What is Texas 42, and how do I play it online?

Texas 42 is a partnership domino game. Four players, two teams (you and your partner against the other pair), a double-six set. You bid for the right to name trump, then play tricks. Count tiles (fives and tens) and tricks both matter. This table races to seven marks, the common modern tournament race (Pagat). The Handbook and TSHA race is a running point total: first team to 250 points. Both are labeled on History.

This website is a table for that game, sized for the device in your hand. Sit down solo with an AI partner, set house rules, and invite folks to a private table. No ads on the table, no credits to play a bot.

New to bidding? How to play. Variants: Rules. Origins: History.

Texas 42 online is partnership 42 in your browser. Tap Play solo to sit a full table with an AI partner and two AI opponents. No credits, no lobby wait. Create table and Join table open a live private table: share the code, a friend on another phone sits a chair, reload restores the hand, and a dropped chair fills with a house bot by default. Membership opens create and join. Solo AI stays free.

New to the dominoes? Read How to play Texas 42 dominoes. Want tournament rules and optional extras such as Nello, Splash, Plunge, or Sevens? See the Texas 42 rules encyclopedia.

Play 42 online

Texas 42 is partnership Texas dominoes from an 1880s tradition. Every hand holds 42 points, which is why it is called 42. The National 42 Players Association (N42PA) organizes tournament play, and San Saba hosts a Texas 42 tournament. This site is not affiliated with N42PA; we point there as grateful neighbors.

History of Texas 42. Tradition labeled, sources linked.

Use Safari (the compass icon). Chrome on iOS, Firefox, Edge, and in-app browsers (Messages, Instagram, Facebook) cannot add this as an app. If you are in Chrome on an iPhone or iPad, copy the address and paste it into Safari.

1. 1Open this site in Safari. If you followed a link in Chrome, Messages, or Instagram, copy the address and paste it into Safari.
2. 2Tap the Share button, the square with the arrow pointing up, at the bottom of the screen. On iPad it may sit at the top.
3. 3Scroll the share sheet and tap Add to Home Screen. If you do not see it, swipe the bottom row of actions, or tap Edit Actions and add it.
4. 4The name should read Texas 42. Tap Add in the top right.
5. 5Find the Texas 42 icon on your Home Screen and open it from there. The table goes full screen, with no Safari bar.

Use Chrome. In-app browsers (Facebook, Instagram, Messages) and some other browsers will not show Install app.

1. 1Open this site in Chrome.
2. 2Tap the menu (three dots) in the upper right.
3. 3Tap Install app or Add to Home screen. Wording varies a little by Chrome version.
4. 4Confirm Install / Add.
5. 5Open Texas 42 from your Home Screen or app drawer. You get a full-screen table with no browser chrome clipping the table.

On this deviceOnce you've visited, your phone may keep enough of Texas 42 to deal a solo hand even with no signal. Tables with other people, friends, and mail still need an internet connection. This is not a full offline game.

That is not a full offline game in the cloud. If you launch the phone app with no connection and the table does not deal, reconnect once so the shell can cache, then try again.

Tap Play solo on the home page. You sit South. Before the deal, pick a bot style for your partner (North) and the two opponents (West and East).

Named styles include Steady, Sharp, Aggressive, Moon-hunter, Partner-first, Conservative, and Count-chaser. You can open sliders (aggression, count-chase, moon hunger, partner-trust, and the rest) and save a custom on this device. Last picks are remembered here.

The bots are programmed 42, not a chatbot. No credits, no empty-lobby wait. Create table and Join table use the same picker for empty chairs. A mid-hand refresh restores the table from a snapshot on this device.

Play soloHow to play

Yes. Tap Play solo and deal. No signup, no password, no card. You get one hand versus AI (a programmed partner and two programmed opponents) as a guest. After the hand, or at a polite pause back on setup, we ask once whether you would like a chair of your own, and you can dismiss it. Never a hard wall mid-trick.

Guest limits are labeled: bots on this device, not private tables, not friends, not membership billing. Solo versus AI stays free, and there is no card checkout on this path. Creating a chair is open to anyone, with no invite code.

Play soloCreate a chair

No. Signup is open — an email and a password is all it takes. Create an account at /signup and you are signed in straight away. Check your email for a verification link — your account works either way. Invites are a separate thing: an admin can create a code redeemable at /invite. Guest solo versus AI still needs no account and is never a hard wall mid-trick.

Anyone signed in can send feedback from Account → Suggestions, from Suggest at the table, or with the contact form. Email only. Your note reaches us.

Redeem inviteSuggestions

Yes. It is optional, quiet, and stays on this device. During your first bids and tricks a small card sits above your dominoes with programmed tips. It is not a chatbot and it does not change how the hand scores.

Tap Got it to dismiss that tip. Tap Turn coach off on the card or in the table menu and it stays off. We will not nag. You can turn it back on from the table menu if you want the tips again. The fuller read is on How to play.

A private table is live across devices. Create or join with a code, sit a chair, and the hand lives on the Texas 42 server. Reload restores the hand from the live snapshot. If the snapshot is not a valid table, we start fresh rather than paint a broken felt.

A table code is shown on your screen. Read it out, or copy it and send it however you already talk to your people. We never text a code, and we never ask for a number.

House default when someone leaves mid-hand: AI fill. A programmed house bot sits in so the deal keeps moving. That is not a forfeit and scores no marks from an empty chair. You may hold the chair (pause the table) or set the hand aside (graceful end, no marks) instead. If they return, the bot yields the chair back.

Play soloCreate or join a table

Play is open now. Membership billing lives at /membership. The guest demo is not a paywall.

Paid membership is for adults 18+, or a parent or legal guardian buying full paid membership for a child account they set up. Kids of any age can still play without paying. On a child account we only talk to the parent or guardian, never to the minor about billing. Buying for yourself with no guardian involved is 18+ only.

Membership is annual. We show the current open price, never a sold-out cheaper price you cannot get. You keep the rate you joined at when you renew (grandfathered). Paid memberships are non-refundable. Cancelling in Manage billing stops the next renewal, nothing more.

Payment is by card checkout. We never see or store a card number. Membership money and night money are kept completely separate.Paid tournament nights charge a real entry fee. There is no prize pool funded by entrants, and no cash-out or gambling checkout.

Membership is association membership in a private membership association. That structure is not a claim that laws do not apply, and it is not immunity marketing.

Membership & billing

Texas 42 runs a free Tuesday house night at /tournament/house: 7:00 PM America/Texas, round robin into a short elimination final. Hosting your own night is a paid service. Entry fees are real money. We hold your card when you take a chair. We charge it when the night starts. If the night is called off before it starts, we release the hold or refund you. Texas 42 keeps a fee per entry. Any extra the host adds goes to the host through our card processor. Fees are service fees to run the night, not an entrant prize pot. Kids may win prizes with guardian approval. Cash to minors waits on counsel and is not live. Full rules: Tournament Terms.

Public nights can appear on the free Events listing. We don't track you to sell ads.

Signup is open — no invite code. Check your email for a verification link. /signup is the family review screen. It is not a live parent dashboard, not live moderation, and we haven't built parental controls yet.

Children of any age may play, including under 13. Adults 18 or older sign themselves up. For a child under 18, a parent or legal guardian sets up the account and agrees to the Terms and Privacy Policy at signup. Choose (B) I am a parent or legal guardian setting up this chair for a child under 18. We address parents and guardians only here, never minors. We do not collect a birthdate. There is no 13+ play minimum. No kid-directed marketing.

On path B the parent or guardian must confirm they are authorized, take full responsibility for their charges (minors), and do not hold Texas 42 / operators liable to the fullest extent permitted by law. They agree to Terms and Privacy on behalf of the setup. The guardian may buy full paid membership for that child account. The same guardian responsibility is restated in the Terms of Use: Parents & guardians / Minors and the Privacy Policy: Child accounts. Those pages are plain English, not a lawyer-stamped release.

Each child gets a normal, separate account: their own chair, password, visibility, and friends. We do not connect this account to the parent's account in any way. You do not attach a child to your login, and we are not building a “manage my child’s account” panel.

Use email plus-addressing so each child has a distinct address while mail still lands in the parent’s inbox. Add a +tag before the @. Plus-tags work on Gmail, Outlook.com / Hotmail / Live, and Proton. They do not work on Yahoo. If a + address bounces, create a free Gmail or Proton mailbox and use that as the family inbox. For under 13, the guardian must use that parent email (plus OK).

Worked substitution: if the mailbox is you@gmail.com, the child’s chair is you+sam@gmail.com. Keep your real local-part, and do not copy-paste the word parent from the examples unless that is your login. The +tag is an inbox filter, not a display name. At signup, type what the table should call the child.

• Gmailparent+sam@gmail.com
• Outlook.com / Hotmail / Liveparent+alex@outlook.com / parent+alex@hotmail.com
• Protonparent+sam@proton.me / parent+alex@protonmail.com

1. 1On the /signup form, create one normal account per child with that plus-alias. Choose the parent or guardian option (under 18). Each alias is a distinct account identity, not a shared login.
2. 2Verification mail and account mail arrive in the parent’s inbox (same mailbox; filter by the +tag if you wish). Verify from that inbox when you are ready.
3. 3Keep the account private until ready. Private chairs are not searchable and stay in private rooms only. Public is available only after email verification and an explicit public choice. It is never the default.

For under 13 we keep the screens small: minimal profile data, no kid-directed marketing, default private / not searchable / private rooms until public, and profile photos and real names stay optional. A parent or guardian may buy full paid membership for a child account they set up. Buying with no guardian involved stays 18+ only. Children may play without buying.

We keep what we share small without a special kid-account type. Chat is friends and in-game table chat only, not an open stranger lobby. Block and report are available. Reports are recorded. Email copies to the reporter are not sending yet. Profile photos and real names stay optional for everyone.

Create a chair

Friends list, waiting room, and presence on Friends still stay on this phone. They are not live moderation, and we haven't built parental controls yet. Chair creation is the open signup form at /signup.

Signup is open — no invite code. Your Account page runs on your real signed-in session: it shows your own email, and display name, change-email, password, sign out, and sign out everywhere all take effect on the server. Signed out, that page is a sign-in card and nothing else. There is no third-party login provider. Account mail is email only.

Changing your email: enter your current password, then the new address, then verify the new inbox. The old inbox is notified immediately with a cancel / “this wasn’t me” link. The old address does not have to confirm for the swap to proceed. Old email stays the login until the new address is verified. After a successful swap, a security notice goes to the old address, and you wait 24 hours before changing email again. One pending change at a time. A taken address is rejected, with no silent merge.

Email stays private. Other members never see your email, not even masked. Friends, waiting room, and profiles show a display name and an optional photo only. Your address lives on Account settings, for your eyes.

Password: change it in Account settings (current password, then new). Forgot password sends a reset link to the current login email, never SMS. A successful password change keeps this session and signs out every other device.

Sign out everywhere ends your session on every device, this one included. You will need to sign in again here. Sign in on as many devices as you like — your phone, a tablet, the laptop — but only one of them can be at a table at a time.

Signup records whether you attested as 18 or older or that you are a parent or guardian setting up an account for a child. That choice is shown on Account settings (only you can see this, and you cannot edit it here). We do not collect a birthdate. Children of any age may play. Paid membership is for adults 18+, or a parent or guardian may buy it for a child account they set up.

Account settings

Every account starts private. Private means nobody can find you. You are not searchable, and strangers cannot pick you up from a waiting room.

After you verify email, set the account to public on Friends if you want others to find you and send a friend request in the app.

You can go private later. Membership Create and Join still work. Friends you already have stay, and they can still invite you to private tables. New friend-adds while you are private go by email only until you accept.

Sign in / JoinFriends

Your games, marks for and against, a modest win rate, and recent hands are only for you, on your chair and this device. Other members never see that tally. Shared profiles show a display name and an optional photo only.

Guest play can show a local-only session tally, honestly labeled as this device only. Guest hands stay guest. Signing in does not copy them onto a chair. Email never appears on stats, profile, or any shared screen.

The tally on this device is local. It does not follow you to another phone yet. The annual human-only multiplayer board is a separate list we keep on our server from live tables — this device tally does not feed it.

Your marksYour chair

The season board ranks N42PA-style tournament points from qualifying Tuesday house nights and paid, charity, or sponsor host nights with eight or more partnerships. Rank is finish place, tournament level, and a play bonus — not hand marks. It starts January 1 (America/Texas) and resets each year. Solo does not count. Any chair filled by AI knocks the night out.

First place is complimentary membership for as long as texas42.live is running (lifetime). Second place is complimentary membership for one year. Display names only — never emails. This is not official N42PA, and we do not send points to n42pa.org.

The page is only for chairs that already have qualifying points this season. Earn points in human multiplayer to unlock. Personal Stats on this device do not feed the board.

Season board

After a hand you can step through the tricks on this device with a scrubber below the table. Replays are only for you until you tap Share.

A shareable link is a private link that doesn't have your name in it. Sharing is opt-in (private by default). Anyone with the link can watch the hand. Shared views show display names only, never an email.

ReplayPlay solo

Plain-English pages, not a law-firm wall. How we handle your chair, why email stays off other members' screens, how a family sets up a child with plus-addressing, and what membership costs. Paid memberships are non-refundable; cancel in Manage billing stops renewal only.

Privacy PolicyTerms of UseSign in / Join

I don’t see Install app or Add to Home Screen

On iPhone or iPad you must be in Safari, not Chrome. Chrome on iOS cannot install this as an app. On Android, use Chrome, not the in-app browser inside Facebook, Instagram, or a text message. If you already added the icon, you will not see the prompt again; look on your Home Screen. Private / incognito windows sometimes hide install.

I’m in Chrome on an iPhone or iPad

That browser cannot Add to Home Screen. Copy the address, open Safari, paste, then Share, then Add to Home Screen. Same rule for Firefox and in-app browsers on iOS.

The table looks cut off, or I see the browser bar

That is why we ask you to install as a phone app. Browser chrome clips the table. Open the icon you added instead.

Landscape or sideways

Sideways is the room we designed. The table reads best held wide. Upright still plays: the header and rail tighten instead of the hand shrinking.

Notifications

Texas 42 does not send notifications. You do not need to allow alerts. If your browser asks, you can tap Don’t Allow.

The install hint on home disappeared

You tapped Got it. That only hides the banner on this device. The steps on this FAQ page always stay.

Will it work on a plane / with no signal?

Maybe for solo, if you already opened the site once so your phone kept enough to deal a hand. Tables with other people, friends, and the suggestions mailbox will not. See Offline.

A plus-tag address bounced / I use Yahoo

Plus-tags work on Gmail, Outlook.com / Hotmail / Live, and Proton. They do not work on Yahoo. If a + address bounces, create a free Gmail or Proton mailbox and use that as the family inbox. See Setting up a child’s account.