do the same.
However, note that playing multiple dominoes is allowed only in the first turn and next turn onwards, the players can only play one domino. If they don’t have any matching domino, they have to pick one domino per turn.
This first turn is especially crucial and the only part where you have to use your brain to visualize a pattern that will help you play the most number of dominoes within a single turn.
Double Domino Exception: The only exception to the above rule is when a player plays a double domino. In this case, the player gets rewarded another turn, however, in this extra turn the player can only play a domino matching the double domino.
Opening and Closing A Train
When no matching domino is available, the players have to draw one from the bone pile and place a marker over his/her train to declare it open. When this happens, every player gets the option to match their dominoes on either their own personal train or that open train of an opponent.
The train remains open until the owner of the trainmatches a domino at the closing end and closes the train again.
Playing On The Mexican Train
If a player has no matching domino available for either their own personal trains or other open trains, they have the option to elongate the Mexican Train at the center. Naturally, they will need a matching section to do that.
Note that a player per round can start only 1 Mexican Train. This train then remains open for all players. Once open, the Mexican Train cannot be closed as no one owns it.
How To Play Dominoes For Money Games
When a player finishes with his hand of dominoes in that round, all dominoes are shuffled. The play continues in the same manner with double-eleven at the center. The rounds repeat until the last round has a double-blank at the center.
Scoring and Winning The Game
At the end of each round, scores are tallied. So, who wins? Here is how it works. We look at the sum of the total number of pips on each domino that is left with a player. it becomes the score of that player in the round. The winning player gets a 0.
After the final round with a double-blank, these scores are added. The player with the lowest score wins.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mexican Train Dominoes
What are the variants of Mexican Train Dominoes?
Since the name of this game is based on the shared train for all players, naturally, once the Mexico train is removed, you can create more similar variations. Such variations are called private trains or domino trains. More popular variations include Fast game, Delayed first turn, among others.
With Mexican Train Dominoes rules, can we play a single domino even if we have a matching double domino?
No. According to Mexican Train Domino, when multiple dominoes are matching, the double domino has to be played before any other domino.
What to do if the boneyard is empty in Mexican Train Dominoes?
If a player doesn’t have a matching domino and the boneyard is empty, the player skips the turn. If all players don’t have any matching dominoes available, the round ends, and scores are marked.
More Tiles and Dominoes Games That You Might Like
We understand that domino games can get addictive. If you can’t get enough of playing with tiles and dominoes but are running out of varieties, we are here to your rescue.
You should try games played with lower sets like Cyprus (played with a double-nine set) and Sebastopol or Maltese Cross (played with a double-six set).
How To Play Dominoes On Your Own
If you loved the gameplay of Mexican Train and would like to try the same with different tiles and concepts, you should try playing Bananagrams; a fun variation of scrabble. However, if you want to try something completely different in tile games, we would suggest absolutely give Azul a try. It’s creative and pretty damn unique.
Otherwise if you’re looking for more inspiration, why not check out the best domino games for two players for more options.
| see also: Five-Up Dominoes - Rules, Strategy and Playing Tips Dominoes Tournaments Details Play Dominoes Online. Domino Tournaments |
click here to play dominoes online with other players from your browser |
Domino Introduction
A domino is a small tile that represents the roll of two dice. The tile, commonly called a bone, is rectangular with a line down the center. Each end of the tile contains a number. In the most popular domino set, the double-six, the numbers vary from 0 (or blank) to 6. This produces 28 unique tiles.
There are a variety of types of domino sets in use all over the world and a great number of games that can be played with them. Following are the rules for the three most commonly played games in the West - All Fives and variations, the Standard or Block game and the Draw game. The instructions describe the games played with the standard or 'double-six' domino set comprising 28 tiles.
Shuffling The Dominoes
Before a game or hand begins, the dominoes must be shuffled, so that no one knows the location of any given tile. Typically, the tiles are shuffled by turning them all face-down on the table, then moving them around in a random motion, being careful not to flip over any of the pieces. The collection of shuffled tiles is called the boneyard.
All Fives Domino Game
Also known as 'Muggins', 'Five-Up' and 'The Five Game', All Fives is played with a double six set of dominoes by two players. The dominoes are shuffled face down and each player takes seven dominoes (a non-default option, 9-bone initial hand can be also selected upon table creation). The remaining dominoes are placed in the boneyard to be drawn from by a player when he/she cannot play a tile from his hand. The player with the highest double plays first and turns proceed in a clockwise direction. In a hand other than the first one in the game, the choice of play may be any tile in the lead player's hand.
To be the first person to attain the agreed-upon number of points (100 - 500). Points may be awarded during the play of the hand by making the exposed ends of the chain total to a multiple of five (5). The winner at the end of each hand also scores points for all the pips remaining in the other player's hand rounded to the nearest multiple of five.
Game Play
The first player lays down any tile and play continues with each player laying down a tile so that the tile it connects with matches in number. Players additionally attempt to lay down tiles so that the sum of the numbers at either end of the chain add up to 5 or a multiple of 5 because any such play adds that amount to the score of the player. Doubles are laid down across the direction of the chain for the purposes totaling both ends count as the total of all spots on the double. So, for instance, if there is a 3 at one end of the chain and a 6 at the other, a player could play the double 6 which would be useful because the ends would add up to 3 + 6 + 6 = 15, a multiple of five. If there is a double five at one end and a blank at the other, a player could play the double blank so that the ends add up to 10.
Play may proceed off both ends of the chain, or from the exposed ends of the first double that is played once that double has had dominoes played from both its sides. That double is referred to as the spinner because the chain sprouts from all four sides of the domino. At most there will be four ends of the chain exposed.
If a player does not have any tiles which have a number of pips that matches one of the exposed ends of the chain, that player must draw from the boneyard one tile at a time until he/she draws one which may be played. If there is no boneyard or are no more tiles left in the boneyard, that player must pass.
End of Play
The game ends as soon as a player has no more tiles left or alternatively when none of the players can play a tile. The winner is the player who has no tiles left or, if no player managed to go out, the players add up the spots on their remaining dominoes and the winner is the player with the smallest total. The loser subtracts the winner's spot total (which is zero if the winner went out) from his or her total, rounds the result to the nearest multiple of five and adds this quantity to the score of the winner. If all scores are less than agreed-upon number of points for the game (100-500), the game continues by playing another hand.
The Draw Domino Game
As opposed to All Fives Domino game, points are not awarded during play for making multiples of five. Points are awarded only at the end of each hand.
Each player tries to match the pips on one end of a tile from his/her hand with the pips on an open end of any tile in the chain. If a player cannot match a tile with one in the chain, he/she must draw from the boneyard until the tile that can be played is drawn. If there are no tiles left in the boneyard, the player passes his/her turn. The first player to get rid of all dominoes wins the hand. If none of the players can make a play, the game ends in a block. If a hand ends in a block, the players turn the tiles in their hands faceup for counting. The player with the lowest total wins the hand and earns the points (1 point per pip) of all the tiles left remaining in his opponent's hand. The player who first reaches the agreed-upon number of points (100-500) or more is the overall winner.
The Block Domino Game
This variation is similar to Draw variation above, except no player can draw from a boneyard. If a player can lay a domino, then it must be played. Otherwise the player 'knocks', or raps the table and play passes to the next player. If none of the players can make a play, the hand ends in a block. The players turn the tiles in their hands faceup for counting. The player with the lowest total wins the hand and earns the points (1 point per pip) of all the tiles left remaining in his opponent's hand. The player who first reaches the agreed-upon number of points (100-500) or more is the overall winner.