Rules

Mexican Train dominoes rules.

Mexican Train dominoes is played with a standard double-12 set of 91 dominoes. Each player builds a train of tiles out from a shared center, called the engine. A full game is 13 rounds. Scoring is simple: the pips left in your hand at the end of a round are your points for that round, and the lowest total after all 13 rounds wins. The free score keeper runs those totals for you.

What you need

One double-12 domino set (91 tiles) is the standard for Mexican Train. You also want a small marker for each player, a train, coin, or token, to show when a train is open. A center hub is handy but not required. The game plays well with 2 to 8 players at one table, and bigger groups work with a double-15 set. For smaller games, a double-9 set is enough for 2 or 3 players. Which set fits your table, and how many tiles each player takes, are both on the how many dominoes page.

Setting up

Turn all the tiles face down and shuffle them on the table. Each player draws the number of tiles for your table size. For a double-12 game, up to 4 players take 15 each, 5 or 6 players take 12, 7 or 8 players take 10, and 9 or 10 players take 8. Two published ways of dealing disagree for small double-12 games, and the how many dominoes page shows both tables. Either works if the table agrees before the first deal.

The tiles nobody took form the boneyard, the draw pile. Stand your tiles on edge in front of you so only you can see them.

The starting double and the engine

Every round starts with a double, played in the center of the table. That starting double is the engine, because every train runs out from it. Round 1 starts with the double-12. Round 2 starts with the double-11. The rounds keep descending, double-10, double-9, and so on, down to the double blank in round 13.

The player who holds the starting double places it in the center to open the round. If the starting double is still sitting in the boneyard, players take turns drawing one tile at a time until someone finds it and plays it. Some tables simply reshuffle and redeal instead. Agree on one before you start.

Building your train

Each player has one train, a line of tiles that grows out from the engine. A train is played by matching numbers: the free end of your last tile tells you what number the next tile must touch. If your open end shows a 7, your next tile must have a 7 on one end, and you lay it so the two 7s touch.

Your train is yours. Early in a round, you can only play on your own train, and on the Mexican train once it is started. Other players' trains open up to you only when their markers say so. More on markers below.

The first turn

Play moves around the table. On your turn, you play tiles onto your train, matching the open end each time. A turn ends when you cannot or do not continue, and play passes to the next player.

Tables differ on the first turn. The way most published rules describe it, a player may play as many tiles in a run on the first turn as their hand allows. Some houses limit the first turn to one tile per player. That one-tile version is a house rule. Name which one your table uses before the engine goes down, because it changes how fast hands empty.

Playing on your own train

On your turn, play one or more tiles onto your own train if you can match the open end. If you play a tile on your own train when your train was marked open, take your marker back. Your train is closed again, and it stays closed as long as you keep playing on it when your turn comes.

The marker and open trains

The marker is the heart of this game. When you cannot play on any train open to you, your train becomes open, and you show that by placing your marker on it. An open train is fair game: any player may play on it on their turn, the same as on their own train or the Mexican train.

Your train stays open until you play on it yourself. The moment you play a tile on your own train, pick your marker up. Until then, expect the table to use your train, because that is the point of the marker.

The Mexican train

The Mexican train is a shared public train that belongs to no one. Any player may start it on their turn by playing a matching tile onto one of the engine's free sides, separate from their own train. Once it exists, it is open to every player on every turn, for the rest of the round. It never gets a marker and it never closes.

Good Mexican Train play watches this train closely. A tile you cannot use at home sometimes fits here, and playing here can save you a draw.

Doubles and satisfying a double

A double is a tile with the same number on both ends. Doubles are played crosswise, laid across the train instead of along it. A double has two open sides, and both sides must be played on before the train can continue past it. That is called satisfying the double.

Until a double is satisfied, it blocks the line. The next plays on that train must go on the double's open ends. If you cannot satisfy the double and cannot play anywhere else open to you, you draw and, if you still cannot play, your marker goes up like any other missed turn.

Drawing from the boneyard

If you cannot play on your turn, draw one tile from the boneyard. If the tile you drew plays, play it. If it does not, your turn ends and your marker goes on your train. If the boneyard runs out, a player who cannot play simply passes and marks their train open.

Blocked rounds

A round blocks when the boneyard is empty and no player can play anywhere: not on their own train, not on an open train, and not on the Mexican train. When everyone passes in turn, the round is over, blocked. Everyone scores the tiles left in their hand, the same as any other round ending. Blocked rounds are common late in a game, especially in the low rounds when hands are full of small numbers.

How a round ends

A round ends in one of two ways. One player plays their last domino, which players call going out. Or the game blocks, as above. Either way, play stops at once and hands are scored.

Scoring summary

At the end of a round, count the pips, the dots, left on every tile still in your hand. That count is your score for the round. The player who went out scores zero for the round. Add each round to your running total. After all 13 rounds, the lowest total wins the game.

One tile deserves its own note. The double blank itself is worth 0 pips. A common house rule counts a double blank left in your hand as 50 points. That is a house rule, not the standard count, and the scoring page explains it fully, along with blocked rounds, ties, and keeping a season tally across weeks.

The 13 rounds

A full double-12 game runs these rounds, in this order. Each round is named for its starting double, its engine.

Round 1: double-12. Round 2: double-11. Round 3: double-10. Round 4: double-9. Round 5: double-8. Round 6: double-7. Round 7: double-6. Round 8: double-5. Round 9: double-4. Round 10: double-3. Round 11: double-2. Round 12: double-1. Round 13: double blank.

Shorter games are fine. Many tables play only the rounds they have time for and score the game at whatever round they stop on. Say so before the first deal so nobody plays the early rounds like a sprint.

Common house rules, named as house rules

First turn plays one tile. Some houses allow only one tile on each player's first turn of a round, instead of a full run. It slows the opening and gives everyone a look at the table.

Double blank counts 50. A double blank left in your hand at the end of a round counts as 50 points instead of 0. It punishes holding the tile and changes late-round play in the double blank round most of all.

Positive scoring. In this variant, the winner of each round is awarded the total of the pips left in everyone else's hands, and the highest total wins the game. It flips the usual low-wins scoring on its head. If your table plays this way, agree on it before the first deal, and note that the keeper scores the standard low-wins way.

No Mexican train until later. Some tables hold the Mexican train until every player has started their own train, or until someone cannot play for the first time. The standard game lets anyone start it on any turn.

None of these makes a table wrong. House rules are part of this game. The only real rule is to name them before the first tile is dealt.