All Fives

All Fives is for two to four players, with partnerships at four. Score positive multiples of five from the open ends and race to the target. Only the first double is a spinner, allowing up to four arms; remaining-hand points reward the round winner.

What you need

• Two, three, or four players.
• One complete double-six set of 28 tiles, from to .
• A way to record scores.

With two or three players, everyone plays and scores individually. With four players, sit in two fixed partnerships; partners share one score.

The winning target depends on the number of players:

Scores are kept as raw pip points. The match ends immediately when a player or partnership reaches its target, even if the current round would otherwise continue.

Prepare and deal

Mix all 28 tiles face down. Keep each hand private during play. Deal:

The undealt tiles form the boneyard. All of them remain available for drawing.

Choose the first-round leader by a neutral lot. If the lot procedure leaves players tied, repeat it among the tied players. The tiles dealt into a hand do not create a highest-double or other claim to the first lead.

The leader may open with any tile. The opening tile is scored in the same way as every later placement. Turns then proceed clockwise.

Place tiles

After the opening, connect one half of a tile to a matching open value. The unmatched half normally becomes the new outer end. A placement ends the turn.

Play doubles crosswise. While a double is still at a terminal scoring end, both halves count toward the end total. Once play continues beyond it and it becomes internal, it no longer contributes directly.

Use the single spinner

The first double played in a round is the only spinner. The opening tile counts for this rule: if the round opens with a double, that opening double is the spinner. Later doubles remain ordinary crosswise doubles and never create branches.

The spinner can eventually give the layout four arms:

                    branch arm
                        |
incoming line  --  [ spinner ]  --  continuation
                        |
                    branch arm

Both straight line sides must be occupied before either branch arm may begin. Once the straight line is complete, either branch may be opened first and the other remains available for the rest of the round.

An unused branch connection contributes zero to the score. After the spinner has become internal, only the outer ends of arms that have actually begun contribute. Before that happens, a terminal spinner is still a double and both of its halves count.

For example, opening followed by terminal spinner produces an end total of 3 + 6 + 6 = 15, so the placement scores 15. If then completes the straight continuation, the two current outer ends total 3 + 2 = 5; unused branch connections add nothing.

Score a placement

After every placement—including the opening tile and a tile that empties a hand—add the logical terminal scoring ends:

• An ordinary end contributes its exposed value.
• A terminal double contributes both halves.
• An internal spinner contributes nothing by itself.
• Each begun spinner arm contributes its outer end.
• An unused spinner branch contributes zero.

If the total is a positive multiple of five, score exactly that total. Otherwise, score nothing. An end total of 15 therefore scores 15 points, while 14 scores zero. The theoretical end total can reach 36 in this single-spinner layout, but the largest scoreable placement is 35.

Draw or pass

If your hand contains a legal placement, you must play it; you may not draw in search of a better tile.

If you cannot play, draw one tile at a time from the boneyard. Stop as soon as you draw a playable tile and place that tile immediately. You may not keep drawing, and you may not substitute another tile from your hand after drawing a playable one.

Pass only when you hold no legal placement and the boneyard is empty. A round is blocked when the boneyard is empty and nobody can make a legal placement.

End a round

A player dominoes by placing the last tile from their hand. That player's scoring entity—the player in an individual game or the partnership in a four-player game—wins the round.

If the round blocks, compare the raw pip totals remaining in the hands. The player or partnership with the smallest remainder wins, except where the tied-low rule below applies.

The player who dominoed leads the next round. After a blocked round, choose the next leader by neutral lot.

Award remaining-hand points

For an ordinary domino or a block with one lowest scoring entity, add all opponents' remaining pips into one group. Round that group once to the nearest multiple of five:

• a remainder of 1 or 2 rounds down;
• a remainder of 3 or 4 rounds up.

The round winner receives the rounded amount. Three-player dominoes and unique-low blocks use this same ordinary award; there is no separate runner-up payment.

If the lowest remainder is tied in a two-player or four-player game, award no remaining-hand points. If exactly two players tie low in a three-player game, round the third player's hand award and split it exactly between the tied players. The split may therefore produce half-points—for example, 5 points becomes 2.5 points each.

Record and finish the match

Keep the cumulative score in raw points. An optional traditional paper tally uses one stroke for 5 points. A 50-point symbol consists of one large central X followed by one small x in each of its four surrounding spaces. If a three-player tied-low split produces a half-point amount, record the half separately so the raw score remains exact.

The first player or partnership to reach the applicable target wins immediately.

Source note

These rules follow the main All Fives form recorded by Pagat.