Bingo

A card-type domino game, played by two players only, using a Double-Six domino set and a cribbage board or score sheet.  This game is based on a playing-card game called Bingo or Sixty-Six, and was popular at the end of the 19th-century.  The game is related to Bezique and involves some quite complex gameplay.

Play:

The dominoes are shuffled, facedown, then each player draws seven tiles that only they can look at.  The remaining tiles make up the boneyard and are drawn upon by the players during the course of play.

The second player turns over a tile from the boneyard and the highest suit marked on it becomes the trump suit.  Blanks count as seven.  The drawn tile is returned to the boneyard face-up but set slightly off from it because this tile must be drawn last.

The lead player sets down any tile of his choice followed by the second player setting down any tile of his choice with no obligation to follow suit.  The trick is won according to the following rules:

• The player who plays the double-blank (known as the Bingo), wins.  The double-blank beats all other tiles in the set.
• The player who plays a trump tile against a non-trump tile, wins.  Trump tiles with a greater number of pips beat tiles with a lower pip count.  The double of trumps is the highest ranking tile after the double-blank (Bingo).
• The player who plays a non-trump tile with a greater number of pips than another non-trump tile, wins.
• The player who played first, in the case of both non-trump tiles having an equal number of pips, wins.

At the end of each hand, the winner draws a tile from the boneyard and plays the leading tile in the next hand.  However, he may not draw the face-up trump tile unless there are only two left, in which case he takes the face-up tile and the other player draws the remaining facedown tile.

When a player believes he can score 70 or more points without drawing further tiles from the boneyard, he may announce that he is "closing the game" and turn the face-up tile facedown.  The rest of the hand's tricks are played according to the following rules with winning tiles ranked as before:

• No further tiles are drawn from the boneyard.
• If the lead player plays a trump, then the second player must play a trump if possible.
• If the lead player plays a trump and the second player has none, he may play any tile he wishes.
• If the lead player plays a non-trump tile, then the second player must play a tile bearing the higher suit of the first non-trump tile if possible.
• If the lead player plays a non-trump tile and the second player holds no tiles bearing the higher suit value, he must play a tile bearing the lower suit value if possible.
• In all other cases, the second player may play any tile he wishes.

If a player announced he was "closing the game" and he fails to make the 70 points required, then both players score the points they made during the play of the hand, but the other player scores two rubbers as well.

A rubber (also known as a game point or set) is made whenever a player has made a total score of 70 points or more.  Once a player has scored 7 rubbers, they win the overall game.

Points made from tricks are scored at the end of a hand, but the other points are scored as they are called by a player.

Points are scored by winning tricks with either a special tile, a double, or with a tile bearing the trump suit.  The blank suit counts as 7.  Tiles only score once as either a special tile, a double, or a trump tile.

Special Tiles Score:

0-0 Bingo = 14 points
0-3 Little Three = 10 points
6-4 Big Ten = 10 points

Doubles Score:

Double of Non-Trumps excluding 0-0 = Total number of all pips on tile

Trump Tiles Score:

Double of Trumps = 28 points
Any Other Trump = Total of all pips on tile

Table of possible scoring points for all suits:

Players may also score points by showing any doubles remaining in their hand once they have won a trick by playing a double.  Players do this by announcing the number of doubles they wish to score for and then showing the other player the doubles in their hand.  The doubles are scored and subsequently taken back into their hand by the scoring player.  The number of points scored for showing doubles are as follows in the table:

Should one of the doubles shown be the Bingo (0-0) then the showing player scores an additional 10 points. (Because Invincible consists of all the doubles including the Bingo (0-0) it means that it always scores 110 points.)

Players who score 70 points after their opponent has scored at least 30 points, score one rubber.

 Players who score 70 points before their opponent has scored at least 30 points, score two rubbers.

Players who score 70 points before their opponent has scored any points, score three rubbers.

Players who win a trick with the Bingo against the double-trump, score one rubber.

The first player to score 7 rubbers, wins the game.

Variations:

Some versions use a total of 66 points to make a rubber and not 70.  This convention is taken from the related card game Sixty-Six.

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