42 (dominoes)

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42, also known as Texas 42, is a trick-taking game played with a standard set of double six dominoes. It was created in 1887 in Trappe Springs (now Garner), Texas, by 12-year-old William Thomas and 14-year-old Walter Earl, members of a strict conservative Southern Baptist sect who were forbidden to play cards. 42 is often referred to as the "national game of Texas," and continues to be very popular in much of the state - in and around College Station and Austin, in particular, as well as in the Fort Worth-Dallas area. Tournaments are held in many towns, and the State Championship tournament is held in Hallettsville the first Saturday of March each year.

[edit] Rules

[edit] Object

The game is played by four people, in teams of two each, who sit facing each other across the table. The object of the game is to be the first team to reach seven "marks" (points). The game consists of a number of hands, each of which is worth one or more marks, depending on the bid. However, it is important to note that 42, much like any other game, has in many cases been modified by particular groups or families, resulting in innumerable variations on the original game according to particular preference, habit, or family lore and legend.

[edit] The Bid

Before commencing play, each player will "bid" the number of points they are going to try to win by "catching" tricks. The minimum bid is 30. A player may also pass (make no bid). If all players pass, the dealer is sometimes forced to bid. As there are 42 points in the game (one point for each of the 7 tricks, plus 35 points from the 6-4, 5-5, 3-2, 4-1, and 5-0 dominoes), the maximum bid possible is 42, with one exception: a player may bid 84, which means (like 42) that the player must catch all tricks, and the results of the tricks will be stacked atop another as they are played, so as to prevent the players from seeing what has already been introduced into play. The benefit of bidding "84" versus only "42" is that if successful, the bidder wins two points for the game instead of only one. As the trump is declared by the winner of the bid, one strategy is to bid high if one has most of the dominoes in one particular suit. Another variation of bidding "42" and "84" is to bid "high" or "low". Bidding "42 (or 84) high" indicates the bidder intends to "catch" all of the tricks in the game; bidding "42 (or 84) low" indicates the bidder wishes to catch none of the tricks; in this game the bidder's partner folds their hand and the bidder plays against the opposing pair. The bidder plays their first dominoe (usually a dominoe with a blank), such as duece/blank. In this case, the two becomes trump; if the opponents have a duece, they are obligated to play it, and since the value of that dominoe is higher (for example, one player would play duece/tray and their partner would play deuce/six), the highest duece would win the trick and then be "in the lead" for the next play.

[edit] The Hand

The winning bidder then designates his trump, which can consist of calling a particular suit trumps; doubles as trumps, or "follow me" (also known as "no trump," in which there is no trump suit). Play then proceeds to the left of the person who played. Each player must follow suit, if possible. When led, each domino is considered to belong to the suit of its higher end, unless that domino contains the number of the trump suit, in which case it is considered a member of the trump suit. The double of any suit is the highest-ranking member of that suit, followed by the highest number on the non-suit side. The highest number of the leading suit wins, unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of the trick takes the dominoes into their possession and leads on the next trick. Play continues until the bidding team has made their contract, or else is "set" (denied the possibility of winning) by the non-bidding team. At that time, the appropriate team is awarded one or more marks.

[edit] Scoring

Each trick is worth one point. There are a number of "count" pieces (those whose spots total five or ten) that are worth that number of points: the 0-5, 1-4 and 2-3 are worth five points each; the 5-5 and 6-4 are each worth ten. The total of all the count pieces (35) plus the seven tricks equals 42, which is the number of points in a hand, hence the name of the game.

A game is typically played for seven marks, as seven marks on paper can form the capital letters ALL.

[edit] Special Contracts

Splash: The bidder bids two marks, and their partner calls trump without discussion with the bidder. The bidder must have three doubles to do this.

Plunge: Exactly like Splash, except four marks are bid and the bidder must have four doubles.

Jump bids are allowed for Splash and Plunge.

84: The bidder's team must win all the tricks. Dominoes are played trick atop trick to avoid revealing what has been played thus far in the hand. If the bidder's team succeeds in catching all the tricks, the team earns two marks.

42: The bidder's team must win all the tricks. The hand is played as per usual.

30: The minimum bid. Successive bids must be higher than this bid, or the player must pass (make no bid).

The highest bid wins the auction and that player has the right to name the trump suit and lead.

[edit] Nello

There is an optional house rule, not widely used, that allows players to bid "nello" (also known as nillo, nil, or low). All players must agree to allow nello bidding before the game begins. Nello can be played with doubles being a suite of their own, although this should be stipulated before play begins.

Another variation of nello requires that you call how doubles are weighted. They may be played as the high of their suite or as a suite of their own. An even more obscure variation allows the player calling nello to designate doubles as the low of their suite.

A player may choose to bid nello, instead of bidding a number or passing, if they have particularly low dominoes in a hand (the -blanks and -ones of several suits). This means they intend to win the hand by not catching any tricks at all. Their partner then turns their dominoes face down, and does not participate in that hand. The opposing team will play their lowest dominoes, trying to force the nello bidder into catching a trick.

The nello bidder's team scores a mark if no tricks are caught. If the nello bidder catches even one trick, the hand is immediately over, and the opposing team scores a mark.

This also applys to the domino game "shoot the moon".

[edit] Sevens

Another, less common, rule is to allow a player to bid Sevens. Instead of the highest domino winning each trick, the domino whose sum is closest to seven wins. Dominoes are classified as "sevens" (the 4-3, 5-2, and 6-1), "one away" (dominoes adding to six or eight), "two away" (adding to five or nine), etc. When more than one domino of the same distance from seven is played, the first domino played is considered the winner. A player must bid at least 42 (one mark) to go in sevens, and losing even one trick will set the bidder.

[edit] Terminology

There are a number of special terms in the game of 42:

  • dominoes: rocks, bones
  • shuffle: shake, wash
  • points: marks
  • 1s: aces
  • 2s: deuces
  • 3s: treys
  • roach: the one-blank
  • low: nello
  • to not follow suit when appropriate: renege
  • trump: the verb meaning to play a trump on a non-trump

[edit] Variations

  • 84, a variant played with two sets of dominoes. Play usually consists of six to eight players. Some of the terminology also differs, such as bidding "pistol" instead of "nello".
  • Shoot the Moon is another variant. In this game, no domino has a special value, and all tricks remain worth one point. If a team is denied the possibility of winning, or set, then they instead lose the amount they bid from their total. The game is played to 21 points, and the minimum bid is 4. The name of the game comes from "shooting the moon." If a player states during the bidding phase that they will shoot the moon, then they must catch all tricks. Doing so is worth 21 points. Failing to catch all 7 tricks results in a loss of 21 points. This is the highest possible bid, unless another player elects to "shoot it over" the player who is shooting the moon; this makes their own bid worth 42 points. There are no special contracts in this game.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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