Muggins Domino. Read the Review and Play Online!

Muggins, also called all fives, domino game similar to the regular drawing game except for the rule that if a player can play a piece that makes the sum of the open-end pips on the layout a multiple of five, he scores that number.

What Is It About

The object of the game is for each player to rid their hand of dominoes, and additionally to score points by playing a domino (or bone) that makes the total number of pips on all endpoints of the board equal to a multiple of five. A good point-type domino game, for two to four players, using a Double-Six domino set and a score-sheet. Each player takes five pieces. If the leader poses (places) either 5-5 (double-five), 6-4, 5-0, or 3-2, he scores the number of pips that are on the piece. If the leader does not score and to 2-4 the next player plays 4-3, the second player scores 5 (2 + 3); if to 2-4 he can play 4-4, he scores 10 because a doublet scores its whole value.

He must play if he can match; if he cannot, he draws until he can. Scores made during play (muggins scores) are called and taken immediately. By prior agreement, if a player overlooks a score, his opponent may call “muggins” (meaning “simpleton”) and take the score for himself. The first player to play all his pieces scores in points the multiple of five that is nearest to the number of pips on pieces remaining in his adversary’s hand. If neither hand can match, the lowest number of pips wins and the score is taken as before. The winner is the first to reach a total of 200 points.

Is It Good?

According to John McLeod of Pagat.com, the name of the game differs according to how many "spinners" are in play. These are doubles that can be built from in all four directions. Muggins is the name of the game played without a spinner, All Fives has a single spinner, and in Five Up, all doubles are spinners.