It is vitally important that any comments on this game make reference to the version number (shown below).
Version 1.0a (13 November 1996)
The games is officially deemed to have started when somebody calls out "Somebody get the odd men out!".
Each player takes a number of doms from the stockyard (max 13 doms per player up to 6 players. For more than 6 players divide the doms equally between players and the stockyard).
The player with the Signed First Edition (double one) lays it on the table and play commences clockwise from there. If the SFE is in the stockyard, then the Penguin Classics Edition (double two), or the Wordsworth Classics Edition (double three) etc. etc. down to the Readers Digest Condensed Edition (Double twelve) is used to start.
A player, on his turn, has two choices of move : .
A dom may be laid on any end provided that the joint it makes totals 13 pips. Thus if the 2:5 is laid against the 11:3, the joint totals 13 and the dom is legal. The doms in the pack that themselves total 13 pips (11:2, 9:4, 8:5 etc.) and the double blank are known as Hemingways . These may be laid on any end at any time, but they are usually laid sideways (i.e. across the line of play). This creates two ends that may be played off, creating a "Y" shaped bifurcation - e.g. if the 11:2 is played across the line of play and the dom at the other end of the pattern is the 6:4 with the 6 facing outwards, legal doms may be played off the 6, the 11, or the 2. So:.
11 6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2The following moves would be acceptable:
4 -- 2 __ 11 6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2or
11 6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2 __ 11 -- 9or
11 12:7|6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2It will be realised that a blank ended dom kills an end. The end may only be resuscitated by a Hemingway. If a player cannot play a legal dom then a dom is drawn from the stockyard. Watch out for the Whorlow Gambit - persistent attempts to play doms that do not make a joint of 13, even though they look as if they ought to. Look out also for Corens - things that look like Hemingways and fool you into playing them but aren't!