Mexican train

Mexican train is a game played with dominos, usually a double 12 set containing 91 pieces numbered from 0 to 12. The objective of the game is to get rid of all your pieces as fast as you can and to get as few points as possible.

Playing the game

The first round starts with the double 12 laid down at the center of the table. The second round starts with the double 11, then the double 10, and so on. The 13th round starts with the double 0 and the 14th with the double 12 again. The dealer deals between 8 and 15 pieces depending on the number of players.

Chains of dominos, called trains, are going towards the players starting from the central double (sometimes called the station).
Each player has their own private train, and there exists an additional train, the mexican train, which is owned by nobody.
The personal trains of each of the players are initially closed, meaning that only their respective owners can play on them. On the other hand, the Mexican train is always open, all players can always play on it.

On your turn, you must play a domino from your hand, either into your own personal train, the mexican train, or into any other open train. You aren't allowed to play into a closed train which isn't yours.
As in any domino game, to play in a train, one of the two numbers on the domino you are playing must correspond to the one on the current end of the train. At the beginning of the first round, the first piece of all the trains must be a 12.

If you don't have any playable piece, you must draw one from the boneyard. If the piece just drawn is playable, you can do so immediately. Otherwise, you keep it in your hand and your personal train now becomes open. From now on, any player can play on it.
As soon as you play on your own train, it becomes closed again, and only you are allowed to play on it.

Whether your train is open or closed, you always have the possibility to play in the public train or in another player's train currently open.
Playing in another player's open train doesn't close it. The public mexican train always stays open to all players, at any time.

The first player who got rid of all their pieces wins the round. A round may also be declared a draw if the situation is totally stuck; more precisely if the boneyard is empty and if a complete round of the table happens without anyone being able to play any piece.

Doubles

Playing a double allows you to play again. You can then play any domino in any accessible train. You keep your turn as long as you are playing doubles.

If you leave a double at the end of a train, the double is said to be unterminated. If you don't play another piece just in front of it in order to terminate it, next players will then have to do it.
In such a case, the player who can do it must terminate the double by playing on the appropriate train, even if it is normally private and currently closed. If they can't terminate the double, they must draw, and if they still can't after having drawn, their own personal train becomes open and the turn goes to the next player. As long as the double stays unterminated, no one can play on another train, including the public train.

If several doubles are left unterminated, which can happen if you play multiple doubles in a row, they must be terminated in the reverse order, the first left unterminated double is terminated last.
If you play a double as your last piece, you win the round without playing again.

Scoring

At the end of the round, players count points according to the dominos they still have in hand. The winner, who has an empty hand, doesn't take any point. The double 0 is worth 10.
Players who reach a certain amount of points fixed in advance, 100 for example, go out of the game. The final winner of the game is the last to stay in.

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