Strategy in Five-Up is complex because it is not clear when to play for points
and when to play to block the opponents. It takes many years of practice to get
an intuitive feel for whether a hand is strong for points or strong for domino play.
If you catch the opponents with many tiles at the end you will score more points than
if you count fives during the game, and therein lies the challenge.
The first thing to recognize is the special scoring characteristics of certain tiles.
Blank-blank, blank-five, five-five, and six-one will all score if the previous player
scored and you can avoid playing on a double six or double one, so they should be held
in the hand and only played when you are able to score unless you are forced to play
them without scoring.
One-two, two-four, and three-six will all score when played on a double one, double
two and double three respectively, if the previous player scored.
Three-one, four-three, and six-two will all score when played on a double three, double
four, and double six respectively, if the previous player scored. In the first two
cases you will score five (5) points less than the previous player, in the third case
you will score ten (10) points less than the previous player.
Watch for the double six and double four combination because that scores twenty (20)
points and commonly occurs at the beginning of a new match.
Learn to sum the ends of the skeleton quickly and to recognize patterns in the totals.
Defensive play is a little tricky because you must be very familiar with offensive play first.
Beginners should watch out for high scoring traps. Always be wary when playing
double six or double four to make sure there is not an easy twenty points for
the next player.
Scoring a succession of blank-five, double-five and blank-blank can add up more
points for the opponents if your team only gets one of the plays. It can be
devastating near the end of the match, so consider not taking the points based on
the current score. This approach may force out the double-five without scoring if
you know the opponents have it.
Keep track of the tiles played in each suit. There are only seven (7) tiles so you
can determine if there are any left or if you are holding the last one and use that
information to force the opponents to play tiles they would rather not.
Try not to play off the ends of the spinner unless you must. Since the spinner and
its four sides count for five tiles, the spinner suit will only have two other
tiles. There is a good chance that one or two of the players cannot play off
either of the spinner ends and you can use the ends of the spinner as a fallback
whenever you cannot play on the other ends of the skeleton. It also gives you a
leg up in that you may score using both ends of the skeleton, or by opening one
of the spinner arms, something that the other players may not be able to do.
Once the spinner is played on all sides, it is likely that all players will be
able to take advantage of higher scores that result from adding all four exposed
arms.
If you have several tiles of the spinner suit (which can be easily arranged if
you are the lead player), consider two additional strategies: forcing the other players to
pass rather than scoring yourself, and jamming the game by leaving the spinner arms
unplayed and exposing the same suit on the other two ends of the skeleton. If you
can achieve both objectives you should win the jam having fewer tiles and score all
the points that the opponents are still holding.
If the opponents are nearing the match total and your hand does not have good
scoring potential, play to minimize the total of the skeleton ends. This gives
the opponents less chance to go out and the hope of a better hand in the next
deal.
If you are serious about becoming a better player, you should play as often as possible and
try to play with others who are better than you so that you can learn their strategies.
