Gambling

The Basics of Domino

Domino, which is also known as dominoes or aces and eights, is a game of skill and chance. It involves laying a series of tiles in a line with matching pips on all sides. The first tile to fall sets off a chain reaction of other tiles that must be matched before the end of the line is reached. Once the final piece is played, the player who initiated the chain becomes the winner and receives the winning score. There are many different games that can be played with dominoes, and the rules of each vary slightly from one game to the next.

When a person plays a domino, it must be positioned with its matching end facing up, and the open end must be against another existing domino or an empty space on the table. The matching pips must also be adjacent. Some players like to use blank sides as wild sides, and they may be ascribed any value the player chooses.

Most domino games involve more than one player, but some can be played by just two people. When playing with more than four people, the number of dominoes in the set must be increased. Usually, this is done by adding “extended” ends to the basic set of dominoes. There are several different extended domino sets on the market, and most of them increase the maximum number of pips on an end by three. The most common are the double-twelve (91 tiles), double-nine (55 tiles), and double-15 (136 tiles) domino sets.

The word domino comes from the Latin dominium, which means “favorable,” and it is believed that the game was developed to honor this favorable characteristic of the pieces. The earliest use of the word, in English and French, was to denote a long hooded cloak worn together with a mask during carnival season or at a masquerade. Later, it was used to refer to the black domino that contrasted with the white surplice of a priest.

In a domino game, the players draw their dominoes for their hand, and then, depending on the game, play until one player wins. The winner of the game makes the first move in the next round. Occasionally, no player is able to make a move and the game ends in a block. In these cases, the unused dominoes are reshuffled and a new game begins.

The most popular domino games are bidding and blocking, and scoring. There are also round games, and some of these are quite complex. If a player lays down a tile that isn’t part of the game, or plays it out of turn, he must recall it before the next player has his turn. In most of these games, a line is formed as the players make their moves and it is known as the line of play or the string. It is best to play on a hard surface, as the dominoes may slide off the table if they aren’t stood on edge.