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Muggins

Also known as All Fives, this is a member of the Fives family of games. Muggins and Sniff are played more often in Britain and Europe, while Five Up is played in the United States. This game has no spinner.

Equipment
The game uses a double six domino set. The game can be played by two to four players. 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 size of the hand varies with the number of players:

2 players get 7 tiles each
3 players get 5 tiles each
4 players get 5 tiles each
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 won or dominoed in the previous hand plays first. If the last hand was blocked, then the lead is again determined by lot. The lead can be any tile in the player's hand.

The next players must match the ends of the tiles on the table in the usual manner. Doubles are turned crosswise and count as the total of their pips for scoring purposes.

All doubles are turned crosswise, but are not played as spinners. 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.

Scoring
After a player has set a tile on the tableau, the two open ends of the layout are totaled. If this total is a multiple of five (5, 10, 15, or 20 points), the player immediately scores that number of points. The turned doubles on the end of the layout score the totals of their pips; that is [5-5] counts ten points, [6-6] counts twelve point and so forth.

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 [1-2] would round up to five points, while [1-1] would round down to zero points. These points are then subtracted from that player's score.

The game is played for 200 points with three or four players and for 250 points with two players. With four players, you can make two partnerships and play for 250 points. Pen and paper are probably the most common scoring device.

If you use a cribbage board for scoring, then one player should be designated as the scorekeeper. Each player should announce the total of the two ends of the tableau at the end of their turn so that the scorekeeper can peg it. Each hole counts five points, so a single trip up the side of a cribbage board is 300 points, so a player wins when his peg gets to the last group of five holes on the broad.

The abacus style scoring device used in the Fives Family (see the section on equipment) is operated by one player for his own score. The abacus has five columns of ten beads each. Each bead counts five points, so when all 50 beads have been moved from one side of the frame to the other, the player has scored 250 points.