Let’s Play All Fives (Dominoes)!

Hey there! Welcome to the world of All Fives, a super fun domino game that’s perfect for players of all ages. Today, I’m going to introduce you to this exciting game and show you how to set everything up. Are you ready? Let’s dive in!

All About All Fives

All Fives is a domino game that’s closely related to other games like Muggins and Sniff. Just to be clear, though, we’re not talking about the card game called All Fives – that’s a whole different ballgame! The All Fives we’re talking about is a beloved dominoes game that challenges players to strategically match tiles in a way that adds up to five or a multiple of five.

The Game Setup

Now that you know what All Fives is all about, let’s get down to setting up the game. It’s super easy, I promise!

Alright, let’s get ready to play dominoes! First things first, we need to shuffle the dominoes on the table. Then, we’ll all draw a domino, and the player with the highest value domino gets to start first. If there’s a tie, we’ll just shuffle the dominoes again and redraw until we have a winner. Once the first player has been determined, everyone will return their dominoes to the table and we’ll shuffle them up once more.

Now, about the number of dominoes each player gets. Some sources say that no matter how many players there are, each player should have five dominoes. However, most people use a different system:

– If there are two players, each player gets seven tiles.

– If there are three or four players, each player gets five tiles.

But what about the leftover tiles, you ask? Well, those go in what’s called the “boneyard” or “stockpile.” These are the dominoes that can be drawn from if you need to throughout the game.

THE PLAY

Starting the Game

When we start a game of dominoes, someone has to go first. We can decide this randomly, and the lucky person will place the first tile. In the next rounds, the player who went out first in the previous round will start the game. However, if no one could make a legal move and no one went out in the previous round, we will randomly determine the first player again.

Now, let’s talk about the first domino played. It can have any value and doesn’t have to be a double. However, the first double played is special. It can be played off of any of its four sides. This special double is called the spinner. After that, we can’t play any other doubles in the same way, only the first one can be played like that.

What happens in the next turns?

When I play dominoes, I start by placing a tile on the left side. Then, I keep adding tiles to the layout, making sure to match the numbers on the ends. But here’s the thing – if I can’t make a legal move, I have to draw a tile from the pile until I can play. And if the pile is empty, tough luck, I have to pass my turn.

Now, the goal of the game is to make the open ends of the layout add up to five or a multiple of five. So, let’s say there are two free spots on the layout – one next to a tile that shows 3-4, with the 3 exposed, and another next to a tile displaying 5-5. If I have a tile with a number 3 or a number 5, I can play it in the corresponding spot.

Scoring in All Fives is pretty straightforward. Just make sure the total of the open ends of the layout is either five or a multiple of five, and you’re good to go.

When I play the game, we usually keep score as we go. Each time a tile is added to the layout, it adds to my running total. If the open ends of the layout have a number that’s a multiple of five, I get that many points. Sometimes there are up to four ends to add up.

Doubles are worth the total number of dots they have. If there are two dominoes on the spinner ends, I only count those two and ignore the spinner itself, treating it like any other domino in the chain.

I keep track of the tiles I still have in my hand. I add up the total, rounding up to the nearest multiple of five, and then subtract that from my overall score.

We keep playing until someone reaches the target score, which is usually between 200 and 300 points, depending on how many people are playing.