Dominoes domino sets commercially available are double six (with 28 tiles) and double nine (with 55 tiles). Larger sets exist and are popular for games involving several players or for players looking for long domino games. The number of tiles in a set has the formula formula_1 for a double-"n" set. The most popular type of play are layout games, which fall into two main categories, blocking games and scoring games. The most basic domino variant is for two players and requires a double-six set. The 28 tiles are shuffled face down and form the "stock" or "boneyard". Each player draws
Dominoes double-15, and double-18. Larger sets such as double-21 can theoretically exist, but are rarely seen in retail stores, as identifying the number of pips on each domino becomes difficult, and a double-21 set would have 253 pieces, far more than is normally necessary for most domino games even with eight players. The oldest confirmed written mention of dominoes in China comes from the "Former Events in Wulin" (i.e., the capital Hangzhou) written by the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) author Zhou Mi (1232–1298), who listed "pupai" (gambling plaques or dominoes), as well as dice as items sold by peddlers during the reign