Mexican Train Dominoes Variations & House Rules
Every popular Mexican Train variation: set sizes from double-6 to double-18, Chicken Foot compared, Longana, branching doubles, and real house rules.
Table of Contents
How Many Ways Are There to Play Mexican Train?
More than almost any other domino game. Mexican Train has a widely shared core — personal trains, one communal train, an engine in the middle, pips counted against you — but nearly everything around that core varies from table to table: the size of the set, how the first turn works, what happens to open doubles, even what the double-blank is worth. When I researched the major published rule sets while building our online version, they genuinely disagreed on several points, so “the way my family plays” and “the way your family plays” can both be right.
This page maps the landscape: set-size variants, the Chicken Foot comparison, the traditional Cuban relative Longana, and the house rules you are most likely to meet. For the baseline, start with the full rules.
Set Sizes: Double-6, Double-9, Double-12, and Beyond
The standard Mexican Train set is the double-12 (91 tiles), but the game scales to whatever set you own. A double-n set contains every pairing of 0 through n, which works out like this:
| Set | Tiles | Best for | Full game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double-6 | 28 | 2-3 players | 7 rounds (6-6 down to 0-0) |
| Double-9 | 55 | 2-4 players | 10 rounds (9-9 down to 0-0) |
| Double-12 | 91 | 2-8 players | 13 rounds (12-12 down to 0-0) |
| Double-15 | 136 | Large groups | One round per double, played the same way |
| Double-18 | 190 | Very large groups | One round per double, played the same way |
The pattern is simple: each round is started by the next double down, so the number of rounds in a full game follows the set. Boxed Mexican Train products ship with double-12 sets, which is why 91 tiles and 13 rounds are treated as the default everywhere.
The giant double-15 and double-18 sets exist mainly so very large tables never run out of tiles, and they are where you will most often see the multiple-Mexican-Trains house variant (below).
Hand sizes deserve their own warning: published rule sets disagree by a tile or two at nearly every player count, so no chart is “the” chart. A common double-12 deal is 15 tiles for 2-4 players, 12 for 5-6, and 10 for 7-8 — and the exact count does not affect fairness as long as everyone draws the same number and enough tiles remain in the boneyard.
Mexican Train vs Chicken Foot: What Is the Difference?
Chicken Foot is the other big American trains-and-doubles domino game, and the two are cousins — but they are structurally different games, not rule tweaks of each other. Chicken Foot is said to have originated in Texas or Mexico, and it is played in rounds just like Mexican Train: with a double-9 set that is 10 rounds, from the 9-9 down to the double-blank, with the highest double led first.
Three things separate them:
- No personal trains, no Mexican Train. This is the single biggest difference. In Chicken Foot everyone plays on one shared communal layout (sometimes called the barnyard). There is nothing that belongs to you, no markers, and no private train to plan around.
- The chicken foot mechanic. When a double is played, play everywhere else stops until three tiles have been branched off that double, forming the namesake foot. Mexican Train’s open-double rule is a milder version of the same idea: one covering tile, not three.
- The 50-point double-blank. Both games count the pips left in your hand, but in Chicken Foot the double-blank scores 50 as standard. That rule is almost certainly the source of the popular Mexican Train house rule.
The practical difference at the table: Mexican Train is a game of parallel planning, while Chicken Foot is more chaotic and blocking-driven. We compare the two in full — layouts, doubles, scoring, drawing and which one suits your group — on the dedicated Mexican Train vs Chicken Foot page.
Longana: The Traditional Cuban Relative
Longana — also called Dominó Cubano — is the game most commonly cited as Mexican Train’s traditional ancestor: a Cuban and Latin American game for four players using a double-9 set, in which each player builds their own branch off the starting double. Personal lines radiating from a central double is the shared skeleton of both games; the modern packaging — communal train, markers, station hub, 13 rounds — was standardized in the United States in the 1990s. The full story, including why a game called Mexican Train has a closest relative called Cuban dominoes, is on our history page.
Branching Doubles: The Chicken Foot Crossover
Branching doubles is a Mexican Train house variant that imports Chicken Foot’s signature move. Instead of a double simply needing to be covered once, a double becomes a branch point: the train splits and continues in more than one direction off the double. It turns a tidy line of trains into a sprawling layout and creates many more playable ends as the round goes on. If your group enjoys it, that is a strong sign you should try actual Chicken Foot, because this variant is explicitly a crossover between the two games.
Popular House Rules (and Where They Come From)
Every rule in this section is a house rule or a documented variant — none of them is part of the most common baseline, but all of them are played by real groups. The honest formula for all of these: most groups play the standard version; some play it differently. Agree before the first tile is drawn.
The 50-point double-blank
Standard scoring counts every pip, so the double-blank is worth nothing — the best possible tile to be caught holding. The popular house rule, borrowed from Chicken Foot, makes it worth 50 points instead, turning the game’s most harmless tile into its most dangerous. If your group plays this, dumping the 0-0 early becomes a genuine strategic priority. See the scoring guide for the full standard system.
Multi-tile first turn vs one tile per turn
This one is a genuine split between major published rule sets, not a fringe rule. Many groups — following the pagat.com and University Games rules — let each player lay as many tiles as they like on their very first turn, so long as they form a valid train. The Puremco-lineage rules instead deal one tile per turn from the very start; you plan your train in your hand and lay it out tile by tile. Neither is wrong. In the multi-tile version, you may not play on another player’s train or start the Mexican Train during that first turn.
No blocking on open doubles
Under the most common rules, an uncovered double freezes the table: it is the only legal place to play until someone satisfies it. But the University Games boxed instructions contain no blocking rule at all — the double simply sits there and play continues normally. If you learned from that box, you learned a genuinely different game around doubles, and it is worth flagging before you play with a new group.
Must cover your own double
Under the common rules, the extra tile you owe after playing a double may go on any eligible train — it does not have to cover the double itself. Some house rules require you to cover your own double immediately if you can. Related: some groups allow only one double per turn, where the standard rules let you chain several doubles in succession before playing the closing non-double.
No going out on a double
The Puremco-lineage and pagat.com rules both allow you to win the round by playing a double as your final tile. A widespread house rule forbids it, forcing you to keep a non-double as your last tile or draw. Ask before the endgame, not during it.
Tap penalties
Most rule sets require you to announce when you are down to one tile, usually by tapping it on the table. A common house-rule penalty for forgetting: draw two tiles. Some tables treat the tap as pure courtesy with no penalty at all.
Ascending rounds and multiple Mexican Trains
Two smaller variants worth knowing: some groups run the engines in ascending order, from the double-blank up rather than the double-12 down; and very large tables playing with double-15 or double-18 sets sometimes allow more than one Mexican Train, since a single communal train gets crowded with that many players.
Shortened Games: You Do Not Have to Play All 13 Rounds
A full double-12 game is 13 rounds, but shorter games are explicitly sanctioned — the major rule sets say outright that groups may agree to play fewer rounds. A round typically takes around 20-30 minutes with four players, so all 13 is a long evening; three, five, or seven rounds are common compromises.
Our free online version is built around exactly this idea. It uses the standard double-12 set and offers four match lengths: Quick (1 round), Blitz (3), Short (7 — the default), and Full (all 13 rounds, from 12-12 down to 0-0). You can play Mexican Train free in your browser — solo against AI bots or local pass-and-play, up to 4 players in any mix — with no download or sign-up. And where tabletop rules are disputed, our game picks one clear ruleset and tells you: doubles must be covered, the double-blank scores 0, and every deal is genuinely random and reproducible from its seed — no rigged shuffles, no difficulty rubber-banding.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Mexican Train and Chicken Foot?
Chicken Foot has no personal trains and no Mexican Train — everyone shares one layout, and every double stops play until three tiles have been branched off it. Mexican Train is built on parallel personal trains and rewards longer-range planning; the 50-point double-blank is standard in Chicken Foot but only a house rule in Mexican Train. See the full side-by-side comparison.
Can you play Mexican Train with a double-6 set?
Yes — a regular 28-tile set handles 2-3 players, with about 5 tiles each and a 7-round full game. Our double-6 guide covers the details.
Is the double-blank worth 50 points?
Only as a house rule. Standard Mexican Train scoring counts pips, making the double-blank worth zero. The 50-point version is imported from Chicken Foot, where it genuinely is the standard rule.
What is Longana?
A Cuban and Latin American four-player domino game, also called Dominó Cubano, played with a double-9 set where each player builds a branch off the starting double. It is the most commonly cited traditional relative of Mexican Train.
Do you have to play all 13 rounds?
No. Agreeing on fewer rounds is explicitly allowed by the major rule sets. Pick a number before you start — three or seven are popular.
Can you play multiple tiles on your first turn?
Depends on your table. The pagat.com and University Games rules allow a full opening string on turn one; the Puremco-lineage rules play one tile per turn from the start. Both are widely played — agree in advance.