High Fives

A fast moving, point-type domino game, played by two to eight players using a Double-Fifteen domino set and a score sheet.  It was developed by David Galt for the games company Cardinal Industries in 1996.  This game may be considered as a close relation of the Fives family of games, but it also involves "capturing" tiles like Canton or Castle Rock, although captures in High Fives are made by matching ends of tiles rather than tile totals or enclosure by tiles either side..

Play:

The dominoes are shuffled, facedown, to form the boneyard, then each player is dealt a set number of tiles that only they can look at.  The number of tiles dealt may differ for the first hand and subsequent hands, depending on the number of players playing.

First hand:

• 2 to 4 players are dealt 5 tiles each for the first hand.
• 5 to 8 players are dealt 4 tiles each for the first hand.

Following hands:

• 2 to 4 players are dealt 5 tiles each for the following hands.
• 5 to 6 players are dealt 4 tiles each for the following hands.
• 7 to 8 players are dealt 3 tiles each for the following hands.

The remaining tiles are used as the boneyard. Five tiles are drawn from the boneyard and set face-up in a row to form the layout.

Players in turn play a single tile to the layout. If one end of the tile matches an end of any tile already on the layout, then the player captures the pair of tiles and places them next to himself. If the tile played doesn't match a tile on the layout, then the player leaves the tile he played on the layout for the next player to consider and play passes on to the next player in turn.

Should a player leave a matching pair on the layout, then a subsequent player may claim it and still play and match another tile in his turn. This only applies to pairs of tiles and not whole sequential trains of tiles.

Players score points for certain tiles and there are a possible total of 100 points that may be scored in a game, although they may not all be taken due to tiles left on the layout at the end. Doubles score one point each and tiles bearing a pip total which is a multiple of 5 score 1 point for each 5 pips. So a 1-4 scores 1 point, 3-7 scores 2 points, and a 5-15 scores 4 points, while 1-1 scores 1 point and so does 14-14.

The multiple-of-five scoring tiles (84 points in total) are as follows: 

• 1 point tiles: 0-5, 1-4, 2-3
• 2 point tiles: 0-10, 1-9, 2-8, 3-7, 4-6, 5-5
• 3 point tiles: 0-15, 1-14, 2-13, 3-12, 4-11, 5-10, 6-9, 7-8
• 4 point tiles: 5-15, 6-14, 7-13, 8-12, 9-11, 10-10
• 5 point tiles: 10-15, 11-14, 12-13
• 6 point tiles: 15-15

The 84 points for the multiple of five tiles and the 16 points for all the doubles in a Double-Fifteen domino set, make the total of 100 points.

Once the players have played all their tiles, another round is dealt and the number of tiles may vary according to the number of players. The first player in the subsequent round is the player who led in the first.

All the tiles left in the boneyard once the last hand is reached are turned face-up and placed onto the end of the layout for further play. Any tiles left in the layout after the final hand, are left and don't contribute to any player's score.

• 2 to 6 players will leave one extra tile.
• 7 players will leave two extra tiles.
• 8 players will leave three extra tiles.

Players scores are recorded and the player who reaches a predetermined total first, is the winner.

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