Texas 42 Glossary: Domino Rules & Slang

If you have never handled dominoes, start here. Each entry builds toward Texas 42. For full rules, see Rules.

Dominoes are not playing cards. They are thick tiles you can stand on edge. Texas 42 uses them like a deck for a four-player partnership trick-taking game.

The physical tiles

Domino (domino tile, piece): A small, stiff rectangle, usually synthetic resin or bone in historic sets, divided into two square ends. Each end displays a pattern of round pips or is blank.
Bone (rock): Traditional informal names for any domino tile. Players often refer to shuffling as "washing the bones" or "stirring the rocks."
Pip (spot, dot): One round indented mark on the face of a domino. Pips are arranged in standard geometric patterns so players can read values instantly at a glance.
End (side, half): One square half of a domino tile. Every domino has exactly two ends, which can display identical pip counts (a double) or different pip counts (a non-double).
Bar (center line): The dividing groove or printed line across the middle of a domino tile separating its two ends.
Heaviest domino (lightest domino): The tile holding the highest or lowest total pip count (6-6 is heaviest at 12 pips; 0-0 is lightest at 0 pips). In traditional Texas 42, drawing for the heaviest domino determines who shakes and deals the first hand.

Sets and numbers

Double (doublet): A domino whose both ends show the same number of pips (such as 0-0, 3-3, or 6-6). In Basic 42, doubles serve as the highest-ranking tile in their respective suits.
Non-double: A domino with two different numbers on its ends (such as 5-2 or 6-4). In Texas 42, a non-double tile belongs to two distinct suits at once until a trump suit is named.
Blank (zero, white, naught, nil, window): An end containing no pips. In Texas 42, blanks constitute a complete, legitimate suit alongside ones through sixes, totaling seven tiles.
Double-six set: The standard 28-tile domino set used in Texas 42. It comprises every combination of numbers from blank (0) through six, containing seven doubles and twenty-one non-doubles.
Rank (value 0-6): The seven standard numerical pip values on the tiles: blank (0) through six. Texas 42 never uses double-nine or double-twelve tiles.
Suit (in Texas 42): One of seven number families in the deck: blanks, ones, twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes. Each suit contains seven tiles. When a trump suit is declared, all seven tiles bearing that number belong exclusively to trump, leaving their secondary suits for that hand.
Aces, deuces, treys, …: Traditional spoken terminology for the domino suits: blanks (windows, nils), ones (aces, bullets), twos (deuces, ducks), threes (treys), fours, fives, and sixes.

Shuffle, deal, hand

Shuffle (wash, shake, stir): Mixing all 28 tiles face down on the table to ensure a thoroughly randomized draw. Players typically wash the tiles with circular motions across the felt.
Boneyard: The communal pool of shuffled, face-down dominoes on the table from which players draw their initial hands.
Deal: Distributing seven tiles to each of the four players. In standard Texas 42, all 28 tiles are dealt or drawn, leaving no remaining boneyard during gameplay.
Hand: The seven dominoes held privately by an individual player. The term also denotes the full cycle of seven tricks played between successive shuffles.
On edge: The customary posture of dominoes in 42: standing vertically on edge with faces oriented toward the player and backs facing the center of the table.
Dealer (shaker, shuffler): The player responsible for shuffling and facilitating the draw for that hand. The dealer position rotates clockwise after every deal.
Pregnant: Table slang for a player who mistakenly draws or holds more than seven tiles, requiring an immediate redeal or penalty under tournament rules.
Forced bid (dropped bid, force): A widespread house rule where, if the first three players pass, the dealer (shuffler) is forced to bid 30 rather than passing. The bid is said to be "dropped" on the shuffler.
Redeal (throw in, pass out): When all four players pass without bidding, the tiles are reshuffled and redealt by the next shaker. This is the official tournament standard alternative to a forced bid.

Table and partnerships

Partnership: Two fixed teams of two players each. Partners sit directly opposite each other across the table, alternating seating positions with opponents.
Partner: Your teammate throughout the match. Partners share a combined score and work cooperatively through silent strategy, but may never expose tiles to each other.
Opponents: The rival partnership seated between you and your partner, competing to capture count and set your contracts.
North-South vs East-West: The standard directional notation for tables and score sheets: North and South form one partnership, while East and West form the opposing partnership.
Table talk (signaling, talking across the board): Any vocal comment, gesture, hesitation, or code meant to convey information about one's hand to a partner. Strictly prohibited as cheating in all competitive domino play.
Pointing: An illegal physical signal where a player orients or positions a played tile on the table to secretly indicate suits or holdings to their partner.
Misplay: A procedural infraction during play, such as playing out of turn, leading out of turn, or exposing a tile prematurely. Penalized in tournaments by loss of trick or hand award.

Tricks, suits, trump

Trick (round): One round of play where each of the four players contributes one tile clockwise around the table. Exactly seven tricks are played per hand, with each trick won worth 1 point.
Lead (lead the trick): The first domino played to a trick. The led tile establishes the suit that all other players must follow if able. For non-trump leads, the higher end sets the suit.
In the lead: Holding the right to play first to the current trick by virtue of having won the contract auction or won the immediately preceding trick.
Opening: The very first lead of the hand played by the winning Declarer, at which point the trump suit is formally announced to the table.
Trump: The designated dominant suit named by the Declarer that outranks all other suits for the duration of the hand. Any trump played beats any non-trump tile.
Follow suit: The mandatory rule requiring a player to play a tile matching the led suit if they hold one. Players unable to follow suit are void and may play any tile.
Play (lay, pitch): To place a chosen domino face up in the center of the table on your legal turn as your contribution to the trick.
Discard (slough, throw off, unload): Playing an off-suit tile when unable to follow suit. A discard cannot win the trick unless it is a trump tile played to a non-trump lead.
Win the trick (take the trick): Capturing the four played tiles with the highest-ranking tile: highest trump wins if any trump was played; otherwise the highest tile of the led suit wins.
Trump in (cut, ruff): Playing a trump tile on a non-trump lead when void in that suit, cutting under the high non-trump tiles to capture the trick.
Overtrump: Playing a higher trump tile on a trick where an opponent has already played a lower trump, reclaiming the trick for your team.
Void: Having zero tiles remaining in a particular suit. Being void grants the freedom to trump in or discard count tiles when that suit is led.
Pull trump (draw trump, run trump): Leading high trumps early in the hand to draw out and exhaust opponents' trumps, ensuring your team's off-suit winners cannot be trumped later.
Call in: Strategically leading a specific suit (often trumps) to deliberately flush out an opponent's dangerous high tile that could jeopardize the contract.
Come to partner: Leading a domino that you anticipate your partner can win, thereby transferring the lead to them so they can lead through opponents or help unload your offs.
Walker (walk, walking a tile): A mid-to-low tile that has become an unbeatable winner because all higher-ranking tiles in that suit have already been played. Walking a tile means leading it confidently as a free trick.
Tops (boss): The highest unplayed tile remaining in any given suit. Tracking the current tops across all seven suits is fundamental to expert play.
3-Trumped (three-deep): A perilous situation where a single opponent holds three or more tiles in the bidder's declared trump suit, threatening to outlast the bidder's trumps and set the contract.
Plan A and Plan B: The two primary offensive strategies. Plan A is standard: pull trumps early, discard straight offs, and walk winners. Plan B is a tactical pivot used when 3-trumped: lead off-suit doubles early to force opponents' count out before losing trump control.
Feed (grease the partner): Discarding a valuable 5-count or 10-count tile onto a trick your partner is guaranteed to win, banking the points safely for your partnership.
Indicating: A legal, silent signaling tactic where a void player sloughs an off-suit tile whose high end tells partner they hold the double of that suit (e.g., sloughing 6-1 indicates holding 6-6).
False indicator: An off-suit tile played that does not match the double of that suit in hand. Partners must evaluate whether a discard is a deliberate indicator or merely an unavoidable exit.
Reverse Indicating: Sloughing the double itself in a suit to signal to your partner that you hold the next highest remaining tile (the cow or top walker) in that suit.
Renege: The illegal failure to follow suit when holding a playable tile of the led suit. A renege forfeits the hand and immediately awards the full bid value to the opponents.

Bidding and scoring

Bid: A competitive declaration of the minimum points (30-41) or marks (42, 84, etc.) your team guarantees to win. Bidding proceeds clockwise with each player receiving exactly one turn.
Pass: Declining to enter a higher bid on your turn. Once a player passes, they cannot bid again during that auction.
Declarer (high bidder, Player 1): The player who wins the auction with the highest bid, earning the privilege of declaring the trump suit and leading the opening trick.
Contract: The binding score threshold established by the winning bid: the bidding partnership must capture at least the promised points or tricks to make it.
Make (made, make the bid): Successfully fulfilling the contract by capturing at least the number of points (or all tricks) promised in the auction.
Set (got set): Failing to fulfill the contract. When the bidding team is set, they score zero points, and the opposing team scores the full value of the bid.
Trump set: A set occurring specifically because the defenders held superior trump length or higher trumps than the bidder, capturing trump control.
Spite bid: A tactical bid made not out of hand strength, but to deny an opponent their preferred trump suit and force them to play defense.
Helping hand (helper hand): A hand lacking sufficient trump depth to open independently, but holding doubles, count, or complementary cards capable of bolstering a partner's bid.
Hand archetypes (Junk, Helper, Average Trump, Strong Trump): Four classic strategic hand classifications: Junk (pass), Helper (pass or support), Average Trump (open 31+), and Strong Trump (open 36+ or a mark).
Partner rescue: Bidding 30 from third seat specifically to prevent your partner (the dealer) from suffering a forced 30 bid dropped on an unknown, vulnerable hand.
Lay-down (roll-over hand, show): A hand mathematically guaranteed to win all remaining tricks regardless of opponents' play. The player exposes their tiles face up to claim the rest.
Mark: The primary scoring unit in tournament match play. Games are customarily played to seven marks, traditionally tallied as the seven strokes of the word ALL.
Point (in 42 scoring): The basic scoring increment within each hand: 7 trick points plus 35 count points, totaling 42 points available per deal.
Count domino (counter, count tile, grease, sugar, money): The five bonus-scoring dominoes whose pips sum to 5 or 10: 5-5 (10 pts), 6-4 (10 pts), 5-0 (5 pts), 4-1 (5 pts), and 3-2 (5 pts), totaling 35 points.
Trick point: One point awarded for each trick won, regardless of which tiles it contains. Seven tricks yield seven trick points.
Forty-two points: The total point value in every standard hand: 35 points from count tiles plus 7 points from tricks. The game derives its name from this sum.
ALL: The traditional seven-stroke scoring mark tracker: A (3 strokes) + L (2 strokes) + L (2 strokes) = 7 marks. The first team to complete the word ALL wins the game.
On-the-pole: Table slang for a partnership that has reached six marks and requires exactly one more mark to win the match.
Shooter (shooting, double shooter): A bid of 42 points (one mark) promising to capture all seven tricks without losing a single trick or count point. A double shooter is a bid of 84 points (two marks).
Moore's Method: A coin-analogy risk assessment framework that evaluates off-suit tiles by their potential point loss: Penny (1 pt), Nickel (6 pts), Dime (11 pts), and Quarter (16 pts).
Straight off: An off-suit domino held without its matching double or any partner tile in that suit, leaving it completely exposed to opponent leads.
Bad off (bad offs): An off-suit tile that, if led, carries a high probability of surrendering a valuable 5-count or 10-count tile to the opponents (such as leading 5-1 or 5-0).
Trash: Zero-count tiles that are neither trump nor doubles, offering minimal trick-taking or defensive utility.
Stacking: In mark bids, the convention of overlapping captured tricks two-by-two so only the two most recent tricks remain visible on the table, conserving space and testing card-memory.

Calls and variants

Basic 42 (Straight 42): The traditional, tournament-standard version of Texas 42 played without special contracts. Features standard bidding, count tiles, and mark scoring.
House rules: Local rules and contract variations established by the host or tournament director prior to play, governing options like forced bids, Nello, Plunge, or Sevens.
Follow Me (no-trump): A contract played with no trump suit; tricks are won strictly by the highest tile in the led suit. Standard play ranks doubles high in their suits (high Follow Me); some house rules permit low Follow Me where doubles rank lowest.
Doubles as trump: An optional contract where the seven doubles constitute an independent trump suit, ranked 6-6 (highest) down to 0-0 (lowest). Available in Follow Me 42 under Custom settings.
Nello (Nel-O, Nil-O, low, low boy): A negative contract where the bidder promises to lose every trick. The bidder's partner turns their hand face down and sits out; no trump suit is used, and the lowest tile of the led suit wins each trick. Configurable in Follow Me 42 with doubles high, low, or as their own suit.
Plunge: A high-stakes contract requiring four or more doubles in hand, bid at 4 marks (168 points). The bidder's partner names trump and leads the first trick; the partnership must sweep all seven tricks. Available in Follow Me 42 under Custom settings.
Splash: Like Plunge, but requiring three or more doubles, bid at 2 marks (84 points). The partner names trump and leads first, requiring a clean seven-trick sweep. Available in Follow Me 42 under Custom settings.
Sevens: An optional house-rule contract where tricks are won by the tile whose pips sum closest to seven (4-3, 5-2, 6-1 win outright). No trump is used and players do not follow suit. Requires sweeping all seven tricks; bid at 1 mark or higher. Available in Follow Me 42 under Custom settings.
Small End Lead: An optional opening-lead variation: on the first trick only, the Declarer may lead a non-trump tile and declare its small end as the led suit, enabling the partner's double to catch it.
Moon: A popular three-player variant of 42 played cut-throat without partners, using a reduced 22-tile set (blanks removed except double-blank) and a 1-tile face-down widow (see Moon Rules).
Widow: In Moon, the single face-down tile remaining after dealing seven tiles to each of the three players. The winning bidder takes the widow into hand and discards one tile before declaring trump.

Table slang

Ada from Decatur (Eighter from Decatur): Traditional Texas slang for the [4-4] domino, which totals eight pips.
Acey-Deucey (Domination domino): Slang names for the [2-1] tile, the lowest non-double in the game that does not contain a blank.
The Devil: Slang name for the [6-3] tile, totaling nine pips; an awkward off-suit tile that often figures in trap plays.
Greer County: Slang name for the [6-5] tile, the highest non-double domino in the set that carries no count points.
The Mask: Slang name for the [1-1] domino.
Rabbit's foot (Trey-deuce): Slang names for the [3-2] count domino, worth 5 count points.
Roach (Little Willy, the Diane): Slang names for the [1-0] domino.
Bull, cow, calf: The traditional hierarchy for the top three trumps: the bull (or "big kahuna") is the double; the cow (or "moo-moo") is the tile immediately below the double; the calf is the third-highest trump.
Devil's Picture Book: A 19th-century religious term for traditional playing cards, whose strict prohibition in Trapp Spring, Texas, led William A. Thomas and Walter Earl to invent Texas 42 using dominoes in 1887.
Dime (nickel): Table shorthand for count values: a "dime" is a 10-count domino (5-5 or 6-4), while a "nickel" is a 5-count domino (5-0, 4-1, or 3-2).
Trumps and doubles: The classic table declaration "I have trumps and doubles," signaling that the bidder holds only unbeatable trumps and walking doubles, claiming the rest of the hand.
Punt: To deliberately play a low domino in an attempt to lose the lead of the trick, transferring control to another player.
Run the board (sweep, run it): Winning all seven tricks in a single hand, mandatory for any mark bid or shooter contract.