Chinese dominoes are used in several tile-based games, namely, tien gow, pai gow, tiu u and kap tai shap. In Cantonese they are called gwāt pái (骨牌), which literally means "bone tiles"; it is also the name of a northern Chinese game, where the rules are quite different from the southern Chinese version of tien gow.
Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots or is blank. The backs of the tiles in a set are indistinguishable, either blank or having some common design. The gaming pieces make up a domino set, sometimes called a deck or pack. The traditional European domino set consists of 28 tiles, also known as pieces, bones, rocks, stones, men, cards or just dominoes, featuring all combinations of spot counts between zero and six. A domino set is a generic gaming device, similar to playing cards or dice, in that a variety of games can be played with a set. Another form of entertainment using domino pieces is the practice of domino toppling.
A stripped deck or short deck (US), short pack or shortened pack (UK), is a set of playing cards reduced in size from a full pack or deck by the removal of a certain card or cards. The removed cards are usually pip cards, but can also be court cards or Tarot cards. Many card games use stripped decks, and stripped decks for popular games are commercially available.
Pai gow is a Chinese gambling game, played with a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. It is played in major casinos in China ; the United States ; Canada ; Australia; and New Zealand.
A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a hand centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks, which are each evaluated to determine a winner or taker of that trick. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as contract bridge, whist, and spades, or to the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as pinochle, the tarot family, briscola, and most evasion games like hearts. Trick-and-draw games are trick-taking games in which the players can fill up their hands after each trick. In most variants, players are free to play any card into a trick in the first phase of the game, but must follow suit as soon as the stock is depleted. Trick-avoidance games like reversis or polignac are those in which the aim is to avoid taking some or all tricks.
Pips are small but easily countable items, such as the dots on dominoes and dice, or the symbols on a playing card that denote its suit and value.
In playing cards, a suit is one of the categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several pips (symbols) showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or additionally be indicated by the color printed on the card. The rank for each card is determined by the number of pips on it, except on face cards. Ranking indicates which cards within a suit are better, higher or more valuable than others, whereas there is no order between the suits unless defined in the rules of a specific card game. In most decks, there is exactly one card of any given rank in any given suit. A deck may include special cards that belong to no suit, often called jokers.
Shut the box is a game of dice for one or more players, commonly played in a group of two to four for stakes. Traditionally, a counting box is used with tiles numbered 1 to 9 where each can be covered with a hinged or sliding mechanism, though the game can be played with only a pair of dice, pen, and paper. Variations exist where the box has 10 or 12 tiles.
42, also known as Texas 42, is a trick-taking game played with a standard set of double six dominoes. 42 is often referred to as the "national game of Texas". Tournaments are held in many towns, and the State Championship tournament is held annually in Hallettsville, Texas on the first Saturday of March each year. In 2011 it was designated the official State Domino Game of Texas.
Mexican Train is a game played with dominoes. The object of the game is for a player to play all the tiles from his or her hand onto one or more chains, or trains, emanating from a central hub or "station". The game's most popular name comes from a special optional train that belongs to all players. However, the game can be played without the Mexican train; such variants are generally called "private trains" or "domino trains". It is related to the game Chicken Foot.
Twenty-eight is an Indian trick-taking card game for four players, in which the Jack and the nine are the highest cards in every suit, followed by ace and ten. It thought to be descended from the game 304, along with similar Indian games known as "29", "40" and "56".
Madiao, also ma diao, ma tiu or ma tiao, is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of paper tiger. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by Pan Zhiheng and Feng Menglong during the early 17th century. Korean poet Jang Hon (1759-1828) wrote that the game dates back to the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). It continued to be popular during the Qing dynasty until around the mid-19th century. It is played with 40 cards, and four players.
Playing cards were most likely invented in China during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). They were certainly in existence by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Chinese use the word pái (牌), meaning "plaque", to refer to both playing cards and tiles. Many early sources are ambiguous, and do not specifically refer to paper pái (cards) or bone pái (tiles); but there is no difference in play between these, as either serves to hide one face from the other players with identical backs.
Kiu kiu or qiu qiu is a game of dominoes popular in Indonesia related to pai gow. It may also be referred to as 99 domino poker.
Sedmice ("Seven") is a card game of the Sedma family played in the states of the former Yugoslavia. Like other games of this family, tricks are won by matching the led card in rank. In addition, the Sevens are wild, hence the name. In Croatia, the game is called Šuster.
Trischettn or Treschetten is an old card game from the South Tyrol for two players. The game is clearly an Austrian variant of Tresette, the major differences being that it is played with a 32-card, German-suited pack rather than a 40-card Italian pack, resulting in a different card ranking, the Tens and Nines becoming the highest rankers in each suit. It also features points for declaring certain combinations such as four Nines. The game is played for 31 points. It used to be one of the three most common card games in South Tyrol, along with Stichwatten and Labbieten, but is threatened with extinction today.
The following is a glossary of terms used in dominoes. Besides the terms listed here, there are numerous regional or local slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, i.e. specific to one particular version of dominoes, but apply to a wide range of domino games. For glossaries that relate primarily to one game or family of similar games, see the relevant article.
Digging Flowers, also known as Dachen Mahjong is a tile-based game similar to mahjong and rummy in which four players compete to form their own winning hand of 21 tiles using melds of two- and three-tile sets. Like mahjong, players build their hands by both drawing from a shuffled wall and acquiring discards from other players.
