Daifugō

Daifugō (大富豪^?, Grand Millionaire) or Daihinmin (大貧民^?, Extreme Needy) is a Japanese card game for three or more players played with a standard 52-card pack. The objective of the game is to get rid of all the cards one has as fast as possible by playing progressively stronger cards than those of the previous player. The winner is called the daifugō (the grand millionaire) earning various advantages in the next round, and the last person is called the daihinmin (the extreme needy). In that following round, winners can exchange their one or more unnecessary cards for advantageous ones that losers have.

The game is very similar to the Chinese climbing card games Big Two and Zheng Shangyou, to the Vietnamese game Tien Len, and to Western card games like President, also known as Capitalism and Asshole, and The Great Dalmuti. Like those other games, there are many variations and rules.

Basic rules

The rules described here are based on rules made popular in the U.S. by Tokyopop, in volume two of the manga Fruits Basket. They are fairly basic and attempt to condense the game to its core elements. Since card games like this are taught and evolve by word of mouth, the game play varies according to state of origin.