Jamaican Dominoes Rules
Learn the partner-style dominoes concepts behind Six Love: posing, passing, blocking, team play, and the race to win hands.
Jamaican dominoes rules can vary by table, family, and community. This guide explains common Jamaican partner dominoes concepts and the version used in Six Love.
Quick Overview
Jamaican partner dominoes is usually played as a 2v2 block dominoes game. Partners sit across from each other and try to control the board together. In Six Love, teams are North-South versus East-West, turns move counter-clockwise, and the default full match is first to six hands.
Players, Teams, Set, and Deal
Players and Teams
Four players sit around the table. North and South are partners; East and West are partners.
Domino Set
Six Love uses a double-six domino set with 28 tiles. Each tile appears once.
No Boneyard
All tiles are dealt into player hands. If you cannot make a legal play, you pass instead of drawing.
Starting the Game
In the first hand, the player with the double-six poses first. In Six Love, the double-six must start the first hand. After a hand has a winner, that winning player starts the next hand and can pose with any tile.
To pose means to place the opening tile for the hand. From there, players take turns matching one open end of the board.
Taking Turns
- On your turn, play a tile that matches one of the exposed pips on the board.
- If both ends are open and your tile can fit either side, the app chooses a legal placement based on the move flow.
- If you have no legal move, you pass.
- Six Love does not allow a pass when you have a playable tile.
- Passing matters because it reveals information about suits a player may be blocked on.
Winning a Hand
A hand can end when a player plays their last tile. That player's team wins the hand, and the winning player starts the next hand.
A hand can also end when the board is blocked and no player has a legal move. In Six Love, blocked-hand results are decided by the lowest individual pip count left in hand. If more than one player ties for the lowest count, the hand is treated as tied instead of awarding the hand.
First to Six and Six Love
In a full Six Love match, the first team to win six hands wins the match. That first-to-six race gives the game its name and creates the classic shutout idea: six to love.
The app also supports shorter match targets in some modes, including quick sets and one-hand sprints, but first to six is the core full-match rhythm.
Common Terms
Pose
The opening play of a hand.
Pass
Skipping your turn because no tile in your hand can legally play.
Block
A board state where a player, or eventually everyone, cannot play on the open ends.
Slam
An expressive tile play or winning sequence used in Six Love to bring table energy to the screen.
Love
A zero score in the match score.
Six Love
A six-to-zero shutout and the name of the app.
How Six Love Handles the Rules
Six Love enforces turn order, legal moves, passing rules, hand wins, blocked-hand handling, match targets, and scoring. You can learn the table flow by playing vs AI, then move into online matches or private tables with friends.
Want to play these rules online? Download Six Love or read about how to play Jamaican dominoes online.