The Cards

The Deck 

There are 48 cards, arranged in 12 suits, or families called ‘ohana. Each suit is represented by a Hawaiian plant. Six of the plants are indigenous or endemic to Hawaiʻi, six were brought by the first Polynesian settlers of the Islands. The 12 suits in order from left to right are:

Four of the cards are worth 20 points. Eleven cards are worth 10 points. Ten cards are decorated with a rectangular piece of bark cloth, called kapa. Ten other cards are worth 5 points. The rest are plain cards, called ‘ōpala, with zero point value. Each ʻohana (suit) has two cards with point value and two with no point value. The exception is the fern ʻohana #11, which has three 5 point cards.

The Game

Objective of the Game

Win by accumulating the most points by matching cards. The total possible score is 240 points. 

Choosing a Dealer

Spread the cards out face down on the kahua, field. Have each player choose a random card. The player with the highest point value is the dealer. If players are tied, the tied players choose cards again until one player chooses a card with the highest point value.

Dealing the Cards

The player to the dealer’s left shuffles the deck of cards, and offers it to the player on the dealer’s right for the cut. When there are only two players, the player who shuffles passes the deck back to the dealer. The dealer may choose to cut the cards before dealing.

To cut the cards, take a portion from the top of the deck and put those cards on the bottom of the deck. You may also tap the top of the deck instead, to indicate that you are satisfied with the shuffle.

The dealer then deals the proper number of cards to each player face down in a counter-clockwise direction, to the right. Next, the dealer places the proper number of cards face up in the kahua, in the field. The remaining cards are placed face down in a stack to draw from. Refer to the following chart for the number of cards to deal.

Card Dealing Chart

Players	Cards in Hand	Cards in Field
2 players	8 cards	8 cards
3 players	7 cards	6 cards
4 players	5 cards	8 cards
5 players	4 cards	8 cards
6 players	3 cards	12 cards

The Play

The goal is to win points by matching cards of the same suit, or ‘ohana. First deal using the dealing chart. The dealer has the first turn.

Each turn has two parts:

1. Draw a card from your hand to place in the field, kahua. If the suit of that card matches the suit of a card in the field, place the card from your hand over the matching card on the field. This way, other players can see that you have a proper match. Then, take both cards. Place cards with points face up in front of you. Discard cards with no points in a discard pile. If you do not have a card from your hand that matches a card in the field, you must still choose a card to leave in the field at your turn.
2. Draw a card from the drawing stack. If the suit of the drawn card matches a card in the field, take both cards. Place any cards with points face up in front of you, and discard any cards without points. Leave unmatched cards in the field.

This ends a player’s turn.

The play continues to the right, in a counter-clockwise direction. Each player takes her turn until everyone has played all the cards in their hands.

When playing with four players, you can play with teams of two players. When playing with teams, each partner sits across from the other. Team members should not communicate with each other about game play. Each team combines their point cards at the end of the game. The winning team can decide which team member is the dealer for the next game.

Remember, the direction of play goes counter-clockwise.

The Storm Card

‘Ohana Rules

Block the Storm Card

If a player has an ‘ohana, the player can complete a suit in his hand, or can complete a suit with the cards in the field, he can block another player from capturing a card from his ‘ohana (completed suit) with the Storm Card. When another player tries to use the Storm Card to capture a card from his completed suit, he must say, “stop.” Then, he must show the completed suit, take them from the field and his hand, and place the cards with points face up in his points section. If he runs out of cards in his hand before the other players, he continues to play by drawing one card from the drawing stack for his turn.

The player holding an ʻohana does not need to declare his  ʻohana until another player attempts to capture one of the cards in his ʻohana with a Storm Card card. The player with an ʻohana  can declare an ʻohana at any time, even if it is not his turn. To block the Storm Card, the player with an ʻohana should say “stop” and take the cards from the field and his hand, placing any cards with points in front of him.

Sometimes after declaring an ʻohana, a player will have less cards in his hand than other players. If he does not have any cards in his hand at his turn, he still draws a card from the drawing stack to match or leave in the field. Play continues until all players have played all the cards in their hands.

Scoring

The game is over when there are no more cards in the players’ hands. Each player counts his points and the one with the greatest value of points wins. Only cards with a point value are counted.

If the scores are tied, the dealer wins. If players other then the dealer are tied, the player closest to the dealer’s right is the winner. 

Once you get used to playing for only the point values of cards, you can add special card bonus combinations. This addition makes for a much more exciting and challenging game. 

Hui, Bonus Combinations

There are 8 three-card bonus combinations. Match the icons at the bottom of the cards to make the bonus combinations. If a player makes a bonus combination, all of the other players must subtract 50 points from their total score.

Match the icons at the bottom of the cards to make bonus combinations. Below are the eight bonus combinations:

Scoring with Bonus Combinations

At the end of the game, players add their points from the top-left corner of the cards. For every bonus combination a player has, the other players subtract 50 points. The player with the highest total points wins!

Scoring Example

In this example, Player 2 has the highest initial point score from counting the points on the cards. Player 3 has the next most points, and Player 1 has the least amount of scored points. 

Once points are counted, players then count their bonus combinations. For every bonus combination a player has, all other players must subtract 50 points. With the bonus combinations counted, we can see that Player 1 has advanced to become the winner!

Have fun playing!