The questions people ask before their first round of Dominos: why nobody draws, when you’re allowed to pass, what your partner’s hand counts for, and what the table plays for you when your time is up.
It’s a game of dominoes for four, in two teams of two: your partner is the player sitting across from you. Taking turns, each player extends a shared line at one of its two ends, with a domino showing the same number as that end.
A round stops when a player plays their last domino, or when nobody can play any more. Only one team scores each round, and the first team to reach the table’s target wins the game.
Exactly four, no more and no fewer: two teams of two partners sitting across from each other. The host can start the game only once all four seats are taken, and seats follow the order in which players arrive at the table.
The turn always moves on to the next player, so the teams alternate: after you, an opponent plays, then your partner, then the other opponent.
Because the whole set is dealt: all twenty-eight dominoes of the double-six set, seven per player, with nothing held back. Nobody ever draws, and a hand can only get smaller. Everything is dealt again every round.
That is what makes Dominos a game of deduction. Every domino is either in a hand or on the line: what has been played, the number of dominoes in each player’s hand and the passes made during the round tell you, little by little, what the others still hold. It is also what makes a blocked round possible.
In the first round, it’s the player holding the double six. They open with any domino they choose: nothing forces them to play the double six, which only serves to decide who goes first.
After that, the opening moves on to the player next to the one who opened the previous round, whatever its result. Over four rounds, everyone therefore opens exactly once, and who goes first never depends on the score.
No. You may pass only if no domino in your hand can go on either of the two ends — and in that case, you must pass. The “Pass” button stays on screen throughout your turn, but it is grayed out as long as you can play. The player who opens the round never passes.
There is nothing discreet about a pass: the whole table sees which numbers you passed on, and concludes that you have none of them. The screen keeps it displayed next to each player’s name for the whole round: “Passed on five and two.”
Each turn lasts forty-five seconds at most, and the screen tells you how many you still have. Once that time is up, the table plays for you: it plays a domino from your hand that can go on the line — the first one it finds, not necessarily the one you would have chosen — or it passes if none can.
It never looks for the best move: it just gets the game moving again, without deciding in your place what your team would have wanted to play.
A domino is worth the sum of its two halves: the double six is worth twelve points, the double blank zero. When a player plays their last domino, their team scores the points remaining in the two opponents’ hands. What that player’s partner still holds isn’t part of the count: it earns nothing, and costs nothing either.
Your partner’s hand counts only if the round is blocked. Each team then adds up the points in its two hands, so your partner’s dominoes are added to yours, and it’s the team with the lighter hands that scores.
When all four players pass one after another, the round is blocked. Each team adds up the points in its two hands, and the team with fewer points scores the other team’s total.
In a dead heat, the round goes to the team that played the last domino, and the end-of-round screen spells it out. The points won are the same whichever team it goes to: the dead heat only decides who scores. Since only one team scores each round, a game never ends in a tie.
The host sets it before starting the game: one hundred points by default, and from fifty to five hundred in steps of fifty. Once the game has started it no longer changes, and the game screen shows it in its header as a reminder.
The first team to reach it at the end of a round wins, and any points above it count toward that team’s score.
For now, Dominos tables are invitation-only, and they don’t appear in the public lobby. If you’ve been given a code, enter it from the home page to join the table: the host will start the game once there are four of you.
No. None of the site’s bots can play Dominos yet, and a table can’t be filled up with them: it takes four people to start a game.
You keep your seat and your hand, and the game carries on without waiting for you. On your turn, the table gives you only five seconds, then plays for you as if your forty-five seconds had run out.
When you come back, you find the round as it now stands, everyone’s passes included. Reconnecting doesn’t extend the current turn: the time lost while you were disconnected isn’t given back.
For now, a game of Dominos doesn’t count toward your progress or the leaderboard. Questions about your account, the shop or privacy apply to every game on the site. They are in the general FAQ.