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How to Play All Fives Dominoes

In a nutshell: The scoring classic - Make the open ends add up to multiples of five. You play with a double-six set (28 tiles), it's rated easy to learn, deep to master, and skill and pip counting shift the odds well past 50%.

All Fives is the most popular scoring variant of dominoes - The one tournament players often just call Muggins. You and your opponent each draw seven tiles from the double-six set, and any play that leaves the open ends totalling a multiple of five scores that total on the spot: 5, 10, 15 or even 20 points at once. The first double becomes the spinner, sprouting four arms once its main line is covered, which multiplies the ends you must count. Winning a hand pays too: go out first and you collect your opponent's leftover pips, rounded to the nearest five. Because points arrive from both the table and the hand, All Fives layers live arithmetic on top of the familiar matching game, and the running race to 100, 150 or 250 rewards players who can read the ends a full move ahead.

All Fives at a glance

Goal	Be the first to the target score - 100, 150 or 250 points - Earned by making the open ends total a multiple of five and by winning hands.
Set used	Double-six - 28 tiles in play
Players	2 - You vs the computer, or a friend online
Difficulty	Easy to learn, deep to master
Chance of winning	Skill and pip counting shift the odds well past 50%
Play modes	To 100, To 150, To 250
Family	Scoring Games

Step by step

History of All Fives

Dominoes themselves long predate All Fives. Tile games with pip-marked bones were recorded in China around the Song dynasty, and the European set - Twenty-eight tiles including blanks, quite different from the Chinese arrangement - Appears in Italy and France in the eighteenth century before crossing to Britain. The word domino most likely comes from the black-and-white hooded costume of the same name, though the etymology is not certain.

All Fives belongs to the family of counting games that grew up in the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century, once players began scoring the layout itself rather than merely racing to go out. Victorian and early American game books describe Fives, Muggins and their relatives side by side, with the muggins rule - Claiming the points an inattentive opponent fails to call - Giving the game its most colorful name.

The game found particular favor in the United States, where its five-counting instincts fed directly into Texas 42, the domino trick-taking game said to have been invented by two Texas boys in 1887 to sidestep a prohibition on card playing. All Fives remains the standard scoring game in most modern collections, prized for adding a running arithmetic duel to the familiar chain of matching ends.

How to Win All Fives: Strategy

💡 Top tip: Count every end before you commit - The difference between a play that scores ten and one that scores nothing is often the same tile placed at the other end.

Winning tips, in order of importance

1. Learn the natural scorers: the 5-5 and 6-4 open for ten, while the 5-0, 4-1 and 3-2 all open for five.
2. When no score is available, play spoilers - Leave totals that need tiles you are holding, so the next score lands in your column.
3. Cover the spinner's main line on your terms - Its side arms add scoring ends for both players, so open them when your hand is ready to cash in.
4. Shed heavy tiles early; the 6-6 and 6-5 are big liabilities when your opponent goes out and rounds your pips to the nearest five.
5. Watch every boneyard trip your opponent makes - A draw means they could cover neither end, which narrows their hand sharply.
6. Keep a tile for each open end value late in the hand, so you are never forced to draw while your opponent scores freely.

Advanced tactics for All Fives

1. Think in remainders: an end total of 13 needs a change of plus two or minus three to score, so scan your hand for tiles whose halves differ by exactly those amounts.
2. A double at an open end counts twice, so the arithmetic swings hard - Playing the 5-5 onto an open five lifts that end's count from five to ten without touching the others.
3. The first tile played on each spinner arm creates a brand-new open end; time those plays so the new value tips the total onto a multiple of five for you, not your opponent.
4. In the endgame the rounding rule creates targets: forcing your opponent to hold 8 pips pays you 10 when you go out, while 7 pays only 5 - Half-tile margins matter.
5. Before opening with the 5-5 or 6-4 for ten, check whether it hands your opponent an easy five-heavy reply; sometimes the quiet opening wins more across the hand.
6. Keep count of the boneyard: only fourteen tiles start buried, so late in a hand you can often name your opponent's exact holdings from their draws and passes.
7. Near the target score, play the hand differently: if fifteen points wins the game, hunt the single big score and stop worrying about pip liability.

Common All Fives mistakes to avoid

• Playing the spinner's arms before counting them - every arm you open changes the board total, so add up all the ends before you commit.
• Holding the 5-5 and 6-4 too long - the big scoring tiles are also the heaviest, and getting caught with 10 pips hands your opponent a rounded bonus.
• Chasing points while ignoring your exit - a hand that scores 15 early but strands three unplayable tiles usually loses the round.
• Forgetting the double counts both halves at an end - a 6-6 on the end adds 12, not 6, which turns many innocent-looking plays into multiples of five.

All Fives Variations

All Threes

The same machinery tuned to a different divisor: scores come when the open ends total a multiple of three, which changes every key tile and opening play while keeping the spinner and draw rules intact.

Fives and Threes

The British league game: points per five and per three in the end total, nine-tile hands, no spinner and a race to 61, traditionally pegged on a cribbage board.

Sniff

A popular American form of All Fives in which the first double - The sniff - May be joined on all four sides, with small rule differences around when the arms open and how the opening tile scores.

Texas 42

Not a layout game at all but a domino trick-taking game built on the same five-counting instincts - Invented in Texas, where it became a state institution, and the natural next step for All Fives players.

Double-nine All Fives

Playing with a 55-tile double-nine set adds bigger ends and wilder totals - Scores of 25 and 30 come into reach - And suits larger groups, though the double-six game remains the classic.

All Fives FAQ

Still have a question about All Fives Dominoes? Browse the full dominoes FAQ, look up a term like scoring games or easy to learn, deep to master in the dominoes glossary, or compare All Fives with the other games in the rules for every dominoes game.

Last updated 2026-07-03.

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Common questions about Dominoes.now

Types of Dominoes

"Dominoes" isn't a single game - It's a whole family of tile games played with the same 28-piece double-six set. Dozens of variants exist, but almost all of them fall into a handful of mechanical categories that determine how the game actually feels to play. The most popular group online is the scoring games, where you earn points during play by steering the open ends of the line to certain totals - All Fives, the game most parlors simply call "dominoes," is the archetype. A second group is the classic blocking games, Draw and Block, where nothing matters but going out first: you match ends, shed tiles, and try to strand your opponent with a heavy hand. A third, smaller but beloved group is the twist variants like Matador, where the familiar matching rule is replaced by something stranger - Ends that must add to seven, pairs that pay in Bergen, or a cross-shaped layout with four arms. Games also differ by how many tiles you draw, whether a spinner opens extra arms, and whether a blocked line ends the hand or just changes it. Understanding which category a game belongs to tells you almost immediately whether it will be a quick matching race, a running arithmetic duel, or a single tense hand that turns on one wild tile.

Scoring Games

Scoring games are where dominoes earns its reputation as a mental-math duel. You still match tiles end to end, but every play can pay: leave the open ends at the right total and the points are yours on the spot. They range from the spinner-driven counts of All Fives to the exact-61 finish line of Fives and Threes.

• All Fives Dominoes - The scoring classic - Make the open ends add up to multiples of five. All Fives is the most popular scoring variant of dominoes - The one tournament players often just call Muggins. (Easy to learn, deep to master, Double-six set.)
• All Threes Dominoes - All Fives' sibling - Score when the open ends add up to multiples of three. All Threes takes the machinery of All Fives and retunes it: every play that leaves the open ends totalling a multiple of three scores that many points, so 3, 6, 9, 12 and beyond all pay. (A familiar twist, Double-six set.)
• Fives and Threes - The British pub game - Score for fives AND threes, race exactly to 61. Fives and Threes is the great British pub game - The variant played in leagues across northern England, traditionally scored on a cribbage board. (The pub classic, Double-six set.)
• Bergen Dominoes - Score by making both open ends match - Two points a pair, three with a double. Bergen is the gentlest of the scoring domino games, and one of the most elegant. (Gentle & tactical, Double-six set.)

Classic

The classics are the games most people picture when they hear "dominoes" - The pure matching games that every other variant is built on. No counts, no spinners: just match the open ends, go out first, and leave your opponent holding the heavy tiles.

• Draw Dominoes - The classic starter - Match ends, draw from the boneyard when stuck, first out wins. Draw Dominoes is the game most people learn first - The plain, friendly heart of the whole domino family. (The beginner's game, Double-six set.)
• Block Dominoes - No boneyard rescue - Pass when stuck and win the count when the line locks. Block Dominoes strips the game to its purest form: seven tiles each, one line, and no boneyard rescue. (Simple & pure, Double-six set.)

Twist Variants

Twist variants bend one core rule and change the whole game. Matador makes the ends add to seven instead of matching, Bergen pays for pairs rather than counts, and Cross forces the layout into four arms before it opens up. Small rule changes, completely different reads.

• Matador Dominoes - Forget matching - Adjacent ends must add to seven, and matadors are wild. Matador turns the fundamental rule of dominoes on its head: instead of matching an open end, your tile's touching half must add to seven with it, so a 4 needs a 3, a 6 needs a 1, and nothing at all plays on a blank. (Nothing matches - It adds, Double-six set.)
• Cross Dominoes - Open with a double, build a cross, then race along four open arms. Cross Dominoes opens with a ritual: the first tile must be a double, and the next four plays all attach to it, one on each side, building a cross at the centre of the table. (Four arms, more choices, Double-six set.)

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