Blind Hughie

Also known as Blind Dominoes, Blind-Man Block, Secret Dominoes, and Billiton.  A simple children's block-type domino game, played by two to four players, using a Double-Six domino set, which requires no skill or judgement, just luck.

Play:

The dominoes are shuffled, facedown, then each player draws a number of tiles, that they are not allowed to look at, which varies according to the number of players taking part. 

• 2 players draw 14 tiles each.
• 3 players draw 9 tiles each with the remaining tile set as the first of the game.
• 4 players draw 7 tiles each.

Players may not look at their tiles and all must agree on the order in which tiles are played.  For example, if players' hands are set out in a facedown row then players must play consistently in order from the left or right of their row of dominoes.

Players in turn, turn their first tile face-up and play it onto the open ends of the layout if they may, with same-number adjacent to same-number (doubles placed horizontally onto the ends of the layout, allowing play to branch up to four ways, and known as a spinner).   If a player can't play a face-up tile, then it is placed facedown at the other end of their row of tiles, unless it is a double, in which case it is placed down face-up. Players then continue to turn subsequent tiles face-up and play them onto the layout, as before, so long as they can make a play.  Once a player fails to play a tile onto the layout, play passes to the next player.

Once a player has dominoed by setting their last tile, or the game is blocked with no player able to set a tile, the round is over and the player who dominoed or has the lowest total of pips left in their hand, is the winner of that round.  The winner of a round then scores the total number of pips on all the other players' dominoes, minus the total number of pips on any remaining dominoes in their hand.

A number of rounds are played and the first player to score a set total (say 50, 100, 150, 200 or 250 points), wins the game.  

Variations:

Players are allowed to play a face-up double, if they wish, instead of simply their first tile.

Players are only allowed to play one single tile in their turn instead of playing all subsequent playable tiles.

Players are allowed to play any tile they choose and not simply their first tile in order of playable dominoes.  This makes the game more of a game of memory skill, since remembering which facedown tile is which, allows players to make optimal plays.

Sometimes played with no doubles as spinners, or with the first initially set double played as the only spinner of a round or game.

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