How To Play 42 Domino Game Rules And Strategy

Turns will alternate between a member of the first team and a member of the other team.

You can choose the first dealer randomly if you want to save a little time. You can play 42 with a double-nine or double-twelve set as long as you remove any dominoes showing a 7 or higher.

The domino suits rank from high to low going sixes, fives, fours, threes, twos, ones, and blanks (when the side of a domino has 0 pips). [8] X Research source Even if multiple dominoes share a lower suit, it’s a strong hand since you have the majority of dominoes. A trick is when each player plays one domino from their hand to the middle of the table. Each trick is made up of 4 dominoes, 1 from each player. Players have 7 dominoes in their hand, so each round has 7 tricks. Each trick is worth 1 point.

The point dominoes worth 5 points are 5-0, 4-1, and 2-3. The point dominoes worth 10 points are 5-5 and 6-4.

Players only get 1 bid per round. The maximum bid a player can make is 42. Players aren’t allowed to communicate what they have in their hands with their teammate. Keep bids conservative since a team won’t earn any points if they don’t meet their bid.

If everyone passes without making a bid, reshuffle the dominoes and deal them again. [12] X Research source Or, as an alternate variation, the dealer must bid 30 points if everyone passes. If a teammate passes, it’s a signal they have a bad hand and that you should only bid if you have points showing in your hand.

The trump suit acts as the highest suit for the current hand and will beat any other suits played during a trick. The player can claim doubles as a suit when choosing trump. 6-6 becomes the highest-valued domino for the round.

Example: If a player leads with a 2-6, sixes become the lead suit, but if they lead with 2-2, then twos become the lead suit. [15] X Research source

If a player doesn’t have any dominoes that match the lead suit, they can play any domino from their hand. If they want to win the trick, players can put a domino down in the trump suit. [17] X Research source If a player can’t win a trick with any dominoes in their hand, they may choose a low-value domino so they have stronger pieces later in the round.

Example: Fives are the trump suit and sixes are the led suit. If the played dominoes are 5-3, 6-1, 6-2, and 5-2, then the player who put down 5-3 will win the trick. Example: Ones are the trump suit and fours are the led suit. If the dominoes are 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, and 4-6, then 4-4 is the winner of the trick since doubles are the highest value of a suit.

Keep the tricks that a team wins in a single pile so they’re easier to keep track of.

The bidding team is the person who won the highest bid for the round and their teammate. Example: The bidding team bid 31 points at the start of the round. They won 5 tricks for 5 points. They also have the 5-5, 6-4, 2-3, and 1-4 dominoes for 30 points. Since they earned 35 points, they exceeded their bid and score 35 points.

The non-bidding team are the 2 players that are not teammates with the highest bidder. Example: The bidding team bid 35 points at the start of the round. They won 3 tricks for 3 points. They also have the 5-5 and 6-4 dominoes for 20 points. Since the bidding team only won a total of 23 points, they miss their bid. The bidding team gets 0 points. The non-bidding team earns 35 points.

Example: If the non-bidding team won 4 tricks and the 2-3 domino, they would score 9 points.

A mark is a way to tally scores. A team can earn 1 mark per round for having the highest score for that round.

The game will only last a maximum of 13 rounds if you only score for winning hands.