Texas 42 Rules: How to Play the Official Domino Game of Texas

Every other game on this site — Block, Draw, All Fives, Mexican Train, Chicken Foot — is played by matching dominoes end to end on the table. Texas 42 throws that idea out entirely. There’s no layout, no matching, no boneyard. Instead, players hold their dominoes like a hand of cards and play a bidding, trick-taking game — closer to Spades or Euchre than to traditional dominoes.

Texas 42 was officially named the State Domino Game of Texas by the Texas Legislature in 2011, and it’s still played widely at family gatherings, church socials, and dedicated tournaments across the state.

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What You’ll Need

• One standard double-six domino set (28 tiles) — see Domino Sets Explained if you’re not sure which set size you have
• Exactly 4 players, in 2 fixed partnerships, seated across from your partner
• A way to track score — paper, or a cribbage board works well

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The Basic Idea

Each domino belongs to two “suits” based on the numbers on its two halves — for example, the 6-4 domino belongs to both the sixes suit and the fours suit. Doubles (like 5-5) are the highest-ranking domino in their suit. Players bid for the right to name a trump suit, then play seven rounds (“tricks”) trying to win points. There are exactly 42 points available in every hand — 7 points from winning tricks, plus 35 points from specific high-value dominoes called counters — which is where the game gets its name.

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Setting Up a Hand

1. Shuffle all 28 dominoes face down and mix thoroughly.
2. Each player draws 7 dominoes and stands them on edge, facing themselves only — same as holding a hand of cards. There is no boneyard; all 28 dominoes are dealt out.
3. The player to the dealer’s left bids first, and bidding moves clockwise.

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Bidding

Bidding determines who gets to name trump for the hand:

• The minimum opening bid is 30.
• Each following bid must be higher than the last, up to a maximum of 42 — a bid of 42 means that player believes their team can win every available point.
• If every player passes without a bid, the hand is thrown in, reshuffled, and redealt.
• The player who wins the bidding becomes the declarer and names the trump suit.

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Naming Trump and Playing Tricks

The declarer names one suit as trump — this can be any number from blank through six, or doubles, which then form their own suit ranked highest domino (6-6) to lowest (0-0).

Play proceeds in tricks, same structure as a card game:

1. The declarer leads by playing any domino from their hand.
2. Each other player, in turn, must follow the suit that was led if they’re able to.
3. If a player can’t follow suit, they may play any domino, including a trump.
4. The trick is won by the highest trump played, or if no trump was played, by the highest domino of the suit that was led.
5. The winner of each trick leads the next one.

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Scoring a Hand

Every hand has exactly 42 points on the table:

• 7 points for tricks — 1 point per trick won, across all 7 tricks
• 35 points from counters — specific dominoes whose two halves add up to 5 or a multiple of 5 (like the 5-0, 4-1, 3-2, and 6-4), worth 5 or 10 points each to whichever team wins the trick they’re played in

The bidding team must score at least what they bid, or the entire bid amount goes to the other team instead. Games are typically played to a set number of points across multiple hands — commonly 250 points, though some groups play to different totals or use a “marks” scoring system instead.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a special domino set to play Texas 42?
No — a standard double-six set (28 dominoes) is all you need. It’s the same set used for Block and Draw Dominoes.

Can Texas 42 be played with fewer or more than 4 players?
The standard game is built around 4 players in fixed partnerships. Some variations exist for 2 or 3 players, but the partnership version is by far the most common and the one described above.

Why is it called “42”?
Because exactly 42 points are available in every hand — 7 from tricks, plus 35 from the counter dominoes.

Is Texas 42 hard to learn?
The rules themselves aren’t complicated, but bidding well takes practice — you’re estimating how many of the 42 points your hand and your partner’s hand can realistically win before you’ve seen a single trick played. Most players find the mechanics click within a game or two, and the strategy deepens from there.

How is Texas 42 different from regular dominoes games like Block or Draw?
Completely different mechanic — Block and Draw are tile-matching, layout-building games, while Texas 42 is a trick-taking, bidding game where dominoes are held and played like cards. See Domino Game Variants for how all of the site’s games compare.