Double nine, four players, two teams, and nothing to draw from. This is how it's played on the porch, and how it's played here.
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install, no account.
Cuban dominoes is a partnership game. You and your partner sit opposite each other, with the two rivals on either side. Every tile you play is played for both of you: the number you kill, the end you leave open, the heavy tile you hold on to. That's why there's so much scolding at a Cuban table — you're not playing your game, you're playing the team's.
The biggest difference from the dominoes most people know is the set. Cuban is double nine, not double six: more tiles, more numbers, more room to think. (Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also play double nine; Mexico and Spain usually play double six, and some places in the United States play double twelve.)
The tiles are shuffled face down — dar agua — everyone takes ten, and the remaining 15 stay face down, out of play, until the next hand. In the first hand, whoever holds the highest double leads. After that, whoever won the previous hand leads.
The line grows from its two open ends. On your turn you play a tile matching one of them. If you have nothing that fits, you knock and pass — out loud, because passing is information. If you pass on fives, everyone now knows you have no fives.
The first player with no tiles left shouts "¡me pegué!" and the hand ends. Their team collects every pip still in the two opponents' hands. A tile is worth the sum of its two numbers: 9-6 is fifteen points, 3-0 is three.
If nobody can play, the game is trancado (blocked). Everyone turns their tiles over and counts: the team with fewer pips in hand wins the hand and collects the other team's pips. If both teams have the same count, nobody scores and the hand doesn't count as won.
Going out with a tile that fit both ends at once is a capicúa. It doesn't change the count, but it gets shouted, celebrated, and remembered. It's what this game is named after.
Winning the whole match without the other team scoring a single point is a pollona. You draw a little chicken next to their name and bring it up for weeks.
| They say | It means |
|---|---|
| Dar agua | Shuffle the tiles face down. The losers do it. |
| La data | The ten tiles you were dealt. |
| Las dormidas | The fifteen sleeping tiles nobody takes. |
| La salida | The opening tile of the hand. |
| Ser mano | To be the one who leads. |
| Pegarse | To go out and win the hand. The call is "¡me pegué!" |
| Tocar la mesa | To pass, by knocking on the table with your knuckles. |
| Tengo letras | "I got letters instead of numbers": nothing fits. |
| Tranque | A blocked game. "¡Tranque! A virarse, caballero." |
| Capicúa | Going out with a tile that fit both ends. |
| Pollona | A shutout: the match won without the other team scoring. |
| Botar la gorda | To dump your heavy tiles. A botagorda dumps them without thinking. |
| Estar gordo | To be holding a lot of heavy tiles. Unwise to announce. |
| Ahorcar un doble | To leave a double with no way to be played. |
| Estar agachao | Holding back a tile you could have played. The classic partner complaint. |
| Matar un número | To cover a number so it can't be played. |
| Señas | Signals between partners. It's cheating, and everyone is watching for it. |
| Los mirones son de palo | Onlookers are made of wood: if you're watching, keep quiet. |
| El dominó lo inventó un mudo | "Dominoes was invented by a mute." Play, don't talk. |
Capicúa is a free Cuban dominoes game in your browser: the neighbors talk trash out loud in Cuban Spanish with English subtitles, slam their tiles, and there's a global leaderboard and levels.