by Ronald Reddout

Created on: March 29, 2009   Last Updated: May 27, 2009

A Family Fun Game

The game of Dominoes has been around for a very long time. Many different materials can be used to create a set of Dominoes. Also, the sets of Dominoes commonly range from the Double-Six set with just 28 tiles, or bones as they are really called, up to the Double-Eighteen set with 191 bones. However, my favorite set is the Double-Twelve with 91 bones. Following is the reason why.

When I was much younger, during the period when I was going through Grade School, Junior High, and High School, my maternal grandparents introduced me to the game of Dominoes. We tried playing with the Double-Six set, but, with just 28 bones, the game always ended much too soon for us. So my grandfather bought a set of Double-Twelves so that we could enjoy playing the game for a much longer period of time. With 91 bones a lot of playing can be done.

Usually the players included my brothers and sister and myself, my grandparents, and sometimes my mother and father would also join in the play. So, for that many players, the 91 bones in the Double-Twelve set were much more appropriate than just the 28 bones in the Double-Six set. And, of course, since we played to see who could end up with the highest score, the Double-Twelve set of dominoes made it all that more exciting for everyone that was playing.

I learned several different variations of play from my maternal grandmother. She loved to play and was almost always ready for a game. One of the first variations (Variation #1) was the standard of each player drawing seven (7) of the bones from the previously shuffled boneyard and standing them on edge with the pips (or dots) facing toward the player. Care was taken to angle each bone so that it would not be seen by the other players. Then, of course, whoever had drawn the highest double played it down first. After that, the play continued to the right, or counter clockwise, with each succeeding player playing a bone upon one of the four sides of the double first played. The 2nd and 3rd plays were always vertical to the double just played and then the arms of the double could be played upon. Each time a player placed a bone upon one of the arms, that person could draw one bone from the boneyard to keep a total of seven bones on hand for play. Play continued until all the bones had either been played and the boneyard was empty or else play was blocked so that no player had a bone that could be played. At that time, the player with the least number

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