Chicken Foot Dominoes
Chicken Foot is Mexican Train’s closest relative — same equipment, same descending rounds, same lowest-score-wins. The difference is what happens when somebody plays a double, and it changes the feel of the whole game. Here is how Chicken Foot actually works.
What you need
A double-9 or double-12 set and two to eight players. Deal depends on the set and group — with a double-9 set and four players, seven tiles each is common. The rest form the boneyard.
How a round works
- The round’s double goes in the middle — the double-9 first, then the double-8, and down. Same descending structure as Mexican Train.
- The first job is to build the hub: players add matching tiles to the centre double until it has its full complement of branches, usually six.
- After that, play proceeds around the table, each player adding one matching tile to any open end.
- When somebody goes out or the game blocks, everybody counts the pips left in hand. Lowest total wins after all rounds.
The chicken foot
This is the whole game, and where the name comes from. When a player lays a double anywhere, everything stops. That double becomes a “chicken foot”, and the next three tiles played — by whoever’s turn it is, going round — must all go onto that double, forming three branches off it. Three toes.
Nobody may play anywhere else until the foot is complete. If it is your turn and you cannot play on the foot, you draw; if you still cannot, you pass. Only once all three branches are down does normal play resume.
The effect is dramatic. A double does not merely inconvenience the next player — it seizes the entire table for three turns and forces everyone to dump into one spot. Playing one at the right moment is genuinely powerful, and being unable to satisfy one is genuinely painful.
How it compares to Mexican Train
| Chicken Foot | Mexican Train | |
|---|---|---|
| Doubles | Stop everything; need three branches before play resumes | Need covering with one tile; the chain passes if nobody can |
| Trains | No personal trains — everyone plays on shared branches from the hub | Each player has their own train, plus one shared one |
| Blocking others | Limited — the board is common ground | Real: your train is yours until you cannot play |
| Rounds | Descending doubles | Descending doubles |
| Scoring | Pips left in hand, lowest wins | Pips left in hand, lowest wins |
| Group size | 2-8 | 2-8 |
| Typical length | Shorter — fewer trains, faster rounds | Longer, especially with a crowd |
Which you might prefer
Chicken Foot is the more chaotic and the more social of the two. Because there are no personal trains, nobody has a private stake to protect, and the game is one shared board that everybody piles into. It is quicker to teach, and quicker to play.
Mexican Train is the more strategic. Owning a train you can open or close gives you something to manage, and the decision about when to start the shared train is a real one. If your group likes a bit of positional play, that is where it lives. If they want a fast, noisy game where everybody is affected by everybody, Chicken Foot has the edge.
People who like one usually like the other — they are close cousins, and the overlap in who plays them is large.
Being straight about this site
This site plays Mexican Train, not Chicken Foot. There is no Chicken Foot mode and none is planned. If Chicken Foot is specifically what you want to play online, you will need to look elsewhere, and it would be a waste of your time to sign up here expecting it.
If you would happily play either — which describes most Chicken Foot players — then Mexican Train online may suit you: free, no adverts, up to eight players, and you play with people you invite rather than strangers. how to play Mexican Train covers the rules if you have not played it.
Keep reading
- How to play Mexican Train
- Train dominoes and private trains
- How Mexican Train handles doubles
- Playing with a double-nine set
If Mexican Train would do
Free, no adverts, up to eight players you invite yourself.