Exact 61 Five Up

Exact 61 Five Up is for two to four players, with partnerships at four. Every double is a spinner, and five raw points equal one displayed point. Reach exactly 61: overshooting events are discarded. Round settlement rewards hand differences and accounts separately for a partner’s remaining tiles.

Equipment and objective

Use one complete double-six set of 28 tiles. The match target is exactly 61 displayed points, which equals 305 raw pip points.

An award that would carry a player or partnership past 61 is discarded in full. The score stays unchanged, and play continues.

Players, partnerships, and the deal

Two- and three-player games are individual. With four players, partners sit opposite one another and share one score.

Mix all tiles face down and deal 5 tiles to every player. Leave every undealt tile face down in the drawable boneyard. Keep hands private until the round is settled.

Determine the first leader by a neutral lot, repeating the lot among tied players if necessary. Dealt tiles give no starting priority, and the order of the deal has no effect on play. The leader may open with any tile. Turns proceed clockwise.

The player who dominoes leads the next round. After a blocked round, determine the next leader by a new neutral lot.

Play matching tiles

After the opening, play a tile by matching one half to an open connection of the same value. The unmatched half normally becomes a new scoring end. A completed placement ends the turn.

If you hold a legal placement, you must play and may not draw instead. If you hold none, draw one tile at a time. Stop when you draw a playable tile and place that tile immediately. If the boneyard becomes empty and you still cannot play, pass.

A round is blocked only when the boneyard is empty and no player can make a legal placement.

Every double is a spinner

Play doubles crosswise. Every double becomes a spinner, including an opening double and a double played on an existing branch.

Continue a spinner on its two straight-through line sides first. Only after both line sides are occupied may either branch arm begin. A double on a terminal scoring end contributes both halves. Once both line sides are occupied, the spinner itself is internal and contributes nothing; only the outer ends of branches that have actually begun are counted. Unused branch positions contribute zero.

For example, a terminal contributes 12. If the other scoring end is 3, the total is 15 and the placement scores 3 displayed points. After both line sides of that are continued, the double no longer adds 12 by itself.

Score each placement

After every placement, including the opening and a player's final tile, add all logical scoring ends. If the result is a positive multiple of 5, award that many raw points and divide by 5 for the displayed score. A total of 20 therefore scores 4 displayed points; a total of 17 scores nothing.

An ordinary placement award is its own target-tested scoring event. If it would take the recipient above 61 displayed points, discard the whole award. A final placement is combined with its round settlement as explained below.

When a player dominoes

A player dominoes by placing the final tile from their hand. Score that final placement normally, then reveal the remaining hands.

Add together all raw pips in the opponents' hands and round that combined amount once to the nearest multiple of 5. Credit the rounded amount to the dominoer's player or partnership.

In a four-player game, total the dominoer's partner hand separately and round it to the nearest multiple of 5. Subtract that rounded amount from the same partnership score. Do not combine the partner hand with the opponents' hands before rounding.

The final placement, opponent credit, and partner debit form one target-tested event for the dominoer's scoring entity. Apply every component together or discard every component together if their net effect would exceed exactly 305 raw points.

For nearest-five rounding, remainders 1 and 2 round down while remainders 3 and 4 round up. Exact multiples of 5 stay unchanged.

When the round is blocked

Rank every physical hand from its smallest raw pip total to its largest. Partnership hands remain separate for this ranking.

Starting with the lightest hand, compare that hand only with higher hands belonging to opponents:

1. Subtract the light hand's total from each higher opposing hand.
2. Add those positive differences together.
3. Round the resulting aggregate once to the nearest multiple of 5.
4. Credit it to the player or partnership that owns the light hand.

Repeat this for each hand in ascending remainder order. A hand receives nothing from an equal or lower hand, and it is never compared with a partner's hand. Equal hands share the same rank and have a difference of zero against one another.

Each qualifying physical hand creates its own target-tested score event. Process equal-rank events in clockwise seat order. Discard only an event that would exceed 61; another player's or partnership's independently valid event remains eligible. The match ends immediately when the first accepted event reaches exactly 61, so no later blocked-round event is applied.

The lightest physical hand wins the blocked round. If the lowest raw total is tied across opposing scoring entities, the blocked result is tied. A tie inside one partnership still identifies that partnership as the round winner. In every blocked case, the next round's leader is chosen by neutral lot rather than inherited from the round result.

Finish the match

The first player or partnership to reach exactly 61 displayed points wins immediately. An overshooting event never changes the score. Because the match ends on the first accepted exact hit, there is no greatest-score comparison or later tie-breaking round.

Optional paper tally

One stroke represents 5 raw points, or 1 displayed point. A large central X with one small x in each of its four surrounding spaces records 50 raw points, or 10 displayed points.

Source note

These rules are based on the Five-Up rules published by Kelley and PUREMCO.