Nuki Hachi-hachi [抜き八八 - ぬきはちはち, lit. ‘stripped eighty-eight’] is a 2-player Hachi-hachi variant using a stripped Hanafuda deck.
It can be played by 2-4 players, but only 2 players may play at once.
¶ Equipment
Only 34 cards of a standard hanafuda deck are used. Remove all 
Wisteria, 
Iris, and 
Bush Clover cards, as well as 2 
Paulownia Chaff.
Go Stones are also helpful in keeping track of scores. Black and White stones are used.
1 black stone = 1 point
1 white stone = 1 kan = 10 points
Hachi-Hachi sets will include additional tokens for tracking things such as the field multiplier and mizuten markers, along with pots for holding payments. None of these items are strictly necessary.
¶ Setup
¶ Choosing the Dealer
No method is stipulated for choosing the initial dealer. A hanafuda-specific method involves each player drawing a card from the deck, and the player with the earliest month becomes the dealer. In the event of a tie, the highest-ranked card within the month is considered the earliest. If there is still a tie, then the players re-draw.
The winner of each round becomes the dealer for the next round.
¶ Dealing the Cards
The dealing method is the same as in Hachi-hachi; 7 cards are dealt to each player face-down, and 6 cards to the table face-up to form the field.
The remainder of the deck is placed face-down next to the field to form the draw pile.
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If 4 cards of the same month are dealt to the table, then a misdeal is declared (since these 4 cards are impossible to capture). In this case, the cards are thrown in, shuffled again, and re-dealt.
-
If 2
Paulownia cards are dealt to the table, then both cards are automatically captured by the dealer.
¶ Mizuten (optional)
After the cards are dealt, but before the players look at their hands, the dealer may declare their intent to “play blind” [不見転 - むずてん, mizuten]; in other words, the dealer decides to play the round without checking their hand first.
Once this is declared, the dealer is committed to playing the round and may not drop out.
At the end of the game, the dealer who declared Mizuten either gets a bonus, or a penalty, depending on their captured card points.
¶ Field Multiplier
Field Multipliers are the same as in Hachi-hachi, except the Grand Field is omitted.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Small Field | A small field [小場 - こば, koba] occurs if there are no Brights on the field. Point exchanges are unaffected. |
| Large Field | A large field [大場 - おおば, ooba] occurs if any of the  Crane with Sun,  Flower Viewing Curtain, or  Full Moon Brights are on the field. All point exchanges will be doubled for this round. If two or all of these brights appear on the field, then the subsequent rounds will be Large Fields as well, depending on the number of brights. |
¶ Checking for Teyaku
Once the field multiplier is determined, the players check their hands for teyaku, or ‘hand combinations’ [手役 - てやく, teyaku], which they can score points from.
The Teyaku in this game is the same as in Hachi-hachi, but with Standing Triplet removed. The scores are also slightly different.
| Value (in kan) | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
¶ Group A: Set Teyaku |
||
| 2 | Triplet/Three of a Kind 三本 [さんぼん, sanbon] |
Any three cards of the same month. If there are two triplets, you can only claim for one. |
| 4 | Three Pairs 喰付 [くっつき, kuttsuki] (lit. sticky?) |
Three pairs of cards- a pair being two cards from the same month. |
| 4 | Four of a Kind 手四 [てし, teshi] |
Four cards from the same month. |
| 8 | Triplet and Two Pairs 跳剣 [はねけん, haneken] (lit. jumping sword?) |
A Triplet (or Standing Triplet) and two pairs. |
| 8 | One-Two-Four 一二四 [いちにし, ichinishi] |
Four of a kind, a pair, and a singleton. Note: When revealing this hand to claim points, all seven cards must be shown. |
| 20 | Four-Three 四三 [しそう, shisou] |
Four of a kind and a Triplet (or Standing Triplet). |
¶ Group B: Chaff TeyakuNote: For the purposes of these teyaku, all  Willow cards are considered Chaff, as opposed to their usual value. In particular, the Willow Ribbon is not considered a Ribbon. |
||
| 2 | Red 赤 [あか, aka] |
Two or more of any Ribbon card, with Chaff in the remainder of the hand. Note: Despite the name, all Ribbon cards count, including the blue ones. |
| 3 | One Ribbon 短一 [たんいち, tan’ichi] |
One Ribbon card, six Chaff. |
| 3 | One Animal 十一 [といち, toichi] |
One Animal card, six Chaff. |
| 4 | One Bright 光一 [ぴかいち, pikaichi] |
One Bright card, six Chaff. |
| 4 | Empty Hand 空素 [からす, karasu] |
Seven Chaff cards. |
The teyaku within each group are mutually exclusive, meaning that each player scores for their single most valuable teyaku in each of Groups A and B.
¶ The Join/Drop Phase
Skip this phase if only 2 players are playing.
After players evaluate their hand, they must decide if they would like to play this round, or sit out.
Beginning with the dealer and moving anti-clockwise, each player announces if they would like to play, or drop out. This proceeds until two players have announced their intent to play, or until everyone has had their turn, whichever comes first.
Dropout penalties were not attested in this game, since it was originally meant to be for 2 players only. Decide first before playing if dropout penalties will be implemented.
If only one player wishes to play, then obviously no game can occur. This sole remaining player is the de facto winner of the round, and claims the entire contents of the pot.
If nobody wishes to play, then a misdeal is declared; the cards are thrown in and re-dealt.
You may also choose to require that two people play, no matter what. As soon as all but two players have dropped out, the remainder must participate in the round.
As soon as two people decide to play, then any players who have not yet had their turn to decide are forced out [追い込み - おいこみ, oikomi].
Forced-out compensations are optional, and are the same used in Hachi-hachi. Decide first before playing if forced-out compensations will be implemented.
Once the active players have been determined, then the non-active players place their hands face-down on top of the draw pile. The draw pile should then probably be shuffled by one of the non-active players before play begins.
¶ Teyaku Showdown
The active players may claim the points of their teyaku. To do so, they must reveal all the relevant cards from their hand:
- For teyaku in Group A, show all cards that are part of the combination.
- For teyaku in Group B, only the Chaff cards need to be shown.
The points earned for teyaku are paid to a player by their opponent, in typical zero-sum fashion.
Once teyaku points are claimed, the players hide their cards again, and the round begins.
Should a player overlook certain teyaku, or otherwise forget to claim them, they have until the dealer takes the first card from the draw pile in order to do so. After this point, any unclaimed teyaku are void.
Remember that the field multiplier affects all exchanges of points between players, including teyaku payments!
¶ Matching Phase
The gameplay is the same as in Hachi-hachi. Since only 2 players are playing during the matching phase, liability rules do not apply.
¶ End of Round and Scoring
The round ends either when a player forms a dekiyaku then calls to end or cancel, or when all players have run out of cards in their hands.
Scoring is handled differently depending on whether or not any player managed to form a dekiyaku.
- If they have, then only the dekiyaku are scored for and the point values of the cards are ignored, similarly to Koi-Koi.
- If no dekiyaku have been made, then the player who has captured 16 Chaff cards or more is the winner.
- If neither player captured 16 Chaff cards, then card points are totalled and used to determine the winner.
The following sections will outline each of these methods.
Remember that all exchanges of points between players are affected by the field multiplier!
¶ Scoring When Dekiyaku Are Present
If any player possesses at least one dekiyaku in their score pile, then points are scored in the following manner:
- First, the teyaku payments from the beginning of the round are made.
- Then, the dekiyaku are scored based on how the round ended, as follows.
| Case | Handling |
|---|---|
| If a Player Called Shoubu | The player who called shoubu is paid the total value of their dekiyaku by their opponent. Only this player scores in this fashion, the opponents do not score anything for any dekiyaku they might possess. The player who called shoubu will be the winner of the round, and becomes the dealer for the next. |
| If a Player Elected to Cancel | The player who cancelled is paid half the total value of their dekiyaku by their opponent. Only the player who cancelled scores in this fashion, the opponents do not score anything for any dekiyaku they might possess. The player who cancelled will be the winner of the round, and becomes the dealer for the next. |
| If the Hands Are Exhausted | If dekiyaku have been formed, but players kept calling sage until they all ran out of cards, then each player is paid half the total value of their dekiyaku by their opponent. The winner of the round is the player who first called sage, and they will be the dealer for the next round. |
¶ Scoring With No Dekiyaku
If no player has managed to form any dekiyaku, then the players check if they have captured Sixteen Chaff.
¶ Sixteen Chaff
As its name implies, Sixteen Chaff [素十六 - すじゅうろく, sujuuroku] occurs when a player has managed to capture 16 Chaff cards (for this purpose, all Willow cards count as Chaff).
This player takes 12 kan from their opponent, plus an additional 2 kan for every Chaff card in excess of 16. They will be the winner of the round, and become the dealer for the next.
Including the Willow cards, there are a total of 19 Chaff cards in the deck.
Unlike in Hachi-hachi, Sixteen Chaff does not cancel other forms of scoring.
¶ Card Points
If Sixteen Chaff is not obtained, then the players proceed to count the point values of the cards in their score pile to determine the winner.
The values of the cards are standard, the same used in Hachi-hachi.
The players compare their scores and the player with a higher score wins, and is paid the difference by the player with a lower score. The winner becomes the dealer for the next round.
¶ Dekiyaku
The dekiyaku in this game are the same as in Hachi-hachi, except the composition of Seven Ribbons can include the Willow Ribbon.
Five Brights and Four Brights are mutually exclusive, but outside of that, all points earned from dekiyaku are cumulative.
| Value (in kan) | Name of Yaku | Composition |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Five Brights 五光 [ごこう, gokou] |
     |
| 10 | Four Brights 四光 [しこう, shikou] |
|
| 10 | Seven Ribbons 七短 [ななたん, nanatan] |
Any 7 Ribbon cards, which may or may not include the Willow Ribbon. |
| 7 | Poetry Ribbons 赤短 [あかたん, akatan] |
The three Poetry Ribbons:   |
| 7 | Blue Ribbons 青短 [あおたん, aotan] |
The three Blue Ribbons:   |
| 7 | Boar, Deer, Butterflies 猪鹿蝶 [いのしかちょう, inoshikachou] |
   * This yaku is optional. |
All Eights and Double Eights are not used in this game.
¶ Special Achievements
Once the scoring is completed—regardless of which method was used, or whether any dekiyaku were made—and the winner of the round determined, there is a final exchange of points for certain special achievements the players may have accomplished during the round.
Remember, the field multiplier applies to special achievements, too! It applies to everything!
¶ Diving
Diving [飛び込み - とびこみ, tobikomi], sometimes known as Catching the Triplet, is attainable by any player who claimed a Triplet teyaku.
If this player, by the end of the round, has managed to capture all four cards of the Triplet’s month, then the opponent pays them 1 kan for it.
¶ Escape
Escape [抜け役 - ぬけやく, nukeyaku] is available to any player who claimed a Group B teyaku.
If this player, by the end of the round, has managed to capture 106 or more total card points, then the opponent pays them 1 kan.
¶ Mizuten Bonus/Penalty
If the dealer, having declared their intent to play blind, manages to capture at least 106 card points by the end of the round, they are paid 1 kan by all other players, including the inactive ones.
Conversely, if the dealer fails to capture at least 106 card points, they must pay 1 kan to their active opponent.