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🁠How to play Dominoes on pop.in
🁠How to play Dominoes on pop.in

Learn how to play one of the world's oldest and most iconic games.

AJ avatar
Written by AJ
Updated over 3 months ago

pop.in offers multiple modes of Dominoes including "All-Fives," "Draw," "Blocking Game" and "All-Threes." Read on to see how to play each game. Get the app here!

The Basics

1. Players take turns matching one end of a domino from their hand to an open end of a domino on the table.

2. The goal is to be the first player to play all of their tiles. That’s called “Domino!”

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3. Earn points whenever the sum of all edge tiles is a multiple of 5.


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4. Reach 200 points over the course of multiple game rounds to be declared the winner!


Tip:
Turn on "Hints" from the Game Settings menu to help with calculating your best move!
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Other Games Modes

Blocking Game

In the Blocking Game, players aim to play their tiles onto the board and block their opponents from playing their tiles. If a player cannot make a legal play, they must pass their turn to the next player. If all players are blocked, the winner of the round is the player with the lowest number of pips remaining in their hand.

Draw

In the Draw version, players draw tiles from the boneyard until they have a playable tile. If the boneyard is empty, players must pass their turn if they cannot play a tile. The first player to play all their tiles wins.

All-Threes

In All-Threes, players aim to make the open ends of the chain add up to multiples of three. Whenever a player makes the open ends add up to a multiple of three, they score that amount. If a player plays a tile that does not make the open ends add up to a multiple of three, the play is valid, but no one receives any points. NOTE: the spinner and any turned doubles at the end of a line score the total of its pips. However, when two tiles have been played against the sides of the spinner, only the ends of those tiles are scored and the spinner itself is not—just as though the spinner was another ordinary tile in the chain.

Scoring

In All-Fives and All-Threes, the game is won when a player reaches a certain points threshold (e.g. 150), after a few rounds of play. In the Blocking and Draw Games, there is no specific scoring for playing tiles onto the board, but the winner of the round receives the total pips from the dominoes left in other players' hands, adds them to the game's scoreboard, and a new round begins. In all game types, the game is won when a player reaches a certain points threshold.

Scores at the end of the round are rounded up/down to closest 5s/3s in All-Fives/All-Threes game modes.

Double domino (e.g. 6-6, 5-5, etc) should only count both ends point-wise when it has fewer than 2 dominoes connected to it.

In the event all players are blocked and two or more players are tied for the lowest pip count, the player who holds a domino with the lowest pip count wins the round.

Tips for Playing Dominoes

  • Try to hold onto your higher value tiles for as long as possible, as they can be more useful later in the game.

  • Pay attention to the tiles played by other players, as this can give you clues about what tiles they may have left and what tiles they may be looking for.

  • Look for opportunities to block other players by playing tiles that prevent them from playing their tiles.

  • Practice your counting skills, as it's important to be able to quickly add up the pips on your tiles and those played by other players. It is also important to know how to divide by 5 or by 3 if you are playing "All-Fives" or "All-Threes."

We hope this article helps you to enjoy playing Dominoes even more!
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Here from the web? Get our app here, available on iOS + Android!
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