Hanafuda

Play locally against bots, or host an online room for friends.

Hanafuda by Tamaki

The highest score wins. Points come from captured cards and from yaku held at the end of the round. A round score can be negative. Scores add up from round to round. Player 1 leads the first round, then the lead passes to the next player. Team play is not in this version.

The deal

PlayersIn handFace up
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376
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6312
736

The deal is two passes, so a stiff deck gets mixed as it is dealt. The first pass deals half the face-up cards, then half of each hand, one card at a time around the table. The second pass deals the rest. When a count is odd, the first pass uses the smaller half.

If all four cards of a month are face up, two of them are swapped with two cards from the mountain, and the mountain is shuffled. If that leaves another full month on the table, two of those cards are swapped as well. This happens before anyone looks at a hand. The hands stay as dealt.

If a hand is dealt four cards of one month, two of them are exchanged with the mountain before anyone looks. That exchange is not announced. If a hand has three cards of one month, the player chooses one of them to exchange when they first look. A new set of three is chosen the same way. A new set of four is exchanged quietly, before the first card is played.

A turn

Play one card from your hand. It lands on the card you capture, or stays face up if nothing matches. Then tap the mountain. The drawn card lands the same way, and the turn passes. Your hand stays face up. The other seats play their own cards. Claimed cards stay face up. The round ends when every hand is empty.

Card points

Each scoring card shows its points. Crane, Curtain, Moon, Rainman, and Phoenix are 20. Bush warbler, Cuckoo, Bridge, Butterflies, Boar, Geese, Sake, Deer, and Swallow are 10. Every tanzaku, including the Willow tanzaku, is 5. Kasu, Lightning, and the Paulownia Flower are 0.

Yaku

For each group a player holds at the end of the round, every other player sends that player 20 points.

  • Boar, Deer, Butterflies: Bush clover Boar, Maple Deer, Peony Butterflies.
  • Three Red Tanzaku: Wisteria, Water iris, and Bush clover. The Willow tanzaku is not part of this group.
  • Three Blue Tanzaku: Peony, Chrysanthemum, and Maple.
  • Three Poetry Tanzaku: Pine, Plum blossom, and Cherry blossom.

How this table handles the rest

These were not written down with the rules. Say if any of them should change.

  • A match is another card of the same month. The card you played is captured with it.
  • If two cards of that month are on the table, you choose one. The other stays.
  • If three are on the table, you take all three.
  • Captured cards worth points stay in your claim. Captured cards worth 0 go to your kasu pile.
  • If the mountain is empty, there is no draw. Cards left on the table or in the mountain score nothing.