Chicken Foot dominoes is so called due to the shape the dominoes make as they are played according to the rules.
The game of chickenfoot which is sometimes known as ‘chickie foot’, is a different variation of regular dominos but the aim is still the same – to win the game by playing all your tiles, or to have the lowest score at the end if you can’t.
At the end of the game your score is counted by adding up the dots on your remaining dominoes. This means that it’s always best to try and play your higher numbered dominoes as soon as possible.
How to play chicken foot dominoes
To begin, the dominoes are laid face down on the table, each player must then pick five dominoes. The player who draws the double 6 must play it to start the game. If nobody has the double six then the next highest double domino has to be played. The player who sits on the left of the first player, must play any domino they have with a 6 on it. The game continues like this until a domino with a six on it has been added to all 4 sides of the first domino. If they don’t have a 6, then they must pick up a new domino from the pile of dominoes in the centre of the table and either play this or pass. Nothing else can be played until all four sides of the first double tile have been filled. Once this happens, then the usual dominoes rules apply where you play any matching domino to the exposed end of a played domino.
The first player to win 7 games is deemed the champion.
What makes chicken foot dominoes different?
The difference when playing Chickenfoot is that any time a player plays a double domino on the exposed domino with the same number as the double, the player has to call out ‘Chickie (number)’. This then means that from this point forward, there must be 3 more of this number played before the players can move on to another number. For example, someone may say ‘chickie 3’. This means that the next three dominos should all have a three in them and should be placed onto the double three that was placed down. This resembles a chickenfoot shape, hence the name of the game being chickenfoot.
If any player doesn’t have a three to play, they must take a domino from the centre pile. If it has a three on it they can immediately play it down but if it doesn’t, that’s the end of their turn and play continues with the next player. After there have been three dominoes placed with 3s on them, the next player can play any domino they like that matches an exposed end. This continues until there are no dominos left, or until there can be no more dominos placed.
