Partnership Dominoes
Four players in two pairs, every tile dealt out, no boneyard: the counting is done from memory, not from guesswork.
Set of dominoes
Under these rules: Twenty-eight tiles.
Twenty-eight rectangular tiles carrying every combination of halves from double blank to double six.
A set is named after its highest double: the ordinary one is a double-six. Every combination occurs exactly once, and that is what makes the game countable — knowing what has been played, you can work out what is left in other people's hands. Larger sets exist — double-nine with fifty-five tiles and double-twelve with ninety-one — and they are there for a bigger company.
The rules of Doscientos
What differs
The game runs to two hundred points, and the winning pair records the pips on all four hands, their own included.
The lead
The next hand is opened by a player of the winning pair — whichever of the two held fewer pips.
On a tie the holder of the six-six opens.
The knock bonus
Some companies give twenty points to the pair whose play first forces the next player to knock, and ten for each such occasion after that.
Worth knowing
There are several ways to settle a tied blocked hand: the side that opened wins, the side that blocked wins, or the hand does not count at all. It needs agreeing before the match.
Glossary of terms
- Blocked hand
- The position where all four have knocked in succession. The hand goes to the pair with fewer pips.
- Capicú
- Going out with a tile that could have been played on either end.
- Knock
- Passing a turn: the player knocks a tile on the table to show they hold nothing that fits.