Dominos is one of the best-known pizza chains. It is known for its 30 minutes delivery guarantee and has a large customer base. It also offers a variety of products other than pizza.
Domino’s has had some creative marketing strategies. It has branched out from pizza into pasta, bread sides and even chicken wings.
Rules
The most common domino rules are based on blocking games or scoring games. Each player has a certain number of points, and the game ends when one player has played all his tiles or is out. A running total score is often kept for each player.
The first player to make a play may be determined by drawing lots or by seating arrangements. Usually, the winner of the previous game makes the first play. The order of play may also be determined by the heaviest double or single. A double may be a spinner and can be played on all four sides or only two.
Before each game, players shuffle the tiles face down on a flat surface, thoroughly mixing them by moving their hands over the tiles. The players can either take turns shuffling or the same player can do it for each game. In some games, the winning player is allowed to buy extra tiles from the stock and add them to his hand.
Variations
There are a lot of different domino games out there. Some of them use the same rules but are played differently from place to place. The most popular variation is the Block game, but there are also many variants that use different rules. Some of these include Matador, which uses a special tile called the “matador” to replace any other domino on a turn, and Muggins, where players score points by making the sum of all exposed ends a multiple of five.
Another type of domino is the straight domino game, where players draw seven tiles for their hand and then take turns laying matching domino halves end to end. This variation can be a fast-paced game with high scores. The winner is the player who has the fewest tiles left in their hand at the end of the game. Another variation is Chicken Foot, which has an extra element of strategy by requiring players to make “chicken feet” with their tiles in order to prevent their opponents from playing more.
Materials
Over the centuries dominoes have been made from many different materials. Most modern mass produced sets are made from plastics but there are still sets made of stone, metal and wood as well as specialty materials such as foam for giant yard dominoes.
Domino pieces are normally twice as long as they are wide and feature a line down the middle dividing them visually into two squares. The side facing out features a series of dots, called pips, while the opposite side is blank or patterned with a design. Each pips arrangement is assigned a value from zero to six, and the sum of these values is the rank or weight of a domino.
Historically, dominoes were hand carved from animal bone, usually ox bones. Some sets were even made from ivory for wealthier players. This material was often inlaid with a dark wood such as ebony to produce contrasting black and white pips. Other natural materials such as marble and granite have been used in some sets and metals such as brass and pewter in others.
Scoring
The most popular domino games fall into two categories: blocking and scoring. Blocking games are those that involve trying to empty one’s opponent’s hand. A scoring game involves placing a tile on the ends of others in a way that scores points.
Dominoes come in a variety of sizes and shapes, with the most common commercially available set consisting of 28 double-six domino tiles. A domino has a line across it to divide it visually into two parts with values on each end, from six pips down to blank.
The pips on the exposed ends of the domino are called spots or dots, and the value of a domino is based upon its ability to be divided by either five or three. The domino that is the highest is called the “spinner” and may be used to start the scoring in a particular game. Normally, the total score of each player is kept on a domino board.