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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