Another extremely enjoyable Troll meetup! 
You guys know what that means, it was time for another Live Challenge. 
Last month, we enjoyed some Chinese food and then went on to play Chinese games for our challenge. This time, it was about one week before Prim's birthday, and she wished for some sushi for lunch - which I was certainly on board with, being a bit of a sushi lover myself. I thought we might as well choose another theme that fits with the food we had:
Live Challenge No. 02 - Yakuza!
Yes, time for some Japanese games - more specifically some gambling games that are associated with the Japanese underworld. There were up to three games in today's lineup, but see for yourself:
Round One: Koi-Koi
Koi-Koi is a card game played with hanafuda, Japanese flower cards. I've been talking about this game and these cards a few times before on the forum. There are 48 cards in a deck depicting 12 different flowers or plants, one for each month of the year. Each flower has four different cards to it, which may depict ribbons, animals or other special objects, as well as a bunch of empty "junk cards". The goal is to capture cards by matching cards from your hand or the draw pile with cards on the board, and then form combinations with your captured cards, like five ribbons, ten junk cards, or certain special combinations which are often worth more points.
We played four rounds. I ended up winning one round with a big hand, while Prim won the other three with smaller hands. The result: We were completely tied, the combined value of Prim's hands was exactly the same as the one from the single hand I had. No winner!
You can see the hand I had in the picture below, it was a "Sanko", a combination of three "light" cards, of which there are only five in the game. They have been arranged on the top row in the picture.
Round Two: Oicho-Kabu
This was a last minute addition and I already had plans for a different game, because until yesterday, I actually did not own a deck of Kabufuda, which are the cards that are used to play this game. I ordered one about a month ago from Japan and they happened to arrive just in time for the challenge. We technically could have used hanafuda or even Western playing cards with a stripped deck, but it just wouldn't have been the same.
The cards are more simple than hanafuda, they just include numbers from 1 to 10, 10 being a facecard, and each card is included four times, without different suits, for 40 cards in total. The game Oicho-Kabu is a lot like baccarat. Four different hands are dealt on the board, players pick one or more to bet on, and try to get as close to 9 as possible with the combined value of the cards from the hands they have chosen. Only the last digit counts, so if you have a 6 and a 7, for example, which would add up to 13, it counts as a 3. The hands that were chosen by the players are then compared to the dealer's hand, and either win or lose (we agreed that a tie results in a loss for the player rather than a push - both rules are possible). Each hand contains either two or three cards, and bets are made with only one card revealed.
Interestingly, the very name "yakuza" is supposed to be derived from this game. It refers to one version of the worst possible hand, an 8, 9 and 3, adding up to 20 which counts as zero. 8, 9 and 3 are phonetically expressed as "ya, ku, sa" in Japanese in this context.
Each Troll got three dealer turns with a maximum bet of 10 points per hand. Prim ended up exactly breaking even, while I had some small gains, I think it was three points, giving me the win for the round.
And I just have to mention the story about the hand above... I was betting on one hand which ended up being an 8, and another which ended up being a 3. Prim was the dealer and started out with two sixes, for a combined value of 2 with one card to go. I knew that my 3 was almost certainly busted, especially with two tens being dead, while my 8 still had a good chance. Prim draws her decisive third and final card and the tension mounts... and then she turns over one of the two remaining miracle tens allowing me to scoop, only for her to nonchalantly explain: "This is a ten, which means zero, so it doesn't count. The next draw is..."
You can imagine my reaction and the aghast face I made... 
Imagine playing live Hold'em and desperately hoping for an ace on the river, and then having the dealer say: "River is an ace, but aces don't count, so the real river is..." 
Prim wasn't trying to cheat, she honestly thought that tens are an automatic redraw because they have no face value in this game - and that's what made this so hilarious, because it made her act so casual about it, like it's the most normal thing in the world. 
Round Three: Chinchirorin
Also known as Cee-lo in the West, and technically not a Japanese game, I believe. A better fit for the Yakuza theme would have been Cho-han, but that one is pretty boring, since it just involves rolling two dice and betting on whether the outcome will be odd or even. Still, Chinchirorin is sometimes associated with the Yakuza as well, so I thought it works for our final round.
In this game, you are rolling three dice in a cup. 1-2-3 is an automatic loss, 4-5-6 or trips of any kind are an automatic win. If two of your dice show the same number, then the third die that shows a different value counts as your roll (4-4-6 counts as a 6, 5-5-3 counts as a 3, and so on). Any other outcome results in a re-roll. Once you got a valid roll, or after three unsuccessful attempts, it's your opponent's turn, who will try to beat your roll.
Each Troll got four turns as the "dealer", who goes first. Luck was on my side, so Prim found herself forced to put in a big bet trying to turn the tables. Unfortunately, it didn't work out, so she had to go for an emergency all-in - which was also unsuccessful. Very unlucky, but it left Harrier as the winner of today's luck-heavy Live Challenge.
Spoiler
Prim did well with the hanafuda - of which she now owns a top quality deck herself as another early birthday gift. 
The other games were pure gambling, so there's nothing to feel bad about. And tomorrow... it's time for another poker challenge! 
Welcome back, grindette!
