Block vs Draw Dominoes: What's the Difference?

Block is the classic Caribbean game. Everyone draws their hand at the start, the boneyard is empty, and if you can't play you pass. Nothing else enters the game.

Draw adds a boneyard. When you can't match an open end you keep drawing tiles until you can play, or until the boneyard runs dry — only then do you pass.

The difference is information. In block, a pass is a hard fact: that player holds nothing on either end, and a good partner will keep that end open all round. In draw, a pass means far less, because hands keep changing size.

Block rewards counting and memory. Draw rewards flexibility and patience, since a bad opening hand can still be rescued from the boneyard.

Jamaican tables lean block, and so does Domino Gwaan Bad by default — but you can open a draw table any time you want a softer game.