KAKEYA TORANPU

OBJECT OF KAKEYA TORANPU: The object of Kakeya Toranpu is to be the team to score the most stones or chips. 

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 or 6 players

MATERIALS: One standard 52-card deck, stones or chips, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult

OVERVIEW OF KAKEYA TORANPU

Kakeya Toranpu is a 4 or 6 player trick-taking card game. It is played in partnerships of 2 players. The goal of the game is to score more stones or chips than your opponents. You do this by winning more face cards from tricks than the other teams. Base on how many face cards you win and what cards were in your opening hand you will score a number of stones from your opponents. 

In 6 player games, only 2 partnerships play at a time. The dealers will be the team sitting out for the round. 

SETUP 

Before the first deal, each team should be given 5 stones or chips. 

The first pair of dealers in a random partnership. In future rounds, the dealers become the losers from the previous round. 

The dealers will split the deck semi-evenly. They will both shuffle their halves and one will begin dealing each player their hands one card at a time until their portion of the deck is spent. Then the next dealer, starting where the other dealer left off will continue dealing until all cards are dealt and each player should have 13 cards. 

Card Ranking 

Cards are ranked Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (low). Cards of Aces though Jacks are called face cards and are what players are trying to win to score. 

The trump suit starts as spades, but before the dealt cards are seen by any player, one of the dealers may change it. In future rounds, the trump suit remains the same as the previous’ rounds but can also be changed. In 4 player games, the dealers may change it, in 6 player games, the previous dealers can change it. 

There is a special card called the Rensho. The Rensho is the ace of spades if spades are not trumps, otherwise, it’s the ace of clubs. The Rensho is the highest-ranking card. it does not belong to the trump suit; it belongs to the suit listed on it. It wins any trick it’s played to but must abide by the following rules discussed below. 

GAMEPLAY

In a 4-player game, one of the non-dealer players leads the first trick. In a 6-player game, one of the players in the team left of the dealer should lead. In future rounds though, a player from the winning team will lead. Players may discuss which team member should lead the first trick but cannot speak specifically about what they have in their hand. 

The leading player may lead any card and following players, in anticlockwise order, must follow suit if able. If not able to follow suit a player may play any card. 

The Rensho wins any trick it’s played to. Otherwise, the highest trump wins, if applicable, if not the highest-ranked card of the suit lead wins. The winner of a trick leads the next.

Any face cards are taken from the trick and kept faceup in your score pile. the remaining cards are turned facedown in the center of the playing area. 

SCORING

The team who wins 9 or more of the face cards wins the round. If both teams win 8 face cards each, the team that does not have the Rensho wins. 

The losers will pay a number of their stones to the winners. This number is determined by the cards held at the start of the game by the winners, and they face cards they won. 

If the winners take 4 stones if they held no aces at the start of the game. They get 2 stones as long as they did not hold the Rensho or the ace of trumps in their opening hand. If neither is true, then they only receive 1 stone for scoring less than 12 face cards. they get two stones if they scored 12 to 15 face cards, and they get 4 stones if they scored all 16 face cards. 

END OF GAME

The game ends when a team has no stones left. In a 4-player game, this means the other team has won. In a 6-player game, the team with more stones wins. If there is a tie, the game is tied between the two teams.   

Amber Crook
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