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How to Play Dominoes by Points

Many domino games use a point system to determine the winner. Although each game has its own special scoring rules, most domino games use many of the same basic principles for scoring points. You can use a website, such as the one linked below, to find specific points rules for a variety of domino games.

Things You'll Need

Domino set
Pencil and paper

Instructions

- 1
  Determine the number of points you want to play to. Many basic games, such as block dominoes and draw dominoes, use 100 points as the winning score. Other games, such as Texas 42, often use 250 points. Generally, the higher the number of points, the longer the game will take.
- 2
  Create a score sheet on a piece of paper that has a grid with the names or initials of all the players across the top and the number of rounds down the side. If the domino game you’re playing doesn’t have a set number of rounds, just add a new row to the score sheet for each round as you go.
- 3
  Play the domino game of your choice until one of the players uses up all the dominoes in his or her hand, or until no one can play.
- 4
  Have all the players add up the value of any dominoes left in their hands. Each dot on the domino is worth one point. For example, a double twelve domino would be 24 points, and a 1 and 3 domino would be four points.
- 5
  Determine who has the lowest total (also called the lightest hand). If two or more players have the same total, the player with the lightest tile (lowest number of dots) breaks the tie and wins the round. For example, if two players each have ten points, but one has 2 and 3 and 0 and 5, and the other has a 4 and 5 and a 0 and 1, the player with the 0 and 1 wins.
- 6
  Give the player who has the lightest hand the total of all the opponent’s points, minus any points in his or her own hand. For example, if the player with the lightest hand used up all his or her dominoes and the opponents had 18, 12 and 26 points, the winner would receive all 56 points.
- 7
  Add in any bonus points for the particular domino game you’re playing. For example, in All Fives, the winner of the round gets a bonus of all the opponent’s points, minus her own, rounded up to the nearest five and then divided by five. In Texas 42, the winner gets five honor points for tricks that use dominoes that add up to five and ten honor points for the dominoes that add up to ten.
- 8
  Continue playing rounds until one player has reached the preset point goal.

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