The Basics of Domino

Domino is a board game in which players place dominoes edge to edge. The ends of each domino have pips, or spots, that range from six to none or blank.

There are many different games played with dominoes, including layout games, blocking games, scoring games and trick and trump. In most cases, the goal is to score points by placing tiles on a board in such a way as to create certain configurations, or to fill up a hand.

The simplest and most popular domino game is Draw, in which each player takes two tiles at a time, and then adds the pips to make their hands a specified total. The first player to finish a hand with the lowest number of pips wins.

Another variation is Draw Doubles, which works just like Draw, except that after the first doublet is played, dominoes must be placed adjacent to all four sides of that tile in order to form a cross. The players then pick their next four tiles and play them against the doublet so that they also complete a cross, and continue playing as in Draw.

The best domino sets are made of a strong and bold material, such as bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (MOP), ivory, or ebony, with contrasting black or white pips. These are typically more expensive than the cheaper polymer-based sets, and the heavy weight makes the set feel more substantial in your hand.