Playing Mexican Train With Two People

The short answer is yes: Mexican Train works perfectly well with two people, and it is a genuinely different game from the one you play with six. Tighter, more tactical, and quicker. Here is what changes, and how to set up a good two-player game.

How the deal works with two

With two players you take 15 dominoes each from the double-12 set. That is the same as a three or four player game — the tile count only drops once you get to five players.

Players	Dominoes each	Left in the boneyard
2	15	60
3	15	45
4	15	30
5-6	11	24 or 13
7-8	8	30 or 22

Sixty tiles left in the boneyard is the single biggest difference. With two players you can nearly always draw, so a round very rarely blocks — it ends because somebody went out, and it takes a while.

What actually changes

Fewer trains, so fewer places to dump

With six players there are seven trains on the table and something almost always fits. With two there are three — yours, theirs, and the Mexican Train — and only some of them are open to you. Tiles you would have shed without thinking now sit in your hand.

The Mexican Train matters far more

It is the one train both of you can always use, which makes it the main battleground. Starting it early gives you somewhere to play, and gives your opponent somewhere too. Holding off keeps the game tight but risks having nowhere to go. In a six-player game this is a footnote; with two it is most of the strategy.

Blocking is real

With one opponent you can see roughly what they are struggling with — a number they keep drawing on, a train they will not touch. Playing to keep an end closed is a legitimate and effective tactic in a way it simply is not with a crowd, where somebody else will open it up for them anyway.

Your train opening up hurts more

When you cannot play and your train goes public, you have handed your only opponent a whole new place to unload. There is nobody else for them to be worried about. Getting your train closed again is more urgent than it would be at a bigger table.

Settings for a good two-player game

• Start lower than 12-12. Thirteen rounds with two people is a long evening. Starting at the 6-6 gives you seven rounds; the 9-9 gives you ten.
• Leave branching on. With only three trains, letting them split after a double gives you both more places to play, which keeps the game moving.
• Consider a double-blank penalty. With two players and a deep boneyard, the 0-0 can sit in a hand all round. A penalty gives you a reason to work at it.
• Safe Mode is worth switching on if you are new — it stops you drawing when you actually had a playable tile. That is a personal setting, so one of you can have it on and the other off.

Who this suits

Two-player Mexican Train is mostly played by couples, and by people who play with one parent or one friend who lives elsewhere. It is a good game for that: long enough to talk over, short enough to finish, and it does not demand constant attention the way a card game might.

New to the game entirely? how to play Mexican Train covers the rules from the top.

Keep reading

• How to play Mexican Train — the whole game
• Playing with friends and family
• What the Mexican Train actually is
• How to win at Mexican Train