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If you need to know how to play 42 or sharpen your skills, this is the book. Everything about the game in absolute clarity and a good read to boot. For Texans, a bit of Texas cultural history. For everyone else, an excellent guide to the great game of 42.
Roberson has really captured the essence and pervasiveness of 42 culture that must have existed in certain parts of the state during the last century. I'm not sure what Mr. He then jumps into one of the most difficult aspects of the game, bidding, and handles it with an ease and clarity that belie the difficulty of the topic. The reading in these chapters is pretty good, but I don't think Mr. How was I to find the skill required to compete with the hard-core 42 players in my family.Enter "Winning 42" by Dennis Roberson. Roberson's systematic approach to the basics of the game free one from the necessity to master the entire book before reaping it benefits and make its first five chapters alone easily worth the price.The next six chapters cover several intermediate topics. He begins with a brief introduction to the rules and terminology of the game. Though the above numerous topics are presented in only three chapters, the topics are covered sufficiently to enable one to play confidently and correctly in these situations.Chapter 12 covers "Advanced Bidding and Playing" and is what I consider the third major part of the book.
He then devotes two chapters to helping your partner and setting the bidder. When I was about 32, I was finally invited to to play with the "big boys". The hands and play discussed in this chapter are illustrative of key points Mr. Roberson lays it all on the table. I don't think this is a weakness of the book, however, because none of these variations are found in any official or tournament rules of the game.Chapters 14 and 15 provide one with a flavor of the game's culture.
So 42 may not have been so much a pass-time for some families as it was an important cultural glue. If you master this 14 page chapter alone, your game will take a quantum leap. My dad and his brother were partners and me and one of my other uncles were partners. In "Winning 42", Mr. Roberson is not fond of these variations, so he presents them in a cursory manner. Despite their generosity in pairing me with a known 42 shark, my dad and his brother proceeded to skunk us seven hands to zero twice in a row.
This material may help one depending on who he finds himself in a game with. I'm a native Texan and both my parents are native Texans from the east part of the state. Roberson's book appears to be mainly about instruction and not history, so these chapters really have no bearing on its value as a work of literature, which is tremendous.The last chapter of the book gives some critical statistics about the game. Roberson's profession is, but if he is not writing instructional books full time, it is likely that he has missed his calling.Finally, if you play or are thinking of playing 42, read this book.
Mr. Reading this book in order, one could easily finish a chapter, put down Roberson's book, and be a better 42 player from that point on. Roberson demonstrates his masterful ability at 42 analysis. The other essential chapter teaches one how to recognize, bid, play, partner, and set "doubles as trumps" hands and "follow me" hands. He then spends a chapter discussing basic strategies for playing out your dominoes once you have won the bid. I was paired with this particular uncle because he is known as "the best damn 42 player in Texas" among my family and I was but a lowly rookie. Anyone who has observed veteran 42 players analyze hands after they are played will know that analysis is one of the cardinal components of 42 culture.Chapter 13 covers the "optional" topics of nel-o, sevens, and plunge.
This is the game that I watched "the elders" play at family reunions, weddings, birthdays, and probably even a funeral or two when I was growing up. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, in chapter 12, Mr. In these 45 pages (five chapters) Roberson gives you the essentials for becoming a solid 42 player who will seldom make a glaring mistake at a 42 table and who would be a respectable 4th among a table of veterans.These five chapters also demonstrate one of the fantastic features of this book, namely that each chapter builds perfectly upon the preceding material and gives the reader information that will be immediately useful in 42. What other cultural expression could achieve this. I've seen family members who were at odds sit down at a 42 table for hours and play in perfect harmony with plentiful discussion and analysis.
So this means that the 42 tradition runs deep in my family. Its true that 42 has mostly been a pass-time and is "just a game", but for many families in rural Texas, it must have been much more than that. I'm sure my family is not unique in that almost every person a generation older than me is an expert 42 player--as are their parents and grandparents. That's the magic of 42. Because these hands are illustrative, they do not appear to be typical hands and so may not be terribly engaging to the average 42 player.
But if you have grasped the material of the preceding 11 chapters, you will easily understand the importance of chapter 12. Even though I had been taught to play years ago, am a fairly good spades player, and have a natural talent for math and statistics, I could not even come close to pulling my own weight at this game when it came to real competition with veteran players. It would probably be helpful for one to memorize these numbers if he has a head for that sort of thing--but I don't think that memorizing these statistics is a sufficient substitute for the understanding and intuition one might gain from mastering the first 12 chapters of the book and plain-ol' 42 experience.In summary, Winning 42 is not only a unique book in that it is the only one ever written about the game, but it is also a masterwork of instruction. Two of the most essential of these chapters teach one how to recognize and play an 84 hand, how to help your partner make an 84 bid, and how one sets an 84 hand. Roberson feels are critically important.
But Mr. I'm sure I can speak for any 42 player out there when I say that it is more fun to loose to good 42 players than it is to beat bad ones.
He goes on to say, "In fact, to play Nel-o, there is absolutely nothing in any of the preceding chapters that is any use at all. As a forty-year old Texan that has played 42 for thirty years now, 42 is one of my favorite games as long as you can play Nel-o and call your doubles. He even says, "it is an eminently uninteresting way to play, requiring little or no strategy". I must say that I found the author's total dislike for and two-page description of Nel-o very disappointing. This is a wonderful book for out-of-state Texans. Overall, I'm glad this book was published, but it just goes to show you what I've seen at 42 parties - just like with languages, there are different dialects, so to speak, of 42 and you will probably enjoy playing more with other players that "speak" yours.I give this book 4 stars because I appreciate that it was made. This ability to call how doubles will be played for the hand, in my opinion, makes Nel-o very interesting and requires skillful play. This inconsistency makes it just that much easier, unchallenging, and uninteresting to play Nel-o."Many groups that I have played in contain a large number of players not familiar with Nel-o, but of the groups that play Nel-o, I've never run into people that did NOT play all three versions of how doubles are called - High in their suit, Low in their suit, or as a separate suit.
I was also wrankled by the statement that most Nel-o players would be totally destroyed in a straight 42 tournament for lack of skill. What isn't covered at all in this book is the option in playing a Nel-o hand of stating how doubles are to be played. You find yourself saying, "Yeah, I remember 42 scenes and parties like that growing up as well." The book has a very thorough description of straight 42 and its rules. I have tried "Straight 42" on numerous occasions, particularly with groups not familiar with Nel-o, and I have to say that it is one of the most boring games I've ever played and I can see where it would have been created by a 12- and 14-year old in Trappe Spring, TX in 1887 as the book states. There is no strategy." This is true for the game of Sevens and would be mostly true for Nel-o where, without further variation, doubles would always be high in their suit. The author only states that "many Nel-o players will allow the bidder the option of declaring doubles high, low, or even their own suit. I contend that the opposite is even more true - a veteran straight 42 player with the rules explained to him for Nel-o and the three doubles variations would likely get destroyed in a Nel-o game, because players allowing Nel-o bidding play straight much of the time, whereas straight players never play Nel-o. Lots of folks play Nel-o, however, and this book would be better titled: "Winning STRAIGHT 42" due to its lack of coverage of the three Nel-o bidding options for doubles.
Excellent book. I like to contact Mr. Very well explained. I never played this version of Dominoes and I really like to do it. Roberson in order to share some thoughts. My emails are: gtejeira@panamacom.com gtejeira66@yahoo.comSincerely,Gabriel Tejeira
He explains the 42 terms perfectly assuming nothing. Dennis did a great job on this one. This one is perfect for a beginner, novice, or so-called "expert". I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn a great new game. My hat's off to you, Dennis.
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