Three Dozen

This game is an adaptation of a Korean game called Tjak-ma-tcho-ki ("pair matching") which is played with a Chinese domino set.  This version is played with a Western Double-Six domino set and stakes, by two to five players.  It is a Card-type domino game which has similarities to the standard playing-card game Gin Rummy. It can also be played in other versions with larger Western domino sets from Double-Nines to Double-Eighteens.

Play:

The lead player is chosen at random or by drawing lots and shuffles the dominoes, facedown, then deals each player 5 tiles and 6 to himself.  The remaining tiles are set aside as the boneyard, and are drawn upon by players during the course of play. Each player then places an agreed fixed stake on the playing area, in front of themselves.

If the lead player holds three pairs (see below for a description of what tiles are classed as "pairs"), he places them face-up in front of himself and immediately wins, collecting all the stakes. If he holds one or two pairs, he places those tiles face-up in front of himself and then discards one tile of his choice to the centre of the playing area. If he doesn't hold any pair, he doesn't reveal his tiles, but discards one anyway.

If the second player can make a pair with the previously discarded tile, he takes the discarded tile and does so. If he doesn't take the discarded tile, then he draws another tile from the boneyard, tries to make any pairs he can, and discards any tile of his choice to the centre of the playing area.

Play continues with each player either taking a discarded tile or drawing one from the boneyard until a player holds three pairs and wins the game and takes the stakes, or until the boneyard is exhausted. Once the boneyard is exhausted, the discarded tiles are turned facedown, reshuffled and used as a new boneyard with play continuing as before

There are two different types of pairs players can make with their tiles:

1: Two tiles are considered as a "pair" when they are both consecutive doubles, with the double-blank considered as both high and low:

6-6 & 0-0
5-5 & 6-6
4-4 & 5-5
3-3 & 4-4
2-2 & 3-3
1-1 & 2-2
0-0 & 1-1

2: Two tiles are also considered as a "pair" when the pip totals on both tiles total 12. There are 34 possible pairs of tiles that total 12 in a Double-Six domino set, including 0-0 & 6-6:

Variations:

When played with larger Western domino sets the pair total should be the total of the highest double in the set: 18 for Double-Nines; 24 for Double-Twelves; 30 for Double-Fifteens; 36 for Double-Eighteens. The consecutive double pairs are worked out in the same way as for the standard Double-Six set.

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