Travis Newsome, also known as the “Zen master” and the “Wizard of OZ,” is a three-time Dominoes World Champion and a professional domino consultant/player and coach who has taught some of the world’s best players. He was introduced to the game as a child growing up in Chappell Hill, Texas, and has always considered himself both a player and a teacher of the game. He is a subject-matter expert on dominoes tournament rules, formats, locations, top players, domino consultants, and domino education.
Travis has been attending dominoes tournaments since 1978, and is an expert at officiating, directing and organizing tournaments and tournament rules. He formed The National Domino League, LLC, which he created to elevate the game and organize it to a new level, with live in-person and online domino competitions, leagues, clubs, and community engagement. Travis has mentored Jerome Wooten (six-time world domino champion, three-time PDA Champion and three-time UDL Champion) and Nate Tsegay (three-time UDL Champion and four-time PDA Champion). He is the leader of “The Dominators” domino team, and organized the local Show-Me Domino League in 1986.
Travis has been mentioned in Forbes Magazine, the L.A Times, ESPN and the Chicago Tribune. He served as a consultant for the “Steve Harvey Table Classic” which Harvey put together to benefit the Steve & Mary L. Harvey Foundation. He was the first African American to win the World Domino Championships (Singles Division, 1988), and is a co-founder of the Six Dot Domino Club. He has taught Domino Theory and Strategy at University of Oklahoma and presently teaches one-on-one classes through his website https://www.travisnewsome.com. He has also taught dominoes for several after-school programs in five different school districts in Metropolitan Kansas City, and at corporate events as a fun team-building exercise to excite and motivate employees.
His self-published book, Play Dominoes Like a Champion: The First Comprehensive Strategy Guide for the “Fives” Style of Dominoes, delves deeply into the strategy of the most popular dominoes game, high five. In this book and in his coaching sessions, Travis teaches the fundamentals of all domino games, including logical thinking, deductive reasoning, probability analysis, principles, checklists, and turn-by-turn breakdowns, and also examines the lesser-known benefits, such as improving mathematic skills, focus, teamwork, partnership, and discipline. Travis considers himself a one-stop source for teaching all of these aspects of the game.
