Hoola (or Hulla) is a Korean rummy game related to, and probably based on the Japanese game Seven Bridge.
The various descriptions of Hoola I have received disagree in several details. I will first describe what appear to be the most usual rules, followed by a collection of variations.
A standard international 52-card pack is used. Aces are worth 1 point, 2-10 face value, jacks 11 points, queens 12 points and kings 13 points each. Some players add one or two jokers - see variations.
The game is normally played by from 2 to 5 people. There is a variation for 6 or 7 players. Deal and play are anticlockwise.
As in all rummy games the objective is to form melds. These may be sets of equal cards, or sequences of consecutive cards in a suit. Sets and sequences must consist of at least three cards unless they contain a seven.
The sevens are special cards. A single seven by itself is a valid meld. Two or more sevens form a valid set, and two or more cards of the same suit in sequence form a valid sequence.
Some examples of valid melds:
A-2-3
Q-
Q-
Q10-J-Q-K76-77-87-7 3-4-5-4-4 you can form either a sequence meld 3-4-5 or a set of fours, but not both.Any player may deal first. Subsequently the winner of each game deals the next.
Seven cards are dealt to each player, one at a time. One card is placed face up on the table to begin the discard piles, and the stock of undealt cards is placed face down beside it.
The dealer begins, and the turn to play normally passes clockwise.
A turn consists of
Steps 1 and 4 are compulsory - every turn begins by drawing a card and ends by discarding one. The following restrictions apply:
If a card is discarded which another player can use to form a new meld, the player can claim the discard, even if it would normally be another player's turn to play. This is done by calling "Kam sa hap nida!" (Thank you!), taking the card, and putting it on the table together with cards from hand to make a valid meld, possibly putting down further melds or adding to melds, and discarding. The game then continues from the player to the left of the player who took the card out of turn. If two or more players want the same discard it goes to the player who claimed it first. Players normally slap the discard to claim it, so that when more than one player does this it is clear from the position of the hands who was first.
There are five ways that the play can end.
At the end of the play, the winner is paid by the other players according to the number of points remaining in their hands. When counting points, any quads (sets of four cards of the same rank) are disregarded. For example 2-4-5-9-9-9-9 counts as only 11 points, not 47.
The loser with the fewest points pays 1 stake to the winner, the loser with next fewest pays 2 stakes, and so on. So if there are 5 players the player with the highest value of cards remaining will pay 4 stakes and the winner will collect 10 stakes in total if there are no ties.
In case of a tie, both or all tieing players pay the higher amount. For example in a 5-player game if the final point scores are A: 11, B: 3, C: 34, D: 34, E: 11, both C and D pay 4 stakes and both A and E pay 2 stakes, so that the winner B collects 12 stakes in this case.
A player who has a seven in hand must pay double. (With more than one seven, the payment would be doubled for each seven held.)
A player who has had a turn but has not melded any cards must pay double. (Players who did not get a turn to play do not have to pay double.)
If the winner went out by melding all seven cards at once, without previously having melded any cards, and after each of the other players had played at least one turn, this is known as Perfect or Hoola and all the payments are doubled. If a player wins with a 'Perfect' by taking another player's discard, the player who discarded that card has to pay the losses of all the losers: the winner collect the money and the other players pay nothing.
These doubles are cumulative. For example if another player goes out by melding all seven cards at once, you have not melded any cards, and your hand contains a seven, and there are two other losers with fewer points than you, you are subject to three doubles and must pay 24 stakes (8×3).
If the player who knocks is undercut - that is, some other player has an equal or lower number of points - the payments are doubled and the player who knocked has to pay all players' losses to the winner while the other players pay nothing.
The version described above is sometimes known as "Battle Hoola". It seems to be the most usual way to play, but if you dislike the race to claim the discard, an alternative rule is that if more than one person wants the discard, the person whose next turn to play is earlier gets the card. There is also a "non-battle" version of Hoola in which the top card of the discard pile can only be taken when it is your turn to play. There is no chance to take a card discarded by anyone other then the player immediately to your left.
Some players count all picture cards (king, queen, jack) as 10 points. In this case, either the method of stopping the game by means of a blast is not used, or the requirement for a major blast would be to have a hand consisting entirely of kings, queens and jacks.
Some play that it is not necessary to end one's turn with a discard when going out. With this rule, a player holding for example two 4's could pick up a third 4, meld the set of 4's and go out without discarding.
Some play that the ace can be used as a high or low card card in a sequence but not both, so that A-2-3 and A-K-Q are valid melds but K-A-2 is not allowed. Some play that the ace is always low, so that A-2-3 is valid but A-K-Q and 2-A-K are not.
When 6 or 7 play, one or two players must drop out after the deal, leaving exactly five players in the game. The dealer is not allowed to drop out, so the player to dealer's right (assuming clockwise play) is the first to decide whether to play or drop out, followed by the others in turn. If four players in addition to the dealer have chosen to play, any remaining players must drop out. On the other hand, once one player has dropped out of a 6-player game or two players have dropped out of a 7-player game, the remaining players must play. Players who are forced to drop out (because there are already five players in the game) can claim compensation for any sevens, sets of three cards or suited sequences they have in their hands. Payments can vary according to prior agreement: Yishin Cho suggests a payment of ¼ stake for each seven, set or sequence, from each of the four players (other than the dealer) who chose to play, so that a player forced to drop out receives a total of 1 unit for each seven, set or sequence. Players who choose to drop out when they could have played cannot claim compensation. After the compensation payments if any have been made, the hands of the players who dropped out are given to the dealer and shuffled into the stock.
The maximum number of points with which you can knock varies from place to place and with the number of players. Some options are:
Some play that if a player goes out with a Perfect (or Hoola) the next deal is played for double stakes. If that is also won with a Perfect hand, the stakes for the following hand are doubled again (four times the original stake) and so on.
Hoola is sometimes played with one or two jokers, which are used as wild cards - in other words they can be used as a substitute for any needed card when putting down a meld. There are various alternative ways to count jokers remaining in a player's hand when the play ends:
Occasionally the game is played clockwise, rather than clockwise.
Some play that if a player stops the game and is "undercut", another player having the same number of points or fewer, the player who stopped the game must pay an agreed fixed penalty to each opponent - for example 5 stakes - and there are no other payments.
The following variants have problematic or unusual rules, and it is possible that they may be based on misunderstandings. I would be interested to know if any of the versions of the game described below are commonly played in Korea.
Hertzog gives the following alternative system of payments:
This seems to have the curious effect that if you never meld any cards you cannot lose. To discoursage this strategy, Hertzog recomments modifying the above system so that a player who has not melded any cards pays one half stake to the winner.
According to Hertzog, only the dealer is allowed to stop the play without going out, and only if he has reduced his hand to one card.
Glenn gives a rather different system for melding and adding to melds:
I would be interested to hear from anyone else who plays the game this way. None of my other correspondents so far has mentioned the killing of melds, or building a run on a set, or the idea that runs can only be extended in one direction.