Hachi-Hachi

Hachi-Hachi 八八 ▶ eighty-eight is a complex hanafuda game for 3 players. The goal is to form dekiyaku and score more points than your opponents.

Hachi-Hachi is an advanced-level game, with even more complex scoring than Hana-Awase.

Though Hachi-Hachi is traditionally a gambling game where players pay each other the points they earn, in this version, players accumulate points.

Cards

Hanafuda § Cards

This game uses a 48-card hanafuda deck.

If you’re using a Junior Hanafuda deck, be sure to set aside its extra cards.

Setup

Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player and six cards (face-up) to the field. Place the remaining deck adjacent to the field.

If all four cards of a single month are dealt into the field, shuffle and start over.

If three cards of a single month are dealt into the field, stack them atop each other.

Multiplier

Then, check the field for Hikari cards to determine if a point multiplier exists for this round according to the following table. If a multiplier exists, it applies for all points accumulated during the round, including teyaku, dekiyaku, and card points.

or or			大場：Ōba Large		2×
or			絶場：Zetsuba Grand		4×

If both apply, choose the greater multiplier.

Teyaku

Next, every player checks their hands for teyaku 手役 ▶ sets in hand. Scoring any of these necessitates revealing the required cards to the other players. Only the highest-value applicable teyaku can be scored per player.

			四三：Shisō Four of a Kind, Three of a Kind		200
			一二四：Ichinishi Four of a Kind, One Pair		80
			羽見：Haneken Three of a Kind, Two Pairs		70
			手四：Teshi Four of a Kind		60
			双三本：Futasanbon Three of a Kind, Three of a Kind		60
			喰付：Kuttsuki Three Pairs		40
			三本：Sanbon Three of a Kind		20

			皆素：Karasu Seven Kasu		40
			光一：Pikaichi One Hikari, Six Kasu		40
			十一：Toichi One Tane, Six Kasu		30
			短一：Tannichi One Tanzaku, Six Kasu		30
			短：Tan 2+ Tanzaku, Remainder Kasu		20

The cards depicted in these teyaku are merely examples of required cards, and are not representative of exact cards required.

Choose a player to begin.

Gameplay

Goal

The goal of Hachi-Hachi is to match and capture cards from your hand with cards in the field to form dekiyaku 出来役 ▶ completed sets and score the most points possible.

Your Turn

When your turn begins, try to match a card from your hand with a card from the same month in the field.

If you find a match, you capture these cards. Place both cards face-up in front of you.

If you find two matches, you may only capture one of them with the card you introduced to the field. However, if the card matches three cards in the field, you may capture all four.

If you cannot make a match, you must surrender a card from your hand into the field.

Your captured cards are displayed face-up in front of you, away from the field. It’s best to organize them by rank (Hikari, Tane, Tanzaku, Kasu) rather than by month.

Next, draw a card from the deck into the field, following the same pattern as above.

After playing from your hand and playing from the deck, your turn is over. Now it’s the next player’s turn.

Continue until a player forms a dekiyaku or once all cards have been depleted.

Ending

The round can end one of two ways:

• When a player forms dekiyaku.
• When all the cards are depleted.

Though a player can end the round (“shōbu!”) when forming dekiyaku, they may choose to continue (“sa'ge!”) in hopes of forming another, risking that another player may end.

Scoring

The player who ends the round after forming dekiyaku scores points.

If the round ends from depleting all the cards, without a player ending after forming dekiyaku, points are scored by tallying cards that each player captured.

If the round ends from depleting all the cards, with a player who formed dekiyaku but chose to continue, players who formed dekiyaku score half their dekiyaku points.

Dekiyaku

Hikari
			Shikō Four Hikari, excluding Rainman		100
			With Rainman		+20
Tanzaku
			Any 7 Tanzaku Excluding November Tanzaku		100
			Akatan 3 Poetry Tanzaku		70
			Aotan 3 Blue Tanzaku		70

Card points

Without a player forming dekiyaku, each player tallies the points of their captured cards according to the following table, then subtracts the par score (88) from their subtotal. The result is their score for this round.

Series

Games are best played in a series of 3, 6, or 12 rounds. The player with the highest total score at the end of the series wins!

If the players have identical scores, rejoice in the shared victory!

Strategy

Compared to other games like Hana-Awase or Koi-Koi, Hachi-Hachi has much fewer yaku to form during the game itself. Teyaku are entirely luck-based, so points you can cleverly accumulate via dekiyaku are limited to capturing Hikari and Tanzaku cards.

If you don’t think you can capture the necessary cards to form dekiyaku, your next-best strategy is to prevent your opponents from doing so, while capturing as many valuable cards as you can, forcing the game into tallying card points.

Variations

Many more complex rules—including house rules—may exist:

• Go stones can be used to keep track of scoring, with one color representing 10 or 12 points, and the other representing just 1 point.
• Scoring may be done in a way where losing players “pay” the winning player, subtracting points from their score, adding to the winner’s score.
• There may be penalties for continuing the game and losing it to another player, such as doubling points from the continuing player to pay the winning player.
• If all players score exactly 88 card points, the dealer wins the round with 100 points.
• A player who earns at least 168 card points receives 100 points from each opponent, with an additional 10 points for every card point above 168.
• A player who captures at least 16 Kasu receives 120 points from each opponent, with an additional 20 points for every Kasu above 16.

In general, these variations add complexity to a degree that players may not remember during gameplay. But if you’re looking to add complexity to Hachi-Hachi, you may try any of these ideas in your game!

Related

See also

• Hanafuda
• Junior Hanafuda
• Junior

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