Koi-Koi

Koi-Koi (Japanese: こいこい) is a popular card game in Japan played with hanafuda. The phrase "koi-koi" means "come on" in Japanese which is said when the player wants to continue the round. The object of the game is to form special card combinations (or sets) called yaku (Japanese: 役) from cards accumulated in a point pile. Players can gain cards in their point piles by matching cards in their hands, or drawn from the draw pile, with cards on the table. Once a yaku has been made, a player can stop to cash in points, or keep going (referred to as "koi-koi", hence the name of the game) to form additional yaku for more points. The point values assigned to individual cards have no effect on the score, but they are helpful to judge their value in forming yaku.