The Mexican Train
A Game of Dominos

(We have made some adjustments over time as we have encountered situations not covered by the original rules or where we simply did not like the original rules. With all due respect to the creators of the game, this is the way we play at our house!)

EQUIPMENT

The game uses a double twelve domino set (91 dominos). Each player needs some small token, like a button or a penny, to use as a marker for indicating when his train is available for others to board.

ACCESSORIES

A nice to have is what Cardinal Industries, Inc. includes with their domino sets and calls a starter piece: a form that holds the starter domino and has eight gates to help direct the player's trains out as spokes from the hub. It looks like this:

THE OBJECTIVE

The objective of the game is to finish with the lowest score. The objective in each round is to play out all the dominos in your hand, i.e., to domino. Failing this, the objective is to finish the round with the lowest total of pips on the dominos remaining in your hand.

THE DEAL

Shuffle the dominos. Each player draws a hand according to the table below (the number of players determines the number of dominos in a hand). Leave the leftover dominos in a boneyard from which players draw when they cannot play.

As an alternative for six or fewer players, you may remove some of the dominos according to the following chart and always draw 10:

THE PLAY

Except as noted in the rest of the rules, play consists of building trains by placing a domino with one end matching the caboose of a train that is boarding (see the explanation for boarding in UNABLE TO PLAY). (As the rest of the instructions will show, most trains are only available to be played on at certain times.) A complete game is thirteen rounds. Each round begins with some player playing a double, called the engine. The first round begins with the holder of the double twelve placing it in the center of the table. If no one is holding the double twelve, it is temporarily skipped and play begins with the next highest double that someone is holding. The scorekeeper must track skipped engines because every double must be the engine one time in the course of the thirteen-round game. Whenever the domino whose turn it is to be the engine must be skipped, it should be the one looked for to start the next round. (If using the alternate rules under THE DEAL, where you removed some dominos, replace twelve and thirteen in this paragraph accordingly.)

Sometimes, in the latter rounds, it may be that no player has the engine, and there are no more engines to choose. For this to be the case, either every other engine has had its turn, or has been skipped in this turn. When this happens, there is no doubt that the unplayed engine(s) is/are in the boneyard, so all players draw one domino until an unplayed engine is found. If, in the extra draw, two or more unplayed engines are drawn, the highest becomes the engine for this round. If it happens that there are not enough dominos in the boneyard for everyone to draw one, re-shuffle.

When a player has placed the starting engine, it is still his turn and he must play one more domino. He has two choices, either to start building his train off the engine, or to start the Mexican Train, which may only be started with another domino of the same suit as the engine. By convention, the Mexican Train is usually started off to the side as if it is leaving a different station, but in actuality, it is just another player who doesn't have a hand or a turn, whose train begins with the same engine as everyone else, and is always available for boarding (except as noted below under DOUBLES). Wherever the Mexican Train is laid out, all the dominos played on it must be visible, so that it is possible to determine when all the dominos in a suit have been played. (See a further note on this under DOUBLES.)

If the first player is unable to make either of the two possible moves described, he is UNABLE TO PLAY (see below).

When the first player's turn is over, play passes to the player on his left. If the Mexican Train has been started (has left the station), the player has the option of playing on his own train or on the Mexican Train. He may not play on any one else's train unless it is boarding. As long as the Mexican Train has not left the station, any player in his turn may start it. However, once the Mexican Train has left the station, another Mexican Train cannot be started: there can only be one Mexican Train in each round.

A player must play if he can. Once a domino is played and the player has removed his hand from it, the player may not change his mind. (Alternate rule: a player may change his mind if neither he nor the next player has yet played or drawn another domino. Your group must decide beforehand whether to allow this friendlier rule.)

DOUBLES

Each player in his turn plays just one domino, unless it is a double. When a player plays a double, it is still his turn and he must play another domino, either on the double or anywhere else that is available to him. (Exception: if the double was his last domino, the round is over; see SCORING.) If his second play is another double, he must still play again. This continues as long as he continues to play doubles. Once his turn is completed, if he has left a double exposed (open), the next player MUST play on (close) the exposed double: that is his only play, no matter how many other doubles are open or other plays he may have had. If more than one double is left open, they must be closed in the same order in which they were played. Although the player who plays the double must play again, he is not obliged to close the double--he may play wherever he can within the rules; the subsequent player(s), however, do not have this option and must close the open double. However, if a player plays more than one double in succession, he may not close the second (or following) double; he may only close the first. An exposed double must be closed even if it is on a train that is not otherwise available for a normal play (boarding as described in UNABLE TO PLAY).

For example, say a 2 and a 3 are exposed on boarding trains and a player plays the 2-2 and the 3-3. It is still his turn, and he may play anywhere that is available to him except on the 3-3. If he does not close the 2-2 and ends his turn with the two doubles open, the next player must play a 2 to close the 2-2, or be UNABLE TO PLAY. If he can play on the 2-2, he does so and his turn is over. The next player must close the 3-3. On the other hand, the player who originally played the 2-2 and the 3-3 could have closed the 2-2, forcing the next player to close the 3-3.

When a double is played that is the last domino of its suit, the player who played it must still play again, but since it is impossible to close the double, he and the rest of the players are free to play wherever they otherwise can according to the rest of the rules.

If a double remains open through every player's turn until play comes back around to the player who originally played it, he is no longer free of the obligation to close it, and is subject to the rules as a 'subsequent' player.

The intial engine is a special case: although it is a double for everyone to play on, no one is required to close it.

UNABLE TO PLAY

If a player can play, he must, even if the domino he can play is one he would rather hold. If a player cannot play, he must draw one domino from the boneyard and play it, if possible. Otherwise (i.e., if he either cannot play or the boneyard was empty), his turn is over. He must place his marker on the end of his train. (The marker must not cover the pips on the caboose.) This is called putting his marker up and his train is now boarding, and each other player in his turn may now play on (board) this train if he wishes. When play comes around to the player whose train is boarding, if he can play anywhere (not just on his own train), he removes his marker and his train is no longer boarding (he must remove the marker). If he could not play, however, his marker remains and his train is still boarding. Whenever a player plays on someone else's boarding train, that player moves the marker onto the last domino so that it is clear that the train is still boarding.

MISTAKES

If a player mistakenly determines that he cannot play, draws, puts up his marker, and passes, no effort is made to undo the mistake after his turn is complete. If he has drawn from the boneyard, and then realizes that he could have played, he must play, but he must keep the domino he just drew. Likewise, if a player forgets to remove his marker after playing, he must remove it when it is brought to his attention, but intervening plays are not corrected. If a player plays without closing an open double and his mistake is not caught before the next player plays, the open double remains available for closing (even if it is on a train that is not boarding), but the subsequent players are not obliged to close it. (These are assumed to be innocent mistakes; abuse must be dealt with as any family would.)

LAST DOMINO

A player should announce when he has only one domino left in his hand; this can be done by tapping the table with the final domino or by saying "Uno", or "Last Domino". This is a courtesy; there is no penalty associated with non-compliance.

SCORING

A round is over when one player has played his last domino (has dominoed) or no one is able to play (the game is blocked). Since players unable to play are obligated to draw from the boneyard, the boneyard will be empty when the game is blocked. The player who dominos gets a score of zero. Everyone else scores the total of the pips on the dominos left in his own hand.

The game is over after each double has been the engine once (thirteen rounds in a normal game). The lowest score wins. A game may end in a tie.

GLOSSARY

• boarding -- (a train) available for every player to add to
• boneyard -- the leftover dominos after the deal from which players draw when unable to play
• caboose -- the open end of a train
• engine -- the double that starts a hand; also called starter
• open double -- a double that has been played and which must be closed
• round -- all the plays from dealing to going out, with respect to one engine
• starter -- the double that starts a hand; also called engine
• to close -- to play on an exposed double
• to domino -- to go out, to play the last domino in your hand

These rules were last revised on March 28, 2010.