 A kabufuda ace card | |
| Origin | Japan |
|---|---|
| Type | Banking |
| Players | 2+ |
| Skills | Card counting, Probability |
| Age range | adult |
| Cards | 40 |
| Deck | Kabufuda |
| Rank (high→low) | 九 八 七 六 五 四 三 二 一 十 |
| Play | Counter-Clockwise |
| Chance | High |
Oicho-Kabu (おいちょかぶ) is a traditional Japanese card game that is similar to Baccarat. It is typically played with special kabufuda cards. A hanafuda deck can also be used, if the last two months are discarded, and Western playing cards can be used if the face cards are removed from the deck and aces are counted as one. "Oicho-Kabu" derived from Portuguese "Oito-Cabo,"[citation needed] which in English means "Eight-End." As in baccarat, this game also has a dealer, whom the players try to beat.[1]
The goal of the game is to reach 9. As in baccarat, the last digit of any total over 10 makes your hand: a 15 counts as 5, a 12 as 2, and a 20 as 0.
The worst hands in oicho-kabu have a value of 0. One of these worst hands is an eight, a nine and a three, phonetically expressed as "ya-kyu-san". This is the origin of the Japanese word for "gangster," yakuza.[2][3] The value for the hand bearing the game's namesake (8 and 9, which is the end) is a 7, but if the player is greedy and draws one more card, that turns out to be a 3, then the value becomes 0, the weakest. The analogy for this using the light cards in hanafuda is when the player has the Tsukimizake (月見酒, "Moon Viewing") and draws the curtain, thus ruining the viewing. In some hanafuda games, this combination could be the strongest, but for Oicho-kabu, this combination is useless.
- ^ "Oicho-Kabu Rules". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
- ^ "Game Boy". Metropolis Magazine. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
- ^ Pakarnian, John (22 January 2010). "Game Boy: Glossary of Japanese Gambling Games". Metropolis. p. 15.