Chicken Foot dominoes rules
Chicken Foot is a domino game for two or more players on a double-nine set or larger, in which every double played stops the game until tiles have been laid across it to form a foot. The opening double of each hand takes four arms before any of them may be extended. Every later double takes three, the three toes the game is named after. A hand is played for each double descending, so a double-nine set runs ten hands, and the lowest pip total at the end wins.
How to play Chicken Foot
Chicken Foot shares its shape with Mexican Train: a hand for each double counting down, personal scores carried across hands, lowest total wins. What it adds is a rule that halts play every time a double appears.
Deal, and set the rest aside
Deal each player the number of tiles for your set and player count from the table below. The tiles left over stay face down as the chicken yard, which is this game’s name for the boneyard.
Lead the highest double
Whoever holds the highest double leads it. On a double-nine set that is the 9-9. If nobody drew it, every player takes one extra tile and you repeat that until it appears.
Fill all four arms of the opening double
The opening double takes tiles on all four of its arms before any arm may be extended by a second tile. Until those four are down, there is nowhere else on the table to play.
Play a matching tile, or draw
On your turn add one tile matching an open end. If you cannot play, draw a single tile from the chicken yard and play it at once if it fits. If the yard is empty and you still cannot play, you miss the turn.
Stop everything when a double lands
A double played during the hand becomes a chicken foot. Its three open arms must be filled with three more tiles before anyone may play anywhere else on the table.
Score the hand and count down
The hand ends when a player runs out or nobody can move. Everyone scores the pips left in hand. The next hand is led by the next double down, and the game finishes after the hand led by the double blank.
The foot rule, and the part most sites get wrong
Two different numbers apply to doubles in this game, and plenty of published rule summaries collapse them into one. The double that opens a hand sits in the middle of the table with four arms, and pagat.com is explicit that it "must have tiles played on all four arms before any arm is extended by a second tile on it". A double played later in the hand is already attached to the layout on one side, which leaves it three open arms, and those are the toes: pagat gives that the open arms "must be filled with three more dominoes before tiles can be played elsewhere in the barnyard".
So the opening double takes four and every later double takes three. The shape of three tiles fanning off a double is what the game is named for, and it is also the reason a hand can stall: while a foot is unfilled there is no legal play anywhere else, so players draw and pass until somebody produces the tile the foot is waiting for.
How many dominoes to deal
Chicken Foot is not played on a double-six set. It wants a bigger box, because a hand for every double is a long game and the foot rule eats tiles quickly.
| Players | Double-9 | Double-12 | Double-15 | Double-18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 20 | – | – | – |
| 3 | 14 | – | – | – |
| 4 | 11 | 18 | – | – |
| 5 | 9 | 14 | 18 | – |
| 6 | 7 | 12 | 15 | – |
| 7 | – | 10 | 15 | – |
| 8 | – | 9 | 14 | 19 |
| 9 | – | – | 12 | 17 |
| 10 | – | – | 10 | 15 |
| 11 | – | – | 10 | 14 |
| 12 | – | – | 9 | 13 |
| 13 | – | – | – | 12 |
| 14 | – | – | – | 11 |
| 15 | – | – | – | 10 |
| 16 | – | – | – | 9 |
A double-nine set holds 55 tiles, so four players taking eleven each leaves eleven in the yard. A double-twelve holds 91 and seats up to eight. Above that you need a double-fifteen or double-eighteen, which is why Chicken Foot turns up at family gatherings where a card game would have run out of seats.
Scoring, and the 50-point double blank
At the end of each hand every player adds up the pips still in their hand, and that number is added to their running score. Low is good. After the hand led by the double blank, the lowest total wins the game.
One tile breaks that arithmetic. The double blank has no pips at all, so on a straight count it would be the safest tile in the set to be caught with. Chicken Foot fixes that by pricing it: pagat.com gives the 0-0 as worth 50 points, and records a variation in which it counts 25. Either way it turns the emptiest tile into the one you most want gone, which is the whole point of the rule.
Agree which figure you are using before the first hand. Fifty is the more commonly published number and it is what this page assumes.
Chicken Foot questions
What are the rules of Chicken Foot dominoes?
- Deal from a double-nine set or larger, lead the highest double, and fill all four of its arms before extending any of them. After that, add one matching tile per turn or draw from the chicken yard. Whenever a double is played it becomes a foot, and its three open arms must be filled before anyone may play elsewhere. Score the pips left in hand at the end of each hand, count the double blank as 50, and play a hand for each double down to the double blank. Lowest total wins.
How many dominoes do you need for Chicken Foot?
- A double-nine set at minimum, which is 55 tiles and seats up to six. A double-twelve set of 91 tiles seats up to eight. Four players on a double-nine set take eleven tiles each. Chicken Foot is not normally played on a double-six set, because a hand for every double makes for a short game and the foot rule uses tiles up quickly.
How many tiles make a chicken foot?
- Three. A double played during a hand already has one side attached to the layout, leaving three open arms, and all three must be filled before play may continue anywhere else. The opening double of a hand is the exception: it sits free in the middle and takes four.
What happens if you cannot play in Chicken Foot?
- Draw one tile from the chicken yard and play it immediately if it fits. If it does not fit, your turn is over. Once the yard is empty, a player who cannot play simply misses the turn.
How many rounds are in a game of Chicken Foot?
- One for each double in the set, counting down. A double-nine set gives ten hands, from the 9-9 to the 0-0. A double-twelve set gives thirteen. The game ends after the hand led by the double blank.
What is the difference between Chicken Foot and Mexican Train?
- Both play a hand for each double descending and both score the pips left in hand. Mexican Train gives every player a personal train and a shared one, and a double only obliges the next player to satisfy it with a single tile. Chicken Foot has no trains at all, and a double freezes the entire table until three tiles have been laid across it.