Standing room soon is at a premium, as most space is afforded to the domino tables where players soon engage in a serious struggle of strategic conjecture. You got to keep a lot of numbers in your head. There are dozens of variations of the game, some of which employ bones with suits as high as double 12. The Pabon League plays the simple double-six version, matching a pair of partners from one team against a pair of partners from another. The face of each domino piece is divided by a line or ridge into two squares, each of which is marked as a pair of dice would be, except that some squares are blank.
Players take their seats, exchanging double high-fives with their partners across tables.
Some limber up like boxers, stretching their shoulders and loosening their necks. The music in the hall is turned down and the chatter ceases. Partners sit across from each other and each player draws seven of the 28 bones that have been scrambled face down on the playing boards. Players conceal their bones from each other in small shelves. As play continues counter-clockwise, the next player must lay down a bone with one end that matches the six, or pass to the next player.