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
Chinese dominoes Chinese dominoes Chinese dominoes are used in several tile-based games, namely, Tien Gow, Pai Gow, Tiu U and Kap Tai Shap. In Cantonese they are called "gwat pai" (), which literally means "bone tiles"; it is also the name of a northern Chinese game, where the rules are quite different from the southern Chinese version of Tien Gow. Ming author Xie Zhaozhe (1567–1624) records the legend of dominoes having been presented to Song Emperor Huizong in 1112. However the contemporary Li Qingzhao (1084 – ) made no mention of dominoes in her compendium of games. The oldest confirmed written mention