What is All Fives?
All Fives, also called Muggins, turns dominoes into a scoring game. Tiles are matched to the ends of the line as usual, with drawing from the boneyard, but after every play the pips on the two open ends are added up. If the total is a multiple of five, such as 5, 10, 15 or 20, the player who made it scores that many points at once.
A double at an end of the line is laid crosswise and counts both of its halves: with 6-6 at one end and a 3 at the other the ends make 15. The first tile of a hand counts all of its pips, so leading 5-5 or 6-4 scores 10 at once. The line always has two ends: no double is played on from the side.
Playing your last tile ends the hand, and you score the pips left in your opponents' hands, each rounded to the nearest five. If nobody can play, the side with the fewest pips wins the hand. Hands are dealt again and again until one side reaches the target, 250 points with two players or two partnerships and 200 with three or four players. Most of the points come from the ends, so the skill lies in setting up totals you can reach and leaving your opponent none.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Dominoes | All Fives |
|---|---|---|
| Points during play | Standard DominoesPlaying a tile scores nothing. | All FivesAfter you play, the open ends are added up. A total of 5, 10, 15 or any other multiple of five scores that many points for you. |
| Doubles | Standard DominoesA double lies in the line like any other tile. | All FivesA double at an end counts both halves, so 6-6 there counts 12. There is no spinner: the line keeps two ends. |
| Going out | Standard DominoesThe first player out wins the game and is credited with the pips left in the other hands. | All FivesThe first player out wins the hand and scores each opponent's pips rounded to the nearest five: 12 counts 10, 13 counts 15. A partner's hand does not count. |
| Blocked hand | Standard DominoesThe lowest pip total in hand wins; equal lowest totals are a draw. | All FivesThe side with the fewest pips wins the hand and scores the other sides' rounded pips minus its own. A tie for fewest pips scores nothing. |
| Length | Standard DominoesOne hand decides the game. | All FivesHands are played until a side reaches 250 points with two players or two partnerships, or 200 with three or four players. The match ends the moment the target is reached, even in mid-hand. |
| Who leads | Standard DominoesThe holder of the highest double leads. | All FivesIn the first hand, the holder of the highest double. Then the player who went out leads; after a blocked hand, the highest double leads again. |
| Other options | Standard DominoesTwo to four players, with partnership play at four seats. | All FivesThe same. With partners, the two partners' points add up and the side plays to 250. |
History
All Fives grew out of cribbage. A game described as All Fives, Fives or Cribbage Dominoes first appeared in English and American sources in 1863. It borrowed cribbage's counting, with every five pips worth one point, and was pegged on a cribbage board to 31. The next year an American book of game rules published rules for a game called Muggins, which dropped the board, scored five pips as five points and was played to 200 with two players and 150 with three or four.
Muggins is a cribbage word for calling out a player who fails to claim their points, and taking the points yourself. That rule was missing from the first rules of Muggins and was added in an American rule book of 1868. From around 1871 the names All Fives and Muggins were used for the same game, and they still are. Here the ends are counted for you, so no points can be overlooked.
Related games count other totals: in Fives and Threes, often called the most popular league and pub domino game in Britain, multiples of three score as well as multiples of five. In later forms such as Sniff, the first double can be played on from all four sides; this game keeps a line with two ends.