How to Keep Score in Dominican Domino

Before the first tile is dealt, both teams agree on the target score for the game. The most common choices are 100 points for a shorter game and 200 points for a longer session. Some groups use 150 or 300, and some play a fixed number of hands with the highest score winning.

The target must be agreed upon and cannot be changed mid-game. This is also when you should agree on the tranque scoring method and whether capicua earns a bonus.

When a player places their last tile and closes the chain, their team wins the hand. To calculate the score for that hand, count the pips on every tile remaining in each opponent's hand and add those two totals together. That sum goes to the winning team.

Example: Team A wins the hand. Opponent 1 has tiles remaining worth 8 pips. Opponent 2 has tiles remaining worth 11 pips. Team A scores 19 points for that hand, added to their running total.

A tranque occurs when neither team can extend the chain because both open ends are dead. To resolve it, each team counts the pips on all tiles remaining in their two hands combined. The team with the lower pip total wins the hand.

How much the winning team scores from a tranque depends on the house rule agreed before the game. The two most common methods are: (1) the winning team scores the pip difference between the two teams, or (2) the winning team scores the full pip total of the losing team's combined remaining tiles. Confirm which rule applies before you start.

Capicua happens when a player closes the chain by playing a tile that fits both open ends of the domino chain simultaneously — the tile's two numbers match the two open ends, and the player plays last. It is a celebrated moment at the table.

The capicua bonus varies by house rule. Common approaches include: adding the pip value of the capicua tile itself to the hand score, doubling the hand's point value, or adding a flat bonus of 10 or 25 points. Some casual tables award no bonus at all. Agree before the game starts.

Because score is calculated from pips remaining in losing hands, the strategic value of low-pip tiles increases as the hand progresses. A team heading toward a tranque wants to shed heavy tiles — double sixes, double fives, the burro — as early as the chain allows.

Even when you cannot win the hand outright, minimizing your pip count means your opponents score less if they win. This is why experienced players do not hold high-pip tiles carelessly and why tracking opponents' passes (which reveal what numbers they cannot answer) shapes which end you choose to play toward.