How many dominoes does each player get?

In a draw game, a player who can't play takes extra tiles from the leftovers. In a block game, they pass instead.

Looking for how many tiles are in a whole set? See how many dominoes are in a set.

In the draw game, the tiles left after everyone takes their tiles are the boneyard. When you can't play, you take tiles from it until you can.

In the block game nobody draws. The tiles left after the deal stay face down and out of play (they “sleep”). If you can't play, you pass.

Partner dominoes is different: four players in two teams take seven each, so all 28 tiles are dealt and nobody draws. Pagat calls it especially popular in Spain and Latin America, and it's how four players play at many Puerto Rican tables.

All Fives is a draw game: when you can't play, you take from the boneyard.

Cuban dominoes uses a double-nine set of 55 tiles. Four players in two teams take 10 each, and the other 15 stay face down, out of play (they “sleep”).

Mexican Train uses a double-twelve set of 91 tiles, and the rest are the boneyard. See the full Mexican Train rules.

1. 1Turn every tile face down and mix them.
2. 2Each player takes their tiles and stands them on edge, so nobody else can see them.
3. 3The tiles left over stay face down. In a draw game they're the boneyard you draw from; in the block game they stay out of play.
4. 4To check the count: tiles left = tiles in the set − players × tiles each. Three players in the draw game: 28 − 3 × 7 = 7.

The easiest way: whoever holds the double-six leads, which means they play the first tile. (A double has the same number on both halves.) If nobody has it, the highest double leads. Mexican Train and Chicken Foot start each round from that round's double instead: the 12-12 (or the 9-9) first, then one lower each round.