The National Game of Texas

Texas 42 - It's dominoes with twang!

Updated: June 30, 2007

I grew up in New Mexico, so didn't have the benefit of learning 42 at an early age. When I moved to Texas to go to college, my Texas-born fellows were more interested in smoking, drinking and playing cards... so I smoked, drank and played cards. I no longer do any of those... well, perhaps a sip of Jack Daniel's from time to time - purely for medicinal purposes you understand, or maybe a glass of wine - just to be sociable, you know.

I have recently been introduced to the game called 42 which is played with dominoes and has been very popular in Texas since it was invented just west of Fort Worth in the late 19th century. It was created by a couple of young Baptist boys who took advantage of a "loop-hole" in church doctrine. Seems it was sinful to play cards, so the boys (after gettin' their hides tanned by their parents) came up with a game using dominoes, which was ok with the preacher, their folks, and just about everyone who tried it.

Turns out the limitations of using dominoes as cards is actually a very good thing. Creating "suits" from the numbers creates some variations which make for very interesting and dynamic play. It is a simple game, but requires more skill than luck to be successful. In 42 you bid, call trump, make tricks and take points. I've gathered a handful of links for yall to explore to learn about the game and join in on the fun.

The Little Longhorn 42 Society

What does this have to do with music? Well, there are a few folks who play regularly at Ginny's Little Longhorn in Austin and it sure is fun to play and listen to great, live country music at the same time. If you are interested in joining the fun, games are often held at 7:45pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays or 3pm on Sundays - that's about one hour before the live music is typically scheduled to start.

Since four players are needed for a game we have created a Yahoo Group to allow us to easily contact each other to set up games and such. Currently we have the group configured so anyone can join and anyone can post to the group, but the group will not be listed in Yahoo's public directory. Hopefully, that will allow us to run for a while without having to worry about moderating postings.

The group homepage is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/longhorn42 and you can join there or control your membership via one of the following addresses.

Subscribe: longhorn42-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: longhorn42-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner (Hugh): longhorn42-owner@yahoogroups.com