Five up

This game is a member of the Fives Family. Dominic C. Armanino made this game extremely popular in California and the Southwestern United States with a series of books and tournaments. In this game, all doubles are spinners, so the math can get tricky.

Equipment
The game uses a double six domino set. The game can be played by two to four players, but it is best as a four handed partnership game. A cribbage board is useful for scoring, since scores are totaled as they are made and not at the end of the hand.

The Deal
The players get five tiles each and the rest of the tiles form the boneyard.

The Play
The first player in the first hand is determined by lot. In the following hands, the player who dominoed in the previous hand plays first. If the last hand was blocked, then the lead is determined by lot again. The lead can play any tile in his hand.

The next players must match the ends of the tiles on the table. As usual, doubles are played crosswise on the train, with one side touching the open end on which they are played. As long as one side is free, doubles count as the total of their pips on both exposed ends for scoring purposes.

All doubles are played as spinners. The usual rules for placing tiles on a spinner apply. That is, the first and second tiles played against a spinner must be placed against the two sides, before the third tile can be placed against the exposed end. When tiles have been played against both sides of a double, the double ceases to count towards the pip total, even though the two ends remain open.

If a player cannot play a tile, he must draw tiles from the boneyard until he has a tile which will play or the boneyard is empty. When he draws a tile which will play, it goes on the table immediately and his turn ends. If he empties the boneyard and still cannot play, he passes and the next player takes his turn.

The hand continues until one player dominoes or until all players are blocked. An empty boneyard does not stop play.

Scoring
After a player has set a tile, the arms of the layout are totaled. If this total is a multiple of five (5, 10, 15, 20, and so forth), the player immediately scores that number of points. Remember that an exposed double scores the total of its pips. For example the [5-5] is worth ten points, on the end of an arm.

Once the arm that ended in a double is extended further, so that there are tiles on both sides of the spinner, the double no longer counts. This is can be confusing because the ends of the spinner are open for setting other tiles. This is the difference between Five-up and a version of Sniff, another game in the Five's family.

When the hand is finished, either by being dominoed or by being blocked, the pips on the tiles remaining in each hand are totaled and the total is rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of five. For example, a hand with the [1-2] tile would round to five points, while the [1-1] tile would round down to zero points. These points are then subtracted from that player's score.

The game is played for 61 points, making a cribbage board very useful.

This rule was written by Joe Celko.
© Joe Celko, John McLeod 2001, 2004