Rules for Playing Chicken Foot

Setup

• Chicken foot utilizes a double nine set of 55 dominoes or a double 12 set of 90 dominoes. Before the game, the dealer places the dominoes face down and mixes them. In a two-player game, each player removes nine dominoes and stores them face down. In a three- or four-player game, each player removes seven dominoes. The remaining dominoes remain on the board, face down. These tiles are known as the "chicken yard."

First Turn

• During the first turn, the player with the double-nine begins. He places the double-nine on the board, face up. The player to his left places a matching domino next to or above the domino. If he lacks a matching domino, he removes one domino from the chicken yard. If he still cannot place, play passes to the left. After each player passes or one player runs out of dominoes, chicken foot enters round two. During round two, the player with the double-eight begins. During round three, the player with the double-nine begins.

Chickenfoot

• After the double-nine, the next double serves as a spinner. Players place dominoes on each of the four sides on the spinner. After the spinner, each double serves a chicken foot. Players fill in each of the three "toes" before they place dominoes in any other location. Each toe touches the double so that the touching tiles match. For example, if the chicken foot is a two-two, the pieces two-one and two-five match but the piece four-five would fail to fit.

Scoring

• Players score their points after each round. To score, a player counts the number of points in his hand. Each domino is worth the number of dots it bears. The double-blank is worth 50 points. After 10 rounds, the game ends. The player with the lowest score wins.