Author Topic: 42 - A Trick taking game (Read 3284 times)

franks · « **on:** January 09, 2018, 09:47:11 PM »

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Want to play a game of Dots? (AKA Texas 42 … or we just call it Dots!)

That was a common question with a close group of friends around my college years, (many, many moons ago). This only gets out once in a while now but is still one of my all time favourite team and trick taking games, end of!

In an earlier CC post, (Decar’s - Do you dream board games), I recalled that I was teaching Decar and Danisthirty the game 42 in a dream. I wanted to share more about this game I enjoy.

What follows is a more detailed game overview than a regular review, while sharing my thoughts on the game. The post is on the long side

This game is played with a standard Double Six Domino set and I understand it’s considered the national game of Texas. In regards to its origin and according to a contribution on Wikipedia, this was developed in Texas as an alternative and a response to religious stigma at a time when card games were seen as a less than desirable past time.

The following is the way I was taught the game and might vary from canon. From what I understand while the basic game is fairly static there are some variations especially in scoring and bidding.

This is a team game where players sit across from each other. In a standard set there are 28 Dominoes. The tiles are mixed face down on a table and each player takes 7 dominoes.

There are there are 7 possibilities for Trump - from a set of Blank featured dominoes to Sixes.

Image credit - http://texas42.net/trumps.html

The double of any set is always the strongest Trump. If Blanks were Trump, the blank/blank tile is the strongest, then the blank/6 – blank/5 – blank/4 - blank/3 - blank/2 - blank/1.

There is one more possible set one can bid on and that is what we called ‘No Trump’ or more commonly referred to as ‘Doubles’. If you have a large set of Doubles in your hand you can lead them but in this case, as mentioned, there is ‘no trump’ they just lead as they are. This is usually a more challenging bid to pull off.

Occasionally you can find yourself with a good set of doubles in your hand, (though this would be an incredible exception)!

The games start with a bidding phase.

Bidding start with the lead player for the round and moves around the table clockwise. The most you can bid is 42, which is also the highest you can score in a single round.

According to most on-line rules the minimum bid is 30 points but we were taught an easier version where the lowest bid is 26 points. I think this encourages new players to get involved and take a chance on a bid. Experienced players are less timid to take big risks especially when they’ve developed a good partner. It is amazing what you can do with a relatively mediocre hand. At the same time losing a bid is not a good thing as the opposing team gets double the points they score.

For example the starting player bids 26, then bidding moves around the table clockwise. The next (opposing) player passes. Now the bid moves onto your partner, this is the first opportunity for non-verbal communication that can happen between partners. He might judge by the number of your bid (or non-bid), as to whether he should let you take the lead or take it from you or if he thinks he has the better chance. The bidding process can be a way to communicating there is some value in our hands.

Back to our current example, our partner decides to bid 31 then the bid goes to the last of the four players. Considering his hand he decides to pass. That third player (our partner) now wins the bid and leads the round.

At this point he declares sixes as Trump. He can lead any Domino in his hand whether it is trump or not. As with many TT games players must always follow suit. If players can’t follow suit they can always slough off a domino or add point counter to your partner’s hand, (described next). Doubles are usually a strong lead as well. Without trump the next strongest dominoes are doubles.

Lets look at how you score points and strategic bid numbers.

Each hand that you win is worth 1 point. In addition there are some special scoring Dominoes. Any single Domino that equals a 5 or a 10 is worth that many extra points to the hand.

Five/Blank = 5 points
Three/Two = 5 points
Four/One = 5 points

On top of these:

Five/five = 10 points
Six/Four = 10 points

These are the ‘make it or break it’ dominoes in a round.

If you’ve got one of these counters in a round you are trying to protect this from being called out into an opposing players hand and conversely you are trying to assure these end up in the tricks that you take.

Back to bidding

With a 26 bid you could lose 16 points (26+16=42) and still make your bid. You could possibly lose one trick or hand that also had one 5-point and one 10-point counter, (plus the one point for the trick) and still make the bid.

With a 31 bid you could lose one 10-point hand, (plus the 1 point for the trick) and still make your bid.

One step further with a stronger hand, one could bid 36 meaning you could lose one hand that included a single 5-point counter. In our games these were common bid points, (26, 31 and 36), other than taking a bid away from another player.

Again there are variations in scoring; we were taught what you score is what you get. In our example above the team that bid 31 scored exactly 31 and the opposing team scored the other 11 points, (again scores will equals 42 points).

There is one exception to this scoring total. As mentioned above, if we hadn’t made our bid in the example and only collected 30 points, the opposing team broke that bid by scoring 12 points; in this case that team would double those and score 24 point, (we get zero).

It is possible for an opposing team to score all 42 points and double the score to 84 points. I’ve heard it’s happened though I’ve never seen it.

For our sessions we would agree on a point threshold, like 500 points, for a round. Again I’ll stress that some of the scoring rules I’ve seen on-line are not the same as we played.

Lets take a deeper look at the random draw in the photo above and my thoughts on what I see.

As I look at this hand, while it’s not that strongest, I see two possibilities.

The 3/3 – 3/5 – 3/4 isn’t bad, I have three of the top four counters, (missing the second highest 3/6 and the 3/2 (which is a 5 point counter), these could be an issue! Basically I have three of the available seven trump in my hand.

Past that, in my hand there are the two highest Blanks – blank/blank and blank/6. I’ve seen good players take a bid with just two trump but the rest of this hand is weak with three bad leads, (the double 3’s are a nice support).

Still I would be tempted to bid a low amount but would need my partners help!

Let’s take a peak at what my partner drew!

Remember what I said about taking a bid with just two trump! This is where you have to have faith in your partners draw! Had I gone with Blanks as trump I’m sure we would have eased into a winning round. Of course there is no table talk so we have no idea what we’ve got. My partner meanwhile sees the three blanks in his hand but they are on the low end.

He is stronger in 1’s but is missing the 1/1. With the 10-point counter in his hand as a possible bad lead. This is a better support hand than a bidding hand.

Let’s wrap this up with some closing thoughts.

The best way to play is with a regular group. If you are at all a fan of Trick Taking games and if you could muster up 4 players I would highly recommend it.

When looking for a Domino set look for thick dominoes that sit side up nicely. An accidental shake of the table can send your hands scrambling to save the sight of falling dominoes. Because of this I’ve developed lightning quick reflexes and have swoop them onto my lap before your eyes move up the table

As mentioned, I don’t played as much these days, though it does come out at work. One of the tactile things I enjoy most is the lovely clacking sound of the Bakelite chips as they get shuffled on the table, (always use a table cloth, the nice clack becomes a not so nice clatter if its not on cloth). I much prefer these to wood set but they certainty work.

Look for a new set or dominoes that aren’t scuffed. Marked dominoes (like marked cards) can give away what is in a hand.

There are some on-line and mobile APP’s that can also give you a good idea of play, (note that there might be differing scoring variants).

I’ve seen a strategy book available on Amazon and while writing this, along with a credit, just ordered a copy of, Winning 42: The Strategy and Lore of the National Game of Texas (Fourth Edition).

However popular this game is in the south there isn’t much in the way of instructional Youtube videos. This is one of the few that I’ve seen.

Let me know if you have any questions and hope you get the chance to try this someday!

If you do get to play, may you draw a perfect hand – if so make sure to bid 42

Have you played 42? What is your favourite trick taking game and why?

Sharing this with you lot is a dream come true

Cheers,

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3758.0

Decar · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2018, 01:30:09 PM »

Not sure where to start!

That was a very thorough introduction; so definitley a merit from me. I got lost with some of the terminology, trick-taking and bidding games are by far my weakest genre of games. Plus I've not played with dominoes for a long long time, so the trump suites are a little strange to me. I'm not sure I understood how the tricks are played after the bidding is completed.

I had a bit of a google too and that guy's videos were not easy to follow either!

For now I'll stick to cribbage, but would really like to give this a proper try one day. I have a feeling it will all slot into place when I see the dominoes moving.

franks · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2018, 07:38:46 PM »

Decar, thank you!

It was a lot of information to take in and I made an assumption most folks know about trick taking.

Because of my passion for the game I'll play through a round ... and I had time on my hands today

Ok, here it goes. Let's walk through one hand!

Here is the draw!

Player One has a good 'helping' hand with three doubles and the 5/5 - (10 point counter). He sends a message to his partner, by bidding 26, that he might be able to help if she calls trump!

Player Two has a bit of a dismal hand and passes.

Player Three has a good hand with four of the available seven '4' dominoes. He does have two bad leads with the '5's. This could lead into the 5/5, (10 points counter). Little does he know that his partner has it

Player Four also has a good hand with four of the seven '6's available. He also has some bad leads past the '6's so decides the bid is too high and passes.

Player Three takes the bid and proclaims '4's to be Trump!

Player Three leads with the highest Trump, 4/4. Other players must follow suit. The intention here is here is that he wants to draw out trump that might be in opponents hands.

Player Four plays next in a clockwise order and doesn't have 4's so he dumps a low dominos

Player One (player threes partner) has to play the only 4 he has, 4/2.

Player Two is sitting on two Trump so follows suit and plays the lower of the two in his hand, 4/3.

Player Three wins the hand, (only worth one point because there are no scoring counters in the hand).

Player Three now leads the second highest trump, 4/6. He wants to draw out any trump that might be in an opposing players hand.

Player four doesn't have trump so dumps a lowly 6/blank.

Player One doesn't have trump and is delighted to give his partner the 5/5, which is worth 10 points to the hand. (This makes player three extra happy because of his bad 5 leads mentioned earlier.)

Player Two now sadly has to give up the last 4 Trump in his hand because he has to follow suit.

Player Three retains the lead and decides to play the 2/2. Now all players must play a domino with a '2' in their hand if they have it. As mentioned earlier this is where extra double in your hand are a very good thing to have.

Player Four plays the 2/5.

Player One doesn't have a '2' and unfortunately also doesn't have another counter so sloughs off a 1/blank.

Player Two dumps off a low '2' (holding back the more valuable 2/3 - (5 point counter in his hand).

Player Three once again wins a one point hand and retains the lead.

Now is scary time for player Three. He swallows hard and plays one of his bad leads the 5/3, knowing full well he is likely to give up this trick. On his side he know that the 5/5 is out already so that is a help.

Player four follows suit and plays the 5/6, everyone should be aware this is the highest '5', his partner now knows he will win this trick.

Player One follows suit and plays the 5/1.

Player Two doesn't have a five so he plays the 2/3 and gives his partner 5 points.

Player four has won this hand and since Player three bid 36 points he can't lose one more hand or he will have failed the 36 bid!

Player Four now gets to lead because he won the last hand. He leads the blank/blank

Player One follows suit with blank/3

Player Two plays 3/1

Player Three must follow suit and play the blank/5. Those 5's in his hand haunted him after all. He will not make his 36 bid!

Player fours team wins the hand and this second one is also worth 6 points, the same as the other hand they won.

As the caption says there is no need to play out the last 2 hands. They will be won by the Trump in player Three's hand.

Because player 4's team stymied the 36 bid, they get to double their score (an alternate rule) and score 24 points. Player Three's team scores no points even though the have 30 of the possible 42 points in the hands they won.

Each hand is worth one point and in this case each hand has a 5 point counter!

This was probably a more complex hand that I had intended but that is still a fairly typical round. It is not uncommon to lose a bid. That can also play into a strategy. Sometimes you are better off giving up a smaller amount of points rather than give a team you suspect to have a good hand where they might take 42 points.

Hope that helps to get a better sense of the game!

Cheers,

totor66 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 15, 2018, 01:06:12 AM »

Hello and thanks for the explanation !

It looks A LOT like the Belote card game that is really well known in France

Juste a subtle last question: When a trump or a suite is asked, do we HAVE to play if we can a higher trump/Suite or do we have possibiliy to put a lower one if we don't want to win the hand or use the higher value domino

Thanks for this last point

franks · « **Reply #4 on:** January 15, 2018, 10:41:14 AM »

totor66, thanks for checking out the post.

I looked up Belote and can see some similarities. That looks like fun as well!

If I understand your question correctly, if Trump/suite is called you can play whatever value you wish. Sometime strategy dictates that you hang onto a higher or lower value. For example, if Trump is played it’s expected that an opponent will play there lowest Trump and hold back a higher value. An experienced player might do the opposite and try to bluff and hold a lower value.

The only rule is that you have to follow what is lead whether it is Trump or not. Just know that trump can always be played if you can’t follwsuit and that will always win the hand.

Hope that helps, please let me know otherwise!

Just as a general comment, wanted to highlight is that it might be best to think of this as a card game rather than focusing on the dominoes!

Decar · « **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2018, 12:40:28 PM »

Thanks for the clear example franks! Really good seeing it played turn by turn, move by move. It makes a lot more sense now. At first I was wondering how on earth you could figure out what was going on. But after the first 2 hands you have a pretty good idea what's been played and who might have it!

Ps: just passed you another merit...now you're half way to 42