Dominoes

Although I rarely do, when I go to the local big box retail store, I normally get-in, get-what-I-came for and get-out, but today I walked back into the area where they keep the games.  I was looking for mahjong, but simply couldn't pass up the $2.95 box of double six dominoes. 

When I was younger, my brother received a set of dominoes for a gift and we played it quite a bit, but I haven't played a standard game of Draw Dominoes or Block Dominoes for several years.

I had no idea the game had so many variations. Double Six, Double Nine, Double Twelve, and Double Fifteen stood out as separate sets of dominoes.  Did you know there's even a Pro Domino Association?  There have even been games televised on ESPN.  Who knew?  (It must have been at night when I was sleeping, because I stay pretty in-tune with what's airing on ESPN and I definitely missed the dominoes.

The PDA hosts tournaments throughout the country and promotes the sport to increase interest in the game. From PDADominoes.com :

The PDA has established a leadership brand in scope with other recognizable professional sport and game authorities. We have created a competition infrastructure and maintain stewardship over the game in the worldwide community of domino players.

There's an entire book dedicated to the variations of the game including games like chicken foot, cyprus, matador, fortress, and Mexican train.  I know from talking to my niece and nephew that are recent college grads, Mexican train is becoming more and more popular on college campuses.  You can learn more about these variations of the game at DominoGames.com.

If you don't have a set of dominoes, you can even play online.  Play online Mexican Train here.  For a game that dates back to at least 1120 A.D., it's come a long, long way.