Fishing

Known as Tiu U in Chinese. A simple Asian game, played with two Chinese domino sets, by two or three players, often for stakes.

Play:

The tiles are shuffled facedown then piled in a "woodpile" of consecutive columns of stacks-of-four.  Four stacks-of-four (16) are taken from the end of the woodpile and laid out face-up in the centre of the playing area.  Players then draw their hands from the remaining woodpile, with each player taking two stacks-of-four when three players are taking part, or three stacks-of-four with two players playing.

Players in turn try to match one of the tiles in their hand with one of the face-up tiles in the centre of the playing area.  Every time a pair is made it is removed from play and set down in front of the player who made the match.  Whether a player was able to make a matching pair in their turn or not, he then draws a tile from the top of the end stack of the woodpile and if he can match it with one of the face-up tiles in the playing area then those tiles are removed from play and set down in front of the player who made the match.  If the newly drawn tile isn't matched, it is placed face-up in the centre of the playing area.

Tiles match when they bear the same total number of pips, regardless of whether they are identically marked or not.  The 2-1 and 2-4 (Supreme pair) may also be considered as matching.  If a player is dealt a matching pair of double-sixes (6-6) he may set them down in front of him, as a removed pair, immediately.

If there are a pair of identically marked matching tiles already in the central playing area and a player has a third identical tile, they may set it down in the playing area with the first two and all three may be removed from play by a subsequent play in which a player has the fourth identical tile. This play is only possible with the Civil suit's doubles, 3-1, 5-1, 6-1, 6-4 and 6-5 because these are the only tiles with four identical copies in the two Chinese domino sets.

Play continues in turn, going anticlockwise, until the woodpile is exhausted and all the tiles have been played.

Players then total their scores from the matching pairs set out in front of them at the end of the game.

Tiles with less than eight pips are known as "little fish" and score one point for every red spot they have, with their scoring points raised up to the nearest multiple of ten. For example, 6 red spots would score 10 points.

Tiles with eight or more pips are known as "big fish" and score two points for every pip they have, regardless of their colour.

The player with the highest score, wins the game and each of the other players pays him the difference between his score and theirs.

To Find A Comprehensive List Of Many Other Domino Games, Visit...

www.domino-play.com/GamesAtoZ.htm