Line of Play

There are many domino games that depend upon matching suits. In these games, the first player sets his domino, then the player to his left adds his tile to one of the free ends, and so on, going clockwise around the table with each player adding a tile. Players add tiles that have the matching number of pips with an open end of an already played tile. As each player matches and plays a tile, a line is formed. This configuration of dominoes is called the layout, string, or line of play. In order to prevent tiles from falling off the table when the line of play extends too far, dominoes may be played in any direction. Regardless of the pattern of the line of play, the open end of the last domino played remains the same. Dominoes are joined to the line of play in two ways 1 with the line of play, lengthwise, the dominoes played end to end; or, 2 across the line of play, crosswise, the dominoes played across the matching number. In most domino games, doubles, and only doubles, are played crosswise; singles are played lengthwise, and the next tile is added after each double played, if the double is not a spinner, must be lengthwise.