Chicken Foot

Setup

• Players: four: you and three bots, each playing for yourself.
• Dominoes: a double-nine set of 55. Ten each, and the rest are the boneyard.
• Rounds: one for each double, from the double 9 down. Our Quick game plays five rounds and the Full game ten.
• First play: the holder of the round’s double sets it down. If nobody holds it, the dominoes are shuffled and dealt again.

How to play

1. 1Make the foot. Three tiles must go on the opening double, one on each free side. Nobody plays on the ends until all three are down.
2. 2Match an end. After that, play a domino on the open end of any of the three arms, matching the number showing.
3. 3Cover the double. A double played at the end of an arm must be covered by the very next tile before anybody plays elsewhere.
4. 4Draw or pass. No play? Draw from the boneyard until one fits. If it is empty, you pass.
5. 5Go out. The first player to play their last domino ends the round.
6. 6Pay for your pips. Everyone else scores the pips on the dominoes they still hold.

Winning

After the last round, the lowest total wins. Each round, everyone but the player who went out scores the pips left in their hand.

Scoring

Our Classic rules: the lowest total after the last round wins. Some tables score the winner a bonus, or stop the game at a score; those are house rules.

Key terms

Chicken foot:

The opening double with a tile on each of its three free sides.

Arm:

One of the three lines of dominoes growing out of the foot.

Boneyard:

The dominoes nobody was dealt, drawn from when you cannot play.

Cover:

To play a tile on a double so the table opens again.

Pips:

The dots on a domino. They are your score at the end of a round.

Blocked:

A round where nobody can play and the boneyard is empty.