Strategy

Most rule books describe Competitive Dominoes as a simple block game where the strategy is to keep one of every suit and to try to keep playing the suit your opponent doesn't have. If you play teams with four people, nothing could be further from the truth. You need to read Competitive Dominoes by Miguel Lugo and then watch some old-timers play to appreciate the strategy of the game. It takes a lifetime of high level play to become an expert player.

The key to team play is communicating with your partner. The choice of your lead play tells your partner what your best suits are. Although you may not use hidden signals with your partner, you may vary the speed with which you play a piece to convey whether you had a choice in your play or not. Skilled players can figure out the remaining pieces before they are played and can play the best strategy given the situation. Your goal is to learn to do this.

The basic approach outlined by Lugo is to cover, repeat, and square. Cover your opponent's strong suit, repeat your partner's strong suit, and square the ends to make it difficult for the opponents to play. A strong suit is one in which you and your partner have more of the dominoes than the opponents. The more often the skeleton ends expose your strong suit, the fewer plays the opponents have.

The other strategy to start with is to monitor which suits have played out or are about to play out. Since there are seven (7) dominoes in each suit it is simply a matter of counting the ones that have been played and the ones still in your hand to determine how many remain. With this information you may even be able to deduce who is holding which ones. The key is to end up holding the door to a suit so you can force the opponents' play. This piece gives you the choice of jamming the game or possibly hanging the opponents' double (although you must make sure you do not hang your partner's double if you plan to continue playing as partners).

If you are serious about becoming a better player, you must get a copy of Lugo's book and practice the strategies he describes.

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