Domino Instruction

Domino is a simple game to play, yet it requires skills and not just luck to win. The objective of Domino is to put down all your bones before your opponent does.

A Domino set contains 28 bones. Each bone has 2 sides, and each side is labelled with between 0 and 7 dots. Domino can be played with 2 to 4 people.

At the beginning of a game, each player is given 7 bones. If there are less than 4 people in the game, the remaining bones are not discarded and are set aside for later use.

The winner of the previous game (or a random player chosen by the server) starts the game with any of his bones. Players then take turn to play a bone. The bone being played must have a side that matches one of the two current exposed sides on the game board. There are always 2 exposed sides at any moment.

If any player cannot play during his turn because none of his bone matches the exposed sides on the current game and there are still unused bones (for games with 2 or 3 people), that player must take in one or more bones until there is a match. If there are no unused bone, the player loses his turn and the next player can then play. On the other hand, if a player can play and it is his turn, he must play.

The game ends when either (1) one of the players puts down all his bones or (2) no player can play. In the first case, the player who has no bone left wins the game, and in the second case, it is normally the case that the player who has the smallest number of dots remaining on his hand wins (see the exceptions in the next section.) All other players have to pay to the winner according to the number of dots remaining on their hands.

If all players still have some bones left on their hand when the game ends, the game ends prematurely and the game is blocked. Such premature games can be intentional or unintentional. If any player can prevent the game from ending prematurely but chooses to let the game ends that way, that person is a blocker. Note that the blocker needs not be the last player in the game.

If a game is intentially blocked, the player on the left of the blocker is called an assistant if he still had more than one bones that he could play during his turn. If he only had one bone that he could play or he passed his turn, the block is without assistance.

If a player blocks a game and he wins that game, he wins twice the normal amount. On the other hand, if he does not win, he loses an amount proportional to the number of dots in all other players hands. If there is an assistance in the forced block, money is transfered only between the blocker and the assistance. If there is no assistance, the transfered amount is between the blocker and the remaining players, the share of each depends on the number of dots remaining on his hand.