Adaptations for western dominoes
All of the games described on this site were originally played with Chinese dominoes, with one exception — Fifteen Lakes (Shi Wu Hu), which was also described for Chinese domino cards.
If you do not have Chinese dominoes, cannot buy them, and do not want to make your own set — but still want to try at least some of these games — there are a few possible adaptations using Western dominoes or even playing cards.
Where relevant, I have included links to Pagat, where you can find additional descriptions of related games.
Connecting games
The most well-known Western domino games are connecting games. Because of this, there are no direct adaptations of Chinese connecting games.
However, you can experiment by taking a standard Western domino set and modifying the mechanics in an “Eastern” style. For example:
- Deal all tiles evenly to the players (leave any extra tiles out of play).
- If a player cannot make a legal move, they simply discard a tile face down.
- You may also try playing in only one direction instead of branching.
That said, the Western domino set is symmetrical, while the Chinese set is fundamentally asymmetrical. Because of this, the distinctive character of Chinese connecting games is inevitably lost in adaptation.
Trick taking games
Tien Gow can actually be played with a standard 52-card deck.
To adapt the deck:
- In the red suits (which represent the civilian suit), remove the Jacks and Nines.
- In the black suits (which represent the military suit), remove all cards below Nine, and also remove the Nine and Jack of Clubs.
The resulting structure works as follows:
- Heaven and Nines → Aces
- Earth and Eights → Kings
- Man and Sevens → Queens
- Harmony and Fives → Tens
The Jack of Spades represents the tile [4:2], and the Nine of Spades represents [2:1]. Together, the Jack and Nine of Spades form the Supreme Pair.
After this adjustment, Tien Gow can be played with essentially the same rules, although of course some authenticity is lost.
Gambling gamees
There are at least two games that attempt to emulate the idea of Pai Gow.
One is the Indonesian game “QiuQiu “, which closely resembles Pai Gow but incorporates poker-style betting mechanics.
The other is the patented game “Twistem “ which only loosely resembles Pai Gow, though it is clearly influenced by it.
Fishing games
There is an adaptation of the game Tsung Shap for Western dominoes called “Canton “.
Canton gives players more flexibility because each player holds a number of dominoes in hand. Otherwise, the core principle of the game remains similar.
Solitaire games
No Chinese solitaire games have been directly transferred to European dominoes. However, if you use the “sum to 12” pairing system (where two dominoes form a pair if their total number of pips equals 12), some of the simpler solitaire layouts — such as Open the Pagoda or Turtle — can be adapted.
You can also invent your own pairing rules. For example, you might require that the corresponding ends of two tiles add up to 6. In this system:
- [4:1] and [2:5] would form a pair (4+2=6 and 1+5=6),
- but [4:1] and [3:4] would not (4+3≠6).
Special rules could be added for tiles containing six pips. These are only suggestions for experimentation.
More complex games, such as Xiang Shi Fu, would require recreating the Chinese triplet system, which has not yet been successfully adapted to Western dominoes.
Collecting games
Since collecting games also exist in Western card traditions, some Western card-collecting mechanics have been adapted for domino sets.
One original domino game inspired by the Korean Jjak-mat-chu-gi is called “Three Dozen “. In my opinion, it improves upon the original because most tiles can pair with more than one other tile. In Jjak-mat-chu-gi, the process of forming combinations is often too straightforward.