![]() Blocking the board is another defensive strategy. Try to think several moves ahead to see what strategy your opponent might be working on and play to block those moves. If you're behind on the scoreboard, consider the board count and make plays that will limit your opponent's upside whenever possible. This means looking for ways to limit your opponent's scoring opportunities as much as looking for ways to score yourself. The other side of the coin from taking the initiative is to play defensively. If you hold tiles with this in mind, you can create runs of several scoring plays in a row in many cases. If they have to miss on the next play, you'll get another scoring chance. When you score, your opponent will often have a limited number of options to counter-score. Go for scoring opportunities early and often. Go on the offense early in the game and play with initiative. ![]() These are the strategies that take you from a competent dominoes player to a highly-skilled player. ![]() Once you have the general strategies worked out, you can move onto more advanced techniques. Once you have a good idea of what tiles your opponent is holding, you can play suits that leave them hanging. This is hard to do early in the game when there aren't many tiles visible but as you can identify more tiles, it will get easier and easier. Figure Out Your Opponent's HandĪs the game progresses, you'll be able to "reverse engineer" your opponent's hand based on what tiles are already in play and what's in your hand. This lets you play strategically to block your opponents while scoring yourself. If they can't play and have to draw from the boneyard, there's a good chance they'll be in the same situation when the same numbers are available on the board again. Take Note of Your Opponent's Weak SuitsĪs the game progresses, take note of your opponent's weaknesses. If all your tiles have similar suits, you'll be stuck if that's all that's available on the board. Try to keep a range of tiles in your hand so you can match as many numbers as possible. Because these tiles have higher numbers, it once again means more points will end up going to your opponent if they score. "Heavier" tiles are the ones with the higher numbers. Play Heavier Tiles EarlyĪlong the same lines as playing your doubles early, you should also play heavier tiles as soon as you can. If you have those doubles, you can play them to open up the board and your opponent won't be able to bury them. Once you're far enough into the game to have a good idea of where your opponent's weaknesses are, you'll know what suits they're missing. This is counter to one of the basic dominoes strategies but if you're willing to take a bit more risk it can be useful to hold onto your doubles until later in the game. For that reason, it's a good idea to get rid of them early so you don't give up those points to your opponent when they score. For example, if you place a double 5 tile on a 5 hook, you still need another 5 to connect to it. Play Doubles Earlyĭouble tiles don't advance the play since they leave the same hook available as the tile they're connecting to. You'll probably need to consciously think about them at first but it won't take long before they become second nature. These general dominoes strategies will work for virtually any type of dominoes game and are easy to follow, even if you're new to the game. Let's look at some of the strategies that can help you hit the top of the leaderboard in your games. ![]() Figuring out a winning strategy is what will elevate your game to the point that you can win more than you lose. Learning how to play dominoes is the easy part. You might not aspire to be a professional domino player, but even if you're playing dominoes online or against friends, having a good dominoes strategy will help you win more games. In 2019, the UDL offered $50,000 cash for the winner of the Las Vegas Summer Classic Domino Tournament. The Universal Dominoes League (UDL) is a professional tournament with some serious prize money up for grabs, and having a good dominoes strategy is everything in these tournaments. You probably don't think of dominoes as a highly competitive game, but you'd be wrong.
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