Like a Dragon: Ishin! — How to Play Oicho-kabu

Like a Dragon: Ishin! — How to Play Oicho-kabu Oicho-kabu looks more complicated than it is because the cards don't look like playing cards. Ignore the pictures for a minute. You're adding numbers and trying to finish as close to nine as possible. This is for the 2023 remake. You'll find the game in the Gambling Den in Rakugai, and you need at least 100 tags to sit down. The completion target is 7,500 tags won. Losing tags doesn't subtract from that recorded winnings total, although it obviously still empties your pocket. How the numbers work Only the last digit of your total counts. Seven plus eight is fifteen, so that hand is worth five. If you then draw a four, nineteen becomes nine. Ten counts as zero when you're working out that final digit. There is no blackjack-style bust. You can draw past nine, but doing that might leave you with a worse number. An eight that picks up a four becomes two. That's why taking another card isn't automatically an improvement. Playing against the dealer Four cards are laid out face up. Each of the three players chooses one, leaving one unused hand on the table. Your chosen card gets a second card, then you decide whether to stay with your total or take a third. You're trying to beat the dealer. You're not trying to beat the other two players. If you and the dealer finish with the same ordinary total, the dealer wins. A seven, eight or nine is generally worth keeping. With a low total, taking another card gives you a chance to recover. Six is a closer decision. There isn't a choice that guarantees the right next card, so don't turn a losing hand into an excuse to double every bet afterward. When you're the dealer, you compare your hand against each player separately. You can win against one person and lose against another in the same round. Check the whole result rather than assuming a single winning comparison means you made money overall. The special hands These can beat an ordinary nine, so they're worth learning before you start throwing bigger bets around. • Four-One: a non-dealer's first two cards are a one and a four, in either order. Pays double. • Nine-One: the dealer's first two cards are a one and a nine, in either order. Pays double. • Three of a Kind: three matching numbers. Pays triple. • Ten-Ten-One: two tens and a one. Pays twenty times the stake when that rule is enabled. • Four-Six: the optional escape rule for a four and a six. This is an escape from the hand, not a ten-point winning total. Ten-Ten-One beats Three of a Kind, which beats Nine-One and Four-One. The dealer's version wins when both sides have the same top special hand. Those special results sit above the normal nine-through-zero rankings. Look at the table settings for Ten-Ten-One and Four-Six. Don't plan around an optional rule that isn't turned on. You can also change the card presentation between hanafuda and kabufuda. If the pictures are getting in the way, use whichever display makes the numbers easiest for you to read. Changing the artwork doesn't give you better cards. Getting to the bigger tables Beginner allows a maximum bet of 100 tags. Win ten individual hands there to unlock Intermediate, which raises the maximum to 500. Fifteen wins at Intermediate unlock Advanced and its 1,000-tag maximum. That's individual winning hands, not ten or fifteen entire visits to the gambling hall. Positive results while dealing count toward moving up as well. Start small until adding the cards feels automatic. Once the higher table opens, you can reach the 7,500-tag completion entry more quickly, but the losses get bigger too. Keep enough tags to continue playing and check your recorded progress between sessions. You're finished with this particular completion target when the game records it, not when you've recovered every losing bet from the whole evening.