Hours and hours of painstaking work have led to this moment. The clock counts down. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Zero! For the next minute, the small rectangular tiles fall, one after the other, in what appear to be hand-crafted portraits of animals, people, nature, and even company logos. In just a minute, it's over. It's all gone. But it was quite a ride!



You've probably seen a few online dominoes videos of international events like the Netherlands? annual Domino Day in which thousands or even millions of dominoes are arranged for a few-minute display. However, dominoes are more than just the tools in a spectacular show. The dominoes game has a history that stretches back nearly nine hundred years!

So you don't have the patience or skill to set up some picture with domino tiles. You like card games, right? What about chess or checkers? Why not learn dominoes rules and play the dominoes game like it was designed?

The dominoes game is immensely popular around the world. In the Latin Americas, dominoes are more popular than Poker. In China, the dominoes game and its derivative Mah Jong are as steeped in Chinese culture as football is the US. It's only in the United States that the dominoes game hasn't gotten the spotlight it deserves.

If you can play a card game, you can play a dominoes game. You just need to familiarize yourself with the dominoes rules. The most common dominoes game, Double Six, is played with a set of 28 tiles, which are called ?bones? in the dominoes game, marked on two ends with a number of dots, or ?pips,? from zero to six.

What are the dominoes rules of play? Two to four players draw six domino bones from the draw pile and keep them from view. The player with the highest double-numbered domino bone puts down that bone first (the double-six is the highest). If no player has a double-numbered bone, the tiles are reshuffled and drawn again.

The next player must play a domino bone with a number that matches that double-numbered tile. He or she should place the second bone perpendicularly to the first. If at any point in the game the player does not have a numbered tile that matches, he or she must draw more bones from the leftover pile until he or she can play. When there are no more bones to draw, the player must knock on the table and pass play to the next player.

Dominoes rules dictate that the design on the played dominoes may stretch out in any direction, but matching numbered tiles must always be placed end to end?except for double-numbered tiles, which are placed perpendicularly to a tile, and when a table runs out of room, in which case a right angle to continue the line is acceptable.

The player to run out of tiles and to call out ?Domino!? first wins. Depending on how you want to play, you can keep score over multiple games by adding up the total number of pips left on the bones still in the other player(s)?s hand(s) and awarding that amount to the winner of the game. The first player to earn a predetermined amount of points wins the match.

If you can't find someone to play the dominoes game with you or you want to get started right now without having to run out and buy a dominoes set, why not play your dominoes games online?

There aren't many dominoes games online and the few there are seem to either charge you to play or suffer from horribly stale graphic design. To play a free online dominoes game that actually makes you feel like you're playing a fun yet serious game, try www.dominomatch.com.

Sign up for an avatar and see your online persona play free online dominoes games on a 3D table view. DominoMatch.com lets you practice your new knowledge of the dominoes rules against one to three computer opponent(s) until you get the hang of the dominoes game. Once you win a few rounds, play against one, two, or three other online dominoes player(s) from around the world!

When your boss isn't looking, you might sneak in a few online puzzle games during the weekday, like Solitaire or Tetris. If you're not fired by now or you really do have the free time to spare, you can add dominoes games online to your online puzzle game rotation!