World Championship Domino Tournament
The 42nd annual World Championship Domino Tournament got underway in Andalusia Friday.
The Andalusia Rotary Club puts on the event every year as a fundraiser and they say it brings people from all over.
“We usually have a couple hundred players. We have singles events and doubles events and people come from literally around the world. But heavy concentration throughout the southern U.S. over to Midwest, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas. People come every year,” said Publicity manager Benny Gay.
For Larry Johnson, it’s his first year .
“All the way from Texas. I love it. It’s exciting. Meet a lot of different people from different states. We are enjoying ourselves.” said Johnson.
Some people have been coming for decades and they say playing dominoes takes skill and luck.
“Of course there is a little bit of luck involved, but you gotta know how to play it too, so I would say there is more skill than luck. I don’t know the exact percentages, but it definitely takes a good combination of both to be successful,” said Chris Authement from Baton Rouge,LA.
We also got to sit down and watch the founding father of the domino tournament. 82-year-old Charles Tomberlin came up with the idea more than 40 years ago.
“I was playing once a week with some friends of mine and they came around and said they needed something for the bicentennial year. Everyone laughed and when they went around the table they thought it was dumb, so here we are playing 42 years later!” said Tomberlin.
The event runs through Saturday. It is always the second weekend in July.
