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KOI-KOI PLAYER OPTIONS:

After reading the Koi-Koi rules, you are likely to run into questions about the game, or questions about the rules. You may be exposed to completely different games played with hanafuda cards. And you may meet others who play Koi-koi differently -- everybody plays it a little differently, after all. So you have the liberty to set the rules to suit the way that you and your playing partners enjoy playing the most. Below I show several optional rules that you may set as you choose.

Minimum score requirement: Under this optional rule, players are not allowed to declare "stop" unless the hand scores at least two points.

Different ways to handle special characteristics of the original deal: There are several things you can do if the original deal has four of a kind (or four pairs) face-up on the table, for instance:

• Hand is declared void. Redeal.
  
• That quad is removed from the game. Continue.
  
• Dealer wins. 5 points.
  

Make strict rules optional: You can make the game more strict or more friendly as it suits you. Players of games are free to play with the rules of a game (not only to play under or by them). For example:

• You can set a rule that players do (or do not) have to play a match if another move is more desirable. My recommendation: players are not obligated to make a capture play if they don't want to, with a card from the hand, but they are obligated to make a capture play with a drawn card. The stricter interpretation can be used later, when you and your playing partner have become skilled players.
  
• You can alter the yaku scores to anything you want. See chart "Alternate Scoring Methods."
  
• You can disallow the two "viewing" yaku hands if you want, or you can disallow their qualification for calling "stop." For example: a player has the "Viewing the Moon" yaku, but since that's the only yaku s/he has (two lousy stinking cards), s/he's not allowed to stop the game. S/he'd have to also have ten ones, or five tens… anything worth at least one point, independently of the "viewing" combination. But s/he can still earn the yaku points, if s/he manages to declare "stop" with another combination.
  
• You can penalize a player for declaring "Koi" and then losing, by deducting the value of his melds and giving them to the other player.

Make your own special card combinations: Perhaps some of the cards, when combined together, represent something personal to you and your playing partner. You could declare such a special combination a "house yaku" for whenever you play together.

Increase (or decrease) the score limit: Normally a game ends when one player's score hits 50 (you can always choose to play another game after that). But especially if you're using the Matching Flower combinations, the scores will quickly exceed 50. To keep the games from being too short, you can up the score limit to 100 or even 500.

Allow the use of Jokers: Check out the cards below. They all have special Chinese characters on them. First time I saw these pictured on the internet, I thought you could use these as "Jokers" and give them special powers.

But all of a sudden one day I looked at them and realized that these are just the 20-point cards (Brights). The Chinese character says "light" or "bright." Still, though, the idea of jokers or wild tiles is valid nonetheless.

Some (not all) hanafuda decks do, in fact, come with a joker card (especially Korean decks). If your deck comes with a card that doesn't look like the 48 cards shown on our "cards" page, and it's not the "blank" card, then it's probably a joker. Here's one, from Tricia Kirk's restoration deck:

And if one joker isn't enough for you, or if your deck doesn't include a joker, you can use the One November -- the Rain & Lightning card -- as a joker. Here's the Lightning card from Tricia Kirk's restoration deck:

Your Lightning card probably looks somewhat different.

There are several different ways you can use special cards.

1. The joker can be used to capture any face-up card in the playing area. This is how the "Gaji" (the One November -- the Rain & Lightning card -- is used in the Hawaiian game of Higo Bana). The rules I have seen say that, since this leaves an odd card, the player who uses the Gaji can also take that odd card -- but I'm not clear on how that works, exactly (I'm not sure when the player can take it). Just work out rules that work for you and for your playing partner.

2. Or, after cards are melded as usual, the joker can be regarded as any number value. (Note: I am specifically suggesting not allowing the substitution of a Crane Joker, say, as (for example) a Sakè Cup card -- I am saying that it could be used as a 10-point card, for instance, to complete a yaku.)

3. Or you can make up special "power-ups" for the joker card(s) instead of, or in addition to, their ability to represent another card. For example, perhaps melding a joker card gives the player an immediate extra free turn or free draw. This would greatly affect the strategy!

4. You could use the jokers as the Koreans do - see the Go-Stop rules.

If your deck does not have jokers (such decks are rare outside of Korea), and if you want to use jokers, you can declare certain cards to be jokers. You could declare the "Rain & lightning" card and/or the yellow Paulownia 1-pointer to be a joker, or you can add the 49th card into the mix and declare it to be a joker, or you could have multiple jokers. You could assign special power cards to each player -- for example, if your favorite card is the Crane, and your opponent's favorite card is the Rainman, you could designate those cards to be powerful only when held or captured by the player whose favorite card it is.

In designating jokers or power cards, you could mark the cards -- or you could just designate them as special cards without writing on their pristine little surfaces.

Allow (or prohibit) special "Matching Flowers" combinations: you could combine the fourteen card combinations from "Matching Flowers" with "Koi-koi" for a deeper game. Some of these already overlap with Koi-koi. Here are those combinations:

1. Five Bright (all five twenties, including the Rainman)
2. Dry Four Bright (the four non-Rain twenties)
3. Seven Tanzaku -- any 7 ribbons, as long as they don't include the Rain five-pt. tanzaku card.
4. Six Tanzaku -- any 6 ribbon cards, not including Rain.
5. Red Tanzaku (the 3 Poetry ribbons)
6. Blue Tanzaku (the 3 purple ribbons)
7. Grass Tanzaku -- Wisteria (Black Beans), Iris, Clover (Red Beans).
8. Viewing the Blossoms and/or the Moon -- Moon, Curtain, Sakè Cup (Pampas, Sakura, Mum).
9. Boar, Deer, Butterflies (Clover, Maple, Peony).
10. Three Bright -- Crane, Nightingale, Curtain (Pine, Plum, Cherry).
11. Crane, Phoenix, Moon (Pine, Paulownia, Pampas).
12. Wisteria Complete -- the entire Wisteria (Black Beans) suit.
13. Paulownia Complete -- the entire Paulownia (December) suit.
14. Rain Complete -- the entire Rain (November) suit.

Allow "Higo Bana" combinations: you could also try using the eight card combinations from the Hawaiian hanafuda game "Higo Bana." Again, there's some overlap.

1. Viewing the Blossoms in the Moonlight -- Moon, Curtain, Sakè Cup (Pampas, Sakura, Mum).
2. Three Bright -- Crane, Nightingale, Curtain (Pine, Plum, Sakura).
3. Sakè Cup, Deer, Butterfly (Chrysanthemum, Maple, Peony)
4. Boar, Nightingale, Bridge (Red Beans, Black Beans, Iris)
5. Boar, Deer, Geese (Red Beans, Maple, Pampas)
6. Red Tanzaku (the 3 Poetry ribbons)
7. Blue Tanzaku (the 3 purple ribbons)
8. Grass Tanzaku -- Wisteria (Black Beans), Iris, Clover (Red Beans).

Note: see the alternate scoring grid (below) to see some suggested scoring values for using those card combinations in Koi-Koi.

And (now that I have researched the Korean rules) you could also use the Godori combination, as follows:

The Geese, the Cuckoo, and the Nightingale form a valuable combination (these birds only). VALUE: 5 POINTS.

Alternate scoring method: The grid below shows various optional scoring methods at a glance. Choose a scoring method from any column in the grid. This website describes Column T. You would do just as fine to use Column A or B. See the Column key (below grid) to discover where each scoring method comes from.

YAKU (bonus card combinations)	T	A	B	C	D	E	F	H	X
Yaku made with 1-point cards ("Junk")
"Ten Plain" -- ten 1-point cards ("Ten Ones;" "Kasu;" "Junk")	1	1	1	1	1	1			1
Each additional 1-point card after the tenth	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1			+1
Yaku made with 5-point cards ("Flags")
"Five Tanzaku" -- five 5-point cards ("Five Fives")	1	1	1	1	1	1			1
Each additional five-point card after the fifth (incl. Rain)	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1			+1
Six 5-point cards (so long as Rain is absent) ("Six Flags")							3
Seven 5-point cards (Rain not among them)							4
"Blue Tanzaku" -- three purple-ribbon cards (also "Aoi Tan")	3	3	5	5	?	6	4	5	3
"Red Tanzaku" -- three poetry ribbon cards (also "Akai Tan")	3	3	5	5	?	6	4	5	3
"Dueling Triads" -- All the purple AND poetry ribbons	+3		10	15					+3
"Grass Tanzaku" -- the Wisteria, Iris, & Clover 5-point cards							2	5	1
Yaku made with 10-point cards ("Animals")
Five 10-point cards ("Five Tens")	1	1	1	1	1	1			1
Each additional 10-point card after the fifth	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1			+1
Boar, Deer, Butterflies ("Ino Shika Chou")	5		5		5	6	2		5
Sak�ECup, Deer, Butterfly (Chrysanthemum, Maple, Peony)								5
Boar, Deer, Geese (Red Beans, Maple, Pampas)								5
Boar, Nightingale, Bridge (Red Beans, Black Beans, Iris)								5
Yaku made with 20-point cards ("Biggies")
"Dry 3 Bright" -- Three 20-point cards (Rainman not incl.)	8	8	5		5	6*			8
"Four Bright" -- Four 20-point cards (Rainman or no)		+4	***	5	8
"Rainy Four Bright" -- Four 20-point cards (incl. Rainman)	+2					8*			+2
"Dry Four Bright" -- Four 20-point cards (excl. Rainman)	+4		8			10*	6		+4
"Five Bright" -- All five 20-point cards	+4	+4	10	5	10	15*	10		+4
Crane, Phoenix, Moon (Pine, Paulownia, Pampas)							2		1
Yaku made with mixed card combinations
"Viewing the Moon" -- Sak�ECup & Moon ("Tsukimi Sak�Equot;)	5		5		5	6	2		2
"Viewing the Blossoms" -- Sak�ECup & Curtain ("Hanami Sak�Equot;)	5		5		5	6	2		2
"Viewing the Blossoms under the Moon" -- all 3 "view" cards	+5						4	5	+2
"Three Bright" -- Crane, Nightingale, Curtain							3	5	1
"Straight Wisteria" -- the entire Wisteria (Black Beans) suit **							1		1
"Straight Paulownia" -- the entire Paulownia suit **							1		1
"Straight Rain" -- entire Rain suit **							1		1
Yaku at the original deal
Having a quad in the hand on the original deal.	5		?	?					5
Dealing a quad face-up on the original deal.	R		?			R			R
Having four pairs in the hand on the original deal.	5		?	?					5
Dealing four pairs face-up on the original deal.	R		?						R
Multipliers at the original deal
Having a twenty face-up on the original deal.	2x	2x	?	2x	2x				2x
Having a 2nd twenty face-up on the original deal.	3x	3x	?	3x	3x				3x
Multipliers for going "Koi-koi"
Going "Koi-koi"	2x	2x	?	2x	2x				2x
Going koi twice	3x	3x	?	3x	3x				3x

Column Key:

• T - Tom Sloper's rules (as described on this website).
  
• A - Nintendo's English rules
  
• B - Nintendo's Japanese rules
  
• C - Japan Publications rules
  
• D - David Pass' folks' rules
  
• E - Sakura Taisen's rules
  
• F - Yaku of "Matching Flowers" game (just because that's interesting)
  
• H - Yaku of Hawaiian game "Higo Bana" (just because)
  
• X - Tom Sloper's fun experimental rules
  

Other symbols in grid:

• + - See discussion on Column B below.
  
• * - See discussion on Sakura Taisen's rules below.
  
• ** - See discussion on Straight Sets below.
  
• R - Hand declared void; Redeal (same dealer).
  
• ? - "Unknown; it wasn't said," or: "I can't read Japanese well enough."

+ COLUMN B (Nintendo's Japanese rule sheet):

Consider Column B's Biggies section, and contrast it with Column A right next to it. Nintendo's English rules say that the player earns 8 points for having 3 twenties (excluding Rainman), and an additional 4 points for any additional twenty (including Rainman or no). Nintendo's Japanese rules are in Japanese (duh) so I can't read them (doh!). So it's not clear to me if the player earns both the 5 points for having 3 twenties and the 8 points for having 4 twenties, or just the 8 points for having 4 twenties. I suspect that in this column, the twenties yaku are exclusive rather than combinative -- but I can't be sure. I have put + signs in front of known "additive" yaku.

If you use Column B, since we're not sure if the twenties yaku are "additive" or "exclusive," you get to decide for yourself. Try it however you like, and see if it plays right for you, balancing the difficulty with the score and the excitement. If you think a yaku's high value throws off the gameplay, try a different interpretation of the scoring the next time you play.

* COLUMN E (Sakura Taisen's rules):

The Twenties section is not additive under Sakura Taisen's rules. If you get a Four Bright yaku, you do not also get the Dry Three Bright yaku. Similarly, if you get the Five Bright yaku, you do not get any other yaku for twenty-point cards. So there are no + signs in this section of this column.

** STRAIGHT SETS (Matching Flowers game):

These suits only. There's a reason for this, and it's based on the uneven distribution of point values among the various suits. It's not recommended, therefore, to extend this yaku to all suits. I mean, really, these yaku were intended for an entirely different game, after all!

*** SCORING A FOURTH BRIGHT/BIGGIE:

From a 2017 email...

Hanafuda

>From: Ola S
>Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2017 9:47 AM
>Subject: Hanafuda correction
>Hello,
>I spotted a minor error on the page
>http://www.sloperama.com/hanafuda/variants.htm . Under the "B" column in
>the yaku table, which lists Nintendo's Japanese scoring rules, Rainy
>Four Bright is not listed as having any value. However, in the rules on
>Nintendo's official website[1], there is a small note under "Four
>Bright", reading "Four Bright with Rain is worth 7 points".
>Also, Nintendo's rules has the note "+1 point for each additional card"
>on ALL ribbon and animal yaku. It's unclear how this would work in
>practice (for instance, six ribbons, three of which are blue: 8 or 10
>points?) so I'd recommend not noting this (or at least waiting until I
>do some investigation, with a copy of the Nintendo-published Clubhouse
>Games).
>Best regards,
>Ola Sassersson
>[1] https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n09/hana-kabu_games/index.html
>
>P.S. The site hanafubuki.org, once the internet's best Hanafuda
>resource, has gone offline. The domain is now owned by a cybersquatter
>who has blocked the site from appearing on archive.org, and archive.is
>only has a few pages. Do you have any archived copies of the whole site?
>If not, I'll try contacting the original author. Thank you in advance.

Hi, Ola! Nice to hear from another hanafuda fan!

I spotted a minor error on the page
>http://www.sloperama.com/hanafuda/variants.htm . Under the "B" column in
>the yaku table, which lists Nintendo's Japanese scoring rules, Rainy
>Four Bright is not listed as having any value. However, in the rules on
>Nintendo's official website[1], there is a small note under "Four
>Bright", reading "Four Bright with Rain is worth 7 points".
I let Google translate that page for me and their translation isn't as good as yours. Chrome translates it as "Rain contains four lights with seven points." So yes, add 2 points for the Rainman card, but add 3 points if it's any other Bright (what I called "Biggies" when I made the table). I'm adding a note on the page. And thanks for the link. I added it to the Links page.

Also, Nintendo's rules has the note "+1 point for each additional card"
>on ALL ribbon and animal yaku. It's unclear how this would work in
>practice (for instance, six ribbons, three of which are blue: 8 or 10
>points?) so I'd recommend not noting this (or at least waiting until I
>do some investigation, with a copy of the Nintendo-published Clubhouse
>Games).
Yes, I have "+1" for those cards in the chart too. Not sure what the problem is; I've always added the point when playing with real cards. Thanks for telling me about Clubhouse Games, too - I just ordered a copy for myself.

P.S. The site hanafubuki.org, once the internet's best Hanafuda
>resource, has gone offline. ... Do you have any archived copies of the whole site?
>If not, I'll try contacting the original author. Thank you in advance.
Sorry, no. I did not make a copy. Good luck!
May the cards be with you.
Tom Sloper
トム·スローパー
湯姆 斯洛珀
Creator of the Sloper On Mah-Jongg column and the Mah-Jongg FAQs -- donations appreciated.
Author of "The Red Dragon & The West Wind," the definitive book on Mah-Jongg East & West.
Los Angeles, California, USA
May 2, 2017

CONCLUSION:

You may make your own rules as you see fit (see Mah-Jongg FAQ #14 - it applies equally well to hanafuda or any table game); just be prepared to have to make rule adjustments when you play with other players who play hanafuda their own way. Take it slow -- there's a lot of enjoyment in these little cards, no need to rush through to an advanced game before its time. As you become ready, try other rules. (You can always make the rule more strict after you both get really good at basic Koi-koi strategy and are ready to take it to another level.) Never forget: sometimes the simplest games are the best. Enjoy.

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