More Dominoes Variations - Russian Dominoes

If you are a dominoes fan you no doubt like to experiment with the different games that can be played using the same tile set. Have you ever tried Russian dominoes? Perhaps you know it by another name, Matador.

What makes this game unique is that the basic Domino rule of connecting identical number of dots is not followed. Instead it is a counting game (with math) and the total number of the connecting tiles should be equal to seven.

Here are the rules to Russian Dominoes (Matador).

Toppling Dominoes - Tips and Tricks

Have you ever tried setting up your dominoes on-end, one after the other, and knocking them over? This is called "domino toppling". You can use standard dominoes though expert topplers prefer specially fabricated tiles.

Teams of domino topplers have set up projects using millions of dominoes. The most any single human being has set up has been over 300,000.

Here's an article about domino toppling that includes tips, tricks and video footage of the current world record effort.

And for inspiration and ideas watch the video below.

How to Play Hola

The card game "Hola" enjoys pockets of popularity in cities with significant Slavic populations such as Winnipeg, Canada. The game uses a standard deck and may be played by 2 players or 4 players working as partners.

You can learn how to play Hola with these rules.

Video Poker Myths

There are a few common misconceptions held by players related to video poker. Do you know what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to playing video poker? Read these online video poker myths to find out.

Best Two-Person Card Games

What are the best card games for two players? Here's a list at Hubpages

How to Play Santase

Santase is two-person card game similar to 66. The game is most commonly played in Eastern Europe, in particular, Bulgaria. 

You can learn how to play with these Santase rules.

Checkers: Making Multiple Captures

Question: I was playing checkers with an opponent online and I had two capturing moves available. The first was a straight line diagonal jump of two pieces. The second was a single jump of one piece.

 

The online edition of the game allowed me to jump one piece of the straight line possible double capture and stop there instead of taking the second capture and use my other piece to jump a different piece of my opponents. I still only captured two pieces of my opponents.

 

She protested saying it was an illegal move, however the game allowed me to make the move.

 

What are the rules pertaining to making a double capture with two different pieces of mine rather than choose to do a double capture with the one piece?

 

Your advice would be appreciated.

Answer: From what you describe it seems to me that there was a flaw in the game program. Under normal rules you can only move one piece each turn. And if you are jumping and capturing pieces, you must continue and make all available captures. You can't stop part of the way through.

Another Hard-to-Score Crib Hand

Question: I got a hand with 4 -5's and an ace and I want to know how much it is? Scorning charts never give these kinds of answer.

Answer: This hand is worth 20 points. With the 4 5's you score 12 points since there are 6 different pair combinations. Then you can score another 8 points since there are 4 ways to make 15 using the fives.

One way to use the scoring chart to calculate it is by using a similar hand. For example, 5555T is worth 28 points, according to the chart. Then you can subtract 8 points for the 4 sets of 15 that count with the ten.

How Many Squares Are On a Checkerboard?

I have a puzzle for you:

A standard 8x8 checkerboard has 64 individual squares. But how many more squares can you find?

Well, in addition to the 64 single squares you can also find 49 2x2 squares, 36 3x3 squares, 25 4x4 squares, 16 5x5 squares, 9 6x6 squares, 4 7x7 squares and of course 1 8x8 square (the whole gameboard).

So the answer is 204.

Top 5 Skill Games

Here's a link to a site that ranks the Top 5 Skill Games. Whether they are the best skill games or not is debatable, but the author certainly makes a good case for his list.

Mexican Train Dominoes

Although Mexican Train Dominoes is sold as a game set, you can play it with any set of double 12 dominoes. More about Mexican Train Dominoes.

Easiest Skill Games

Here's a list of 5 easy skill games that you can learn to play in under 5 minutes. Mastering the games, however, may take considerably longer.

Defining the Term "Skill Games"

What exactly separates games of chance from games of skill? Is it a legal definition? Here's an article that explores the definition of skill games.

Blocking in Chinese Checkers

QUESTION: What happens if another player's marbles have not cleared the point sufficiently to put your marbles in?  My partner had me waiting (quite a while) while he pulled his marbles out and made their way across the board.  We just 'passed' the turns until I could move, but in a real game would it have been the end of the game?

ANSWER: You played that correctly. If you can't move, you simply pass your turn until you get the opportunity to move a marble.

Tricky Cribbage Hand to Score

QUESTION

I think this hand is 32 points – 4,5,6,6,   5 cut

4,5,6=15-2

4,5,6= 15-4

4, 5, 6=15-6

4,5,6=15-8

Double run – 4566=8 for 16

Double run – 4556=8 for 24

Double run-455 with the other 6=32 

Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

ANSWER

I believe the hand is scored as follows:

4,5,6=15-2

4,5,6= 15-4

4, 5, 6=15-6

4,5,6=15-8

Double Double run – 45566=16 for 24

The scoring for a Double Double run (3 cards consecutive with two pairs) breaks down as follows:

456 for 3

456 for 6

456 for 9

456 for 12

55 pair for 14

66 pair for 16

Aces Always Low in Cribbage

Cribbage Rules Clarification: In cribbage, aces are always low. That means you can't make high card runs with an ace. For example, the run queen-king-ace is not allowed.

Big Rummy Tournament this Weekend, $10,000 Prize

Rummy Royal is holding a big Kalooki 51 tournament this weekend. Kaluki is essentially a version of Rummy. There's a guaranteed prize of $10,000.

The tournament will begin on Sunday, December 21^st, 15:00 ET (20:00 GMT). The buy-in is $55 with three available rebuys.

Daily satellite tournaments with buy-ins of $7 and $3.25 are still taking place. The prizes in these tournaments are one or two $55 vouchers that can be used to register or to rebuy into the $10,000 tourney.