How Many Dominoes in Mexican Train?

Fewer players means more tiles each

Mexican Train is played with a double-12 set. Before the deal, the round's engine double (12-12 in round 1) comes out and goes in the middle. The other 90 tiles are shuffled face down, and everyone draws their hand:

Double-12 set: 91 tiles, engine double set aside, 90 to share. A full game is 13 rounds, one for each double.

The boneyard matters as much as your hand. It is where you draw when nothing fits. With 2 players there are 60 tiles to draw from; with 8 there are only 10, so blocked rounds are more likely.

Count it for your table

Pick your set and how many people are playing. The numbers come straight from our Mexican Train game engine.

With 4 players, each player gets 15 dominoes

Four is the most common Mexican Train table. Each player draws 15 tiles, 60 in all, and 30 stay in the boneyard. That is plenty to build a long personal train, and the boneyard rarely runs dry before someone goes out.

The same 15 tiles apply to 2 and 3 players. With fewer players there are more tiles left to draw, so a round can last longer. See Mexican Train for 2 players for what changes in a two-person game.

A double-15 set lets up to 12 people play

A double-15 set has 136 tiles, enough for a big family gathering. Our engine plays only double-12, so for other sets we use the hand-size table from Joe Celko's Mexican Train rules on pagat.com. Boneyard counts assume the engine double is set aside.

With a smaller double-9 set (55 tiles) the same source gives 9 tiles each for 2 to 4 players, 7 each for 5 to 7, and 6 each for 8. A double-9 game has 10 rounds, from 9-9 down to 0-0.

Rule sheets don't all agree on 7 or 8 players

For 2 to 6 players every source we checked gives the same numbers. For 7 or 8 players, pagat.com's main Mexican Train page deals 10 each, while Joe Celko's rules and mexicantrain.com say 11. Both work. With 11 each and 8 players, only 2 tiles are left to draw, so most families prefer 10. Pagat.com also lists 8 tiles each for 9 or 10 players on a double-12 set.

Whatever you choose, deal everyone the same number of tiles and agree before the first round. Our Mexican Train rules page covers the rest of the game, from the engine double to scoring.