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Fives Up Strategy and Rules
All Fives, also called Fives Up game is played with a double six set or a double nine set. The dominoes are shuffled face down and each player automatically receives the correspondent number of dominoes.
Basic Rules
- The player that is the first to play is determined by a random draw. During subsequent rounds however, the first player is the one who managed to domino in the previous hand. If the previous hand was blocked, the first player will be the one that played the last bone.
- The remaining tiles are placed on the table and form the “boneyard”. 
- The first player places a tile on the table and the other players are required to match their half-tiles with the ends of the chains on the table.
- The first double in the game is played as a spinner, which means it will be
placed perpendicularly to the other tile, thus creating a four-way chain of
dominoes.
If a player can’t play a tile he must draw a tile from the bone yard until he can match a tile or until there are no more tiles left on the boneyard. The hand is played until all players are blocked or until a player dominoes.
- Scoring takes place at the end of each move so it's important for you to keep track of the bones you place in order to reach 5 or a multiple of 5 in every turn. Remember that the goal of the game is to accumulate as many points as possible as shown in the images below.
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Scoring and Blocking
- Placing doubles are the best opportunity to achieve really high scores in one move. In the image below it's possible to see how the values of the doubles are always worth their full value.
- The game strategy is not just about focusing on the score. It's also about finishing the tiles as soon as possible and trying to block the opponent.
In the example below it's possible to see a perfect situation of blocking where the user Domi007 has blocked the game, putting 6 in all the ends of the chains while the seven bones of the 6 are already on the dominoes table.
- In this specific case the opponent must take all the bones from the bone yard but the game is declared Blocked as all the players have passed, having no bones that match with the end of the chains.
- Every game has rounds and will finish as soon as a player reaches the score target. Remember that each player has an established turn time to play, and if he doesn't move in the specified time, he will automatically be declared as defeated, thus losing his stake.
Strategy Tips
- In any domino game, the player who can count the outstanding tiles will have an advantage.
- Novice players don’t yet think in multiples of 5. They won’t look for a combination that yields 5. Instead, they will look for arms that end in 5.
- The highest possible score in one move is 36. A player can also gain 30 points with the 6-6 tile, along with tiles that show 6 on the remaining 3 arms.
- Try to leave the remaining total as small as possible to prevent the next player from maximizing its use.
- When you’re leading in the game, play a tile that’s worth 10 points in order to score at an early stage. To control the arms, play a double tile. When other players draw tiles you can deduce what the player was missing. If that player draws a tile and uses it, you can force the situation to end in tile values that he doesn’t have, thus forcing him to draw from the boneyard.
- You have 3 possible goals: scoring, blocking, or domino (i.e. placing the final tile). When playing to score (the most common strategy) try to get the highest score without caring which player dominoes.
When you play to block or domino, you’re playing to force a blocked game so that you will get the lowest negative score. This is a more sophisticated way to play and requires counting suites to make sure that there are no tiles with the suite on the arms of the tableau. Dominoing doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get the highest score in a hand.
Try to control the tiles in the game and get a specific suit on the arms of the table to guarantee that you can play on your next turn.
Classic Domino Game
Basic Rules
- The player that is the first to play is determined by a random draw. During subsequent rounds however, the first player is the one who managed to place the last bone in the previous hand.- The first player places a tile on the table and the other players are required to match their half-tiles with the ends of the chains on the table.
Note: In the Draw Game there is no “Spinner” so, even if the first bone is a double it will be opened just in two of its sides, thus creating a two-way chain of dominoes.
- If a player can’t play a tile he must draw a tile from the bone yard until he can match a tile or until there are no more tiles left on the boneyard.
- As soon as a player can match a tile in his hand to a tile on the table, he must match it and his turn ends. The hand is played until all players are blocked or until a player finishes all his tiles.
- Scoring happens at the end of the round and the competitor with the lightest hand (with the least number of dots on his bones), or that places the last bone, wins the total of points in all of his opponents hands.
- In the situation of a blocked game with even scores, for example if one player has the tiles 1-2 and 2-4 and the other player has a 6-3, the round is declared even, the points are not distributed and a new round starts.
Remember that the goal of the game is to block your contender’s game while you get rid of your bones as fast as you can, accumulating as many points as you are capable to get from opponents remaining bones.
Strategy Tips
- Get rid of your doubles as soon as possible. It's easy to get stuck with doubles since you don't have many opportunities to play them.
- Try to keep at least one of every number in your hand for as long as you can. This will keep out from getting stuck in an unplayable position.
- When your opponent has to pass or draw from the boneyard, make a mental note of which number he doesn’t have. You can use this information to try to block him later on.
- Take note of which dominoes have already been played and the dominoes you still have in your hand, in this way you can often determine which dominoes your opponent has in order to block him.
- Try to control the tiles in the game and get a specific suit on the arms of the table to guarantee that you can play on your next turn.
Rake Structure
| Game to / Stake | $0 - $9.9 | $10 - $19.9 | $20 - $49.9 |
$50 - $99.9 |
$100+ |
| 100 Points | 11% | 10% | 9% | 7% | 5% |
| 250 Points | 11% | 10% | 9% | 7% | 5% |
| 500 Points | 11% | 10% | 9% | 7% | 5% |
For example: Diana played against Roberto for a $10 stake and 100 points game, each one of them will leave a fee of $1 and the winner will get $18 (his $9 and his opponent's $9).
Josh played against Silvia for a $110 stake and 100 points game, each one of them will leave a fee of $5.5 and the winner will get $209 (his $104.5 and his opponent's $104.5).
Note: In the Points Game Mode the current "Points Value" is divided by 2 (as there are 2 players on the game) and added to the "Stake" in order to catalogue it in the rake table to deduce the commission. For example: When we play a 100 points game with a regular stake of $15, a Point Price of $1 and the game ends 100-40 the rake is 9%, as the stake is $15 + $60/2 = $45. It means that each player pays a commission of $4.05.
