How to play Jamaican dominoes
Jamaican dominoes is played with the full double-six set of 28 bones. Four players take seven bones each, so the whole set is in play and there is no boneyard to draw from. That single difference shapes everything: you cannot buy your way out of trouble, so counting what has passed and reading what your neighbours cannot play is most of the skill.
The set and the deal
A double-six set runs from double blank to double six, 28 bones in total. Every bone is dealt, seven to each of four players. Nothing is left face down in the middle.
Bones are shuffled face down on the table, usually with plenty of noise, and each player draws seven and stands them up so only they can see the faces.
Who poses
The first hand is posed by whoever holds double six. At a friendly yard table the holder may call sporting and lead a different bone instead, but the right to open still belongs to them.
After that, the winner of the previous hand poses. In Partner, either member of the winning team may pose.
Playing a bone
Play moves anti-clockwise. On your turn you must match one of the two open ends of the line. Doubles are laid across the line, which is cosmetic here and does not create extra ends.
If you have a legal bone you must play it. You are not allowed to pass while holding something playable.
Knocking and passing
When you cannot match either end you knock the table and pass. The knock is information: everyone now knows you hold nothing with those two numbers, and good players never forget it.
Blocking the ends against an opponent who has knocked is the ordinary way a hand is won without going out.
Ending a hand
A hand ends when someone plays their last bone, or when all four players knock in a row and the game is blocked.
On a blocked game the lowest total pip count wins. In Partner that is the lowest individual count, and if the two lowest are on the same team the team takes it.
Winning the game
A game runs to six. The ways points are earned depend on which version is being played: Partner in teams of two, Cut Throat with everyone for themselves, or the French cross.
Play a hand of Partner and take the south seat.