Flower cards were invented in Japan, possibly in order to circumvent laws against playing with conventional 4-suited card decks. Nowadays, however, it is in Korea that games with flower cards are most popular. The best known Korean flower card game is Go Stop, which like most Japanese flower card games is a fishing game.
Players capture cards from a central layout by playing a card of the same month (flower). The aim is to collect scoring combinations among the cards captured. When a player's captures have a sufficient value, the player can stop the game and claim payment, or can continue the game (go) in the hope of winning more, but risking that an opponent will win meanwhile. It is this decision to stop or go that gives the game its name.
The flower cards used for this game are known in Korean as hwatu. Since the game is rather popular, they can often be obtained in supermarkets the sell Korean food or other goods. Korean Flower Cards can also be ordered from amazon.com. If Korean cards are not available, Japanese flower cards can be used as a substitute.
There can be 2 or 3 active players. It is possible for up to six or even seven people to take part in a game, but if there are more than three, only three will play at any one time, while the rest wait for the next deal and may be compensated - see the section on more than three players for further details.
A pack of flower cards - known in Korea as hwatu - is used, consisting of 48 cards, to which one or more jokers may be added. There are 4 cards corresponding to each of the 12 months of the year, in most cases represented by a flower appropriate to the month. Some of these cards also show a ribbon, animal or other object, indicating a higher value.
The cards are divided into four unequal groups: 5 bright (kwang), 9 animals (yul), 10 ribbons (tti) and 24 junk (pi), as shown in the following illustration:
Bright kwang /Animals yul / Ribbons tti / Junk pi
With a little practice, the cards are easy to identify. In most Korean packs (unlike Japanese ones), the five bright (kwang) cards have the Chinese character for "guang" (bright) printed in white on a red disc, which distinguishes them from the animals (yul). The least obvious card to identify is the junk of the December (rain or willow) suit. Most packs include two different versions of this card, but only one is used in the game.
In addition, most packs contain a collection of jokers with special properties. The game can be played without them, or using just a few of them.
It seems that the number and nature of the jokers varies from deck to deck: below are examples from four decks, each containing five jokers.
For simplicity of explanation I will assume that the game is played for chips. If you want to play for money you should decide the value of a chip before the game starts. The score can be kept on paper if preferred by recording how many chips each player has won or lost.
The first dealer is chosen by lot. Thereafter, the winner of each hand deals (and plays first) in the next hand.
The dealer shuffles the cards and the dealer's opponent (the player to dealer's left if there are three players) has the right to cut.
2 players: the dealer deals 10 cards to each player and 8 face up to the centre of the table as follows: 5 cards to dealer's opponent, 5 to dealer, 4 to the table, 5 to dealer's opponent, 5 to dealer, 4 to the table.
3 players: deal 7 cards to each player and 6 face up to the centre of the table as follows: 4 cards to each player, 3 to the table, 3 to each player, 3 to the table. The 3-player game is dealt and played counter-clockwise: the first cards are dealt to the player to dealer's right.
The remaining cards are placed face down in a stack in the centre of the table to form a drawing stock.
As in most card games, the players pick up their cards and look at them, holding them so that the owner can see their faces but their opponents cannot.
The cards that were dealt to the table are laid out face up in the centre area so that all are visible, normally on either side of the drawing stock. I call this the centre layout. During the game cards will be added to and captured from this layout.
Each player stores captured cards in front of him or her, but kept face up so that they are visible to all players. It is convenient to group captured cards into brights, animals, ribbons and junk, so that the state of the game is clear. I will refer to the area where a player keeps captured cards as the player's capture area. Captured cards normally remain in the player's capture area until the end of the play, but there are a few special events that require a player to surrender a captured card, moving it to another player's capture area.
Before the play begins, players check for triples or quads (three or four cards of the same month) in their hands or on the table.
The dealer plays first. A normal turn consists of
This may result in the capture of some cards, as detailed below. The turn to play then passes to the right.
The aim of the game is to capture cards by playing cards that match cards in the centre layout. Cards match when they belong to the same month (flower).
After you have played from your hand and from the stock, and taken any cards that you captured, you may have the opportunity to stop the game, if your score is sufficient. Otherwise the turn passes to the next player to your right.
The play continues like this until someone stops the game (see below) or until the cards run out. The deal is such that when the last player plays their last card from hand, there will be just one card remaining in the stock, and of course the final cards will automatically match, leaving the centre layout empty.
Certain special events allow the current player to capture one junk card from each opponent:
If any of these four things happens, each opponent surrenders one junk card of their choice from their capture area, and the cards are moved face up to the player's capture area. A player who does not have any junk cards in their capture area does not have to surrender a card. Some junk cards are more valuable than others (being worth 2 or 3 cards in scoring): a player who has no ordinary junk cards must surrender a valuable junk card if he or she has one.
However, if the play runs right to the end, the first three special events above don't count in the last player's last turn, since the cards are guaranteed to match. Nevertheless, a capturing a three-card stack at the end of the play still counts.
Other special events:
If at the start of your turn you have three cards of the same month in your hand and the fourth card of that month is on the table, you may play your three cards all at once, capturing these and the fourth card. This is known as bombing the field. You complete your by turn up the top card of the stock as usual.
Playing a bomb leaves you with two cards fewer in your hand than you would normally have (you have played three cards instead of one). To compensate for this, in any two subsequent turns (not necessarily your next turns but at any later turns in the same deal) you may if you wish play no card from your hand and simply turn up and play the top card of the stock. After exercising this option twice you will once again have the normal number of cards.
After you have bombed the field, not playing from hand may be a good option if you are unable to capture anything from the table, and suspect that all the cards in your hand are cards that your opponents are waiting to capture when they appear.
Jokers are bonus cards that add an extra element of luck to the game. Whenever you play a joker - either from your hand or by turning one up from the stock - you place it directly into your capture area face up, and immediately turn up a card from the stock which you must play as a substitute for the joker. Therefore on a turn when you play a joker, you actually turn up two cards from the top of the stock - one as a normal part of your turn and another as a result of playing the joker.
If there are any jokers dealt face up on the table at the start of the game, the dealer moves them to the captured cards in front of him or her and replaces them in the layout by turning face up an equal number of cards from the stock.
Often the game is played with two jokers: one of these jokers counts as two junk and the other counts as three junk, so that there are 50 cards in the pack in total.
Before beginning the game, the players should agree a target score at which the play can be stopped. When there are 3 players the target is normally set at 3 points. With only two players it is usual to set a higher target - normally 5 or 7 points.
Certain combinations of captured cards have a point score, as listed below. The first time that the total score of your captured cards at the end of your turn reaches the agreed target, you have the opportunity to stop the game. You must either say "Stop", in which case the play ends and you claim payment as detailed below, or you say "Go" and the game continues.
After you have said "Go", you do not get another opportunity to stop the game until the score at the end of your turn is higher than it was the last time you said "Go". When this happens, you must again announce either "Stop" or "Go".
The scores for combinations of captured cards are as follows. Note that in several cases cards of the December (rain) suit are less valuable than similar cards of other suits.
The following set of animal cards scores 7 points - 1 for five animals, 1 for the 6th animal and 5 for godori.
The player who stops the game is paid chips equal to their score by each other player. Note that when you stop the game, it does not matter if another player has more score than you. For example in a two-player game with a target of 5, if you achieve a score of 5 at the end of your turn while your opponent has 7 (having previously said "Go"), you can stop the game and you are paid 5 chips - the opponent's score is wasted.
It is possible for the play to end without a winner. This can happen for example if no player manages to reach the target score, or if a player says "Go" and then fails to increase his or her score (and no one else achieves the target score) before the cards run out. This is called nagari, and there is no payment for this deal. The cards are shuffled and the same player deals again, and the payments in the new deal are doubled.
There are several circumstances in which the number of chips paid to the winner is increased.
When calculating payments, if the winner said "Go" once or twice, the chips for this are added before the doubles are applied. If the winner said "Go" three or more times, the two chips for the first two "Goes" are added before doubling the payment. Doubles are cumulative - for example suppose you win with 7 animals (without Godori) and 11 junk, having said "go" three times. Your score is 5 points. You add two chips for the first two "goes", making 7. An opponent who has only 4 junk will pay you 56 chips - there is one double for your 7 yul, another for fewer than 5 junk and another for the third "go".
In a three-player game, there are certain circumastances in which one player has to pay the winner on behalf of both losers, while the other loser pays nothing.
A player is allowed to expose his or her cards and offer a nagari on any turn, even if the same player has previously said "go". If a player who has said "go" then offers a nagari and the nagari is refused, and the player who said "go" and offered nagari manages to win, the player who refused the nagari pays for both the other players as usual. But if either of the other two players wins, each of the losers pays for himself: having offered nagari, the player who said "go" no longer has to pay for both of them.
Go Stop is sometimes played by four, five or six players, but only three of them take part in the play at any one time, while the others drop out and wait for the next deal. This way of playing is called Gwangpalli (Bright-selling).
The deal is the same as for the 3-player game: 4 cards to each player, 3 to the table, 3 to each player and 3 to the table. The dealer and two other players will take part in the game. The cards dealt to the table to form the layout remain face down and unknown until it has been determined which three people will play. The player to dealer's right chooses first whether to play or drop out, then the next player and so on in anticlockwise rotation. As soon as two players other than the dealer have decided to play, the remainder must drop out. If all but three players have already dropped out, the remaining players must play. Example with 5 players, in anticlockwise order A (the dealer), B, C, D, E. The dealer A must play. Suppose that B drops out, C plays and D drops out. Now E must play, so that there will be three players. One the other hand, if D had decided to play, E would have been forced to drop out. If B and C drop out, both D and E are forced to play.
Players who are forced to drop out are paid compensation if they hold any of the following cards:
The player shows all such cards and is immediately paid two chips for each such card by each player other than the dealer who stayed in. Exception: In the 4-player game only, a player who is forced to drop out with the rain bright and no other brights is not paid any compensation for the rain bright.
If a player who is forced to drop out and claims compensation has a heundeum (three cards of the same month), he shows it and is paid twice as much: that is four chips for each bright, double junk, September cup and joker by each of the two non-dealer players who chose to play.
There is no compensation for players who drop out voluntarily.
After all compensation has been paid, the players who drop out give their hands face down to the dealer. These cards are shuffled with any undealt cards to make the face down stock from which cards are drawn during the game. The six layout cards are then turned face up and the play proceeds as usual between the three players.
If the game ends in a nagari (no one wins), the cards are redealt only to the three players who took part in the nagari game.
Seven players: Gwangpalli can also be used with seven players, provided that there is at least one joker in the pack, so that there are enough cards to deal 7 to each player. No cards are dealt to the table initially - the six table cards are dealt from the cards of the players who have dropped out. In this version some play that if you are not the dealer and you are dealt the animal iris card (May: iris and bridge) you must drop out, but can sell brights in the usual way.
Variant: some play that the compensation payments to those who were forced to drop out are paid at the end of the play by the losers of the game: the winner does not have to pay. If payments are at the end of play, in case of nagari the comensation payments are delayed until the new deal has been played, but the losers must then pay double compensation.
Variant: some play that after a nagari cards are once again dealt to all players at the table. In this case, if you play with compensation paid at the end of the play, there will be no compensation for players forced to drop out of a game that ends in nagari.
Variant: some play with a higher compensation of 3 chips per special card (instead of 2) for a player who is forced to drop out.
Most packs include a selection of jokers with various different properties. It is probably best to include not more than one or two of these. Examples of jokers are:
There are probably many others.
Some play that if the replacement card you draw for a joker makes a ppuk - that is, you played a card from your hand matching one on the table, then drew a joker from the stock, and then drew a third matching card as a replacement for the joker - you do not benefit from the joker. Instead it remains with the ppuk and is taken and used by whoever wins the stack by playing the fourth matching card.
Some play that the chrysanthemum and sake cup card counts as one animal or one junk, rather than two junk.
Some play that it is the iris and bridge card, instead of the chrysanthemum and cup, that counts as an animal or two junk.
Some play that when you play a bomb (three cards of the same month to capture the fourth) you turn three cards in succession from the stock to complete your turn. Later in the game when you run out of cards in your hand you simply miss your turn while the others continue playing. This seems to be less interesting than the rule that you turn only one stock card after a bomb, but have the option not to play a card from hand in two subsequent turns.
As mentioned above, the target needed to stop the game can vary. A higher target is harder to achieve, but if you do reach it you are more likely to say "go", since it is also harder for your opponent to get reach the target. If the target is set higher than 3 in a 3-player game, there will be quite a few games with no winner.
There are many slight variations in scoring. For example:
On your first turn of the game, if you take all four cards of a month in one turn (either by two captures - ttadak or by capturing a three-card stack), or if the stock card you turn captures the card you played (chok), some award a payment of 3 chips from each opponent for this, and play continues.
Another set of rules for Go Stop can be found within Tom Sloper's Hanafuda pages.
On BoardGameGeek, Justus Pang has provided a Go Stop Cheat Sheet - a one-page summary of Go Stop cards, combinations and scoring, which can be a convenient reference when learning the game.