How to Count the Board in Dominoes
Dominoes is a strategy based game and involves the use of tiles. Unlike other board games, this particular game involves a fair amount of arithmetic. When playing dominoes, you will have to ‘Count the Board’. This is one of the principle strategies in dominoes and is used to determine the possible locations of particular domino tiles on the board. With just the right amount of practice, you should be able to ‘Count the Board’ very easily even if you are not too good at arithmetic. Here is how you can count the board in dominoes.
Instructions
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1
In a given set of dominoes tiles, find the highest numbered tile. The maximum number being shown in a certain set may not exceed 5. However, it is also possible for a set to show numbers going all the way up to the number 12.
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2
Increase the number which you determined in Step 1 by one. The resulting number will give you the number of dominoes tiles of all possible denominations in a particular set, including blanks as well. For instance, if the highest number that you determined in the first step was 6, that particular dominoes set will have a total of 7 blanks, 7 ones, 7 twos, 7 three, 7 fours and so on.
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3
Hold the tiles in your hand so that other players can not see them and make a note of all the denominations in your mind. For instance, you may have tiles denominations of five, seven and eights but none with three or fours.
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4
Referring to the denominations you are holding in your hand, count the number on onboard denominations for each of the tiles in your hand.
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5
Sum up the number of each of the hand held denomination and the number of corresponding onboard denominations.
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6
Calculate the difference between the number which you determined in Step 5 and the number which you determined in Step 2. The resulting number is the total number of domino tiles which still have to be played. This will help you determine the number of pieces which are either being held by other players or are in the bone-yard. This number can also help you determine as to which player has control over different arms of the dominoes board so that you can play you denominations more effectively, thus increasing your chances of winning.
