Dominoes rules and scoring

• The deal
• Playing a hand
• Scoring fives
• Ending a hand
• Block & Draw
• Score sheet

This is All Fives, the dominoes game where you score as you play. Match tiles end to end, and whenever the open ends of the layout add up to a multiple of five, you score that total. Going out scores the pips left in everyone else's hands. First to 250 wins with two players, 200 with three or four.

The deal

• Use a double-six set: 28 tiles, every pairing from blank to six.
• Deal 9 tiles each with two players, 7 with three, 5 with four (often as partnerships). The rest stay face down as the boneyard.
• Draw lots for the first lead. After that, whoever went out last hand leads. Any tile may be led.

Playing a hand

• Play a tile against an open end of the layout so the touching numbers match.
• Doubles are laid crosswise, so both halves show.
• The first double played is the spinner: it can be played on from all four sides — first its two long sides, then its two ends.
• Can't play? Draw from the boneyard until you can. Only pass once the boneyard is empty.

Scoring multiples of five

After you play, add up the pips on every open end of the layout. If the total is a multiple of five, you score it right away.

Open end	Counts
An ordinary tileThe number showing at that end.	its end
A double at an endA 5-5 at the end of a line counts 10.	both halves
The spinnerCounts both its ends until both long sides have tiles; after that only the arm ends count.	see note

Ending a hand

• Going out: play your last tile and you score the pips still in everyone else's hands, rounded to the nearest five.
• Blocked: if nobody can play and the boneyard is empty, whoever holds the fewest pips scores the others' pips, rounded the same way. A tie for fewest scores nothing.
• Some players divide every score by five and keep count on a cribbage board, playing to 61.

Block and Draw dominoes

Two simpler games on the same tiles, with no spinner — the layout is a single line, and nothing scores during the hand.

• Block: you never draw. If you can't play, you pass.
• Draw: draw from the boneyard until you can play, and pass only when it's empty.
• The hand ends when someone plays their last tile or nobody can move. The player with the fewest pips wins the hand and scores the other players' pips minus their own. A tie for fewest scores nothing.
• Play to 100 with two players or partnerships, or 61 with three or four playing individually — so a cribbage board can keep score.