Dominoes at Ask-A-Link:
Dominoes home page
Draw Dominoes game rules
Block Dominoes game rules

The All-Fives Dominoes game

The All Fives Domino game is also referred to as Muggins or Five-Up or Sniffone. In All-Fives Dominoes games points may be awarded during the play of the hand by making the exposed ends of the chain total to a multiple of five (5). We describe The All-Fives Dominoes rules for the game implemented at Askalink games

Number of players

The game is for 2 players.

Object of the game

The first player to score agreed-upon number of points (100 - 500) wins the game. Points may be awarded during the play of the hand by making the exposed ends of the chain total to a multiple of five (5). The winner at the end of each hand also scores points for all the pips remaining in the other player's hand rounded to the nearest multiple of five.

The deal

At the beginning of a game, the hands are dealt by randomly shuffling all dominoes and distributing 7 dominoes (also called bones) to each player. (9-bone initial hand can be also selected upon table creation). The remaining dominoes are placed in the boneyard to be drawn from by a player when he/she cannot play a domino from his hand. If this is the first hand of a game, the player with double six must play it first (also see options below - random 1st hand). If no one has the double six, the call goes out for double five, then double four, and so on until one of the players can produce the called for tile. Players then take turns. In subsequent hands, the winner of the previous hand starts the next game (see Options below: rotated start). When leading in a hand other than the first one in the game, the choice of play may be any tile in the lead player's hand.

The game play

Once the lead domino has been played, the dominoes that may be played are constrained to match the exposed ends of the chain.

If the tile is not a double it is placed horizontally. If the tile is a double, it is placed vertically.

Players take turns. If a player does not have any dominoes which have a number of spots that matches one of the exposed ends of the chain, he must pass his turn. No dominoes are drawn from the boneyard. If a player has at least one domino that matches one of the exposed ends of the chain, that player must play a domino and cannot pass. Play may proceed off both ends of the chain, or from the exposed ends of the first double that is played once that double has had dominoes played from both its sides (Spinner option). That double is referred to as the spinner because the chain sprouts from all four sides of the domino. At most there will be four ends of the chain exposed; no other double may have additional dominoes played from it.

It is allowed to draw from the boneyard while a player can play a domino.

When summing the ends of the chain, a blank counts as zero points. Any double which is exposed sideways on the end of the chain is scored counting both ends of the domino. For example, if one end of the chain has a double four and the other end has a two, the score is eight (8) for the double four and two (2) for the two giving a total of ten (10) points. Once the hand is over, the dominoes held by the other players are totalled and rounded off to the nearest multiple of five (5). This total is added to the winning player or team's match score. If the hand was blocked or jammed, the total does not include the number of points held by the jamming player. If the number of points held by each player is the same, the hand is declared a tie and no extra points are added to any player's score. If all scores are less than agreed-upon number of points for the game (100-500), the game continues by playing another hand.

The game end

The game ends when one player goes domino (plays his last bone) or when all players have consecutively passed.

The player who dominoes or, if everyone passed, the player with the least number of spots, scores points equal to the number of spots on the stones in the hands of all other players.