Five-up (1959)

A Dominoes game developed in the 50's by Dominic C. Armanino, who had written at least four books on dominoes, and is credited with the spread of this version of the game from California.

Five-up is a point Dominoes game in the "Fives Family" of Dominoes games played with a standard Western Dominoes set of 28 tiles. This variation adds the ends of the dominoes to make a multiple of five for scoring. Five-up is very similar to other games such as All Fives, Muggins, and Sniff.

In Five-up, each player starts out with five dominoes in their hand, and the first player can play any domino in their hand. Thereafter, each player must play a domino from their hand if they can match it to a domino end on the table. If they cannot play a domino from their hand, they must draw from the "boneyard" until they can play a domino on the tableau. If the ends of the dominoes add up to a multiple of five, the player adding the domino scores one (1) point for each multiple of five (5) (IE: if the ends added up to ten (10), the player would score two (2) points). The first player that plays their last domino from their hand, adds up the count remaining in their opponent's hand and scores the total divided by five (5) (IE: if the opponent had a count of fifteen (15) in their hand, the scorer would score three (3) points).

Five-up is played to a score of 61, and is usually played with a Cribbage board to keep score.

Five-up is unique in that every double domino played is a possible "spinner," and plays can be played on all four sides of a "spinner."

History:

Dominic C. Armanino first published his book "Dominoes: Five-up and other games, including official rules and odds" in 1959, and he was instrumental in codifying the rules with his book and tournaments run by the International Domino Association that he founded in San Francisco, but he states in his book, versions of the game were played in the San Francisco area since the turn of the century (1900).

A Sports Illustrated article in 1965 attributes the game evolving from Muggins in San Francisco from the early 1900's. The article also attributes Dominoes popularity in San Francisco from the large Chinese-American community that settled in the area after the California Gold Rush and building of the Transcontinental Railroad.

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