Daifugō

,, Fool, or Tycoon, is a Japanese shedding-type 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 earning various advantages in the next round, and the last person is called the daihinmin. 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 Hong Kong climbing card games Big Two, and the Chinese game Zheng Shangyou, to the Vietnamese game Tien Len, and to Western card games like President 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.

Special titles

There are five special titles for players during the game, along with popular North American and European equivalents:

Daifugō - winner of the previous round
Fugō - second place in the previous round
Heimin - average placement in the previous round
Hinmin - second-to-last in the previous round
Daihinmin - last place in the previous round

Some notes:

In the first round, all players begin as heimin. Decide randomly who will be the dealer.
Depending on the number of players, multiple players could be heimin, or the game might not have a heimin. In a three player game, there is no fugō or hinmin.
After every hand, players must get up and switch seats so that the daihinmin deals, and everyone is seated clockwise in order of titles, with daifugō on the dealer's left, and hinmin on the right..
Dealing

The daihinmin shuffles and deals the cards. All the cards are dealt, until none are left, in clockwise rotation. Jokers, other wilds or extra 2s from another deck are used to ensure the cards can be dealt evenly. Alternately, the deal starts at the point which will allow the richest players to have the fewest cards and therefore be more likely to maintain their domination.
After cards are dealt and after the first hand, the daihinmin must hand over their two strongest cards to the daifugō, while the hinmin must hand over their one strongest card to the fugō. The daifugō and fugō then hand back an equal number of any "junk" cards they do not want. This process is known as zeikin.

Playing

Play in Daifugō is organized into tricks, much like Spades or Bridge. However, unlike those games, each trick can involve more than one card played by each player, and players do not have to play a card in a trick.
The player on the dealer's left begins by leading any number of cards of the same rank. The player on the left may then play an equal number of matching cards with a higher face value, or may pass. Note that the same number of cards as the lead must be played. If the leader starts with a pair, only pairs may be played on top of it. If three-of-a-kind is led, only three-of-a-kinds can be played on top of it. The next player may do the same, and so on. This continues until all players pass, or until one or more 2s are played; as the 2 is the highest value, nothing can beat it. The last person to play a card leads the next trick.
Notes on game play:

The ordering of the face values is a little different from most American card games - the deuce is the highest value and is unbeatable. The ace is next highest, the King the next highest, etc. with the 3 being the lowest. A few variants allow a single deuce to be played on top of any other combination, but typically games require the same number of deuces to be played as were originally led. Another variant leaves one-eyed jacks higher than the deuce; the one-eyed jacks can be bested by the suicide king.
When players pass, this does not limit them in any way from playing later, even during the same trick. In some variants, however, a player cannot play on a trick in which he or she passed previously.
Players can pass anytime, even if the player has cards that could be played.
The number of cards that can be led to begin any trick is only dependent on the cards in the player's hand and his/her strategy.
End of a round

When one player runs out of cards, they are out of play for the rest of the round, but the other players can continue to play to figure out the titles. A few versions hold that once a player goes out, players count remaining card values to establish titles, or simply count the number of cards remaining in each player's hand.
When playing by traditional rules, once titles are decided, everyone needs to get up and move. The daihinmin is the dealer, and the players must rearrange themselves around the dealer so that they are seated in order of rank, clockwise. Most American variants do not rearrange the seating of the players, so everyone plays in the same order each hand.

Winning the game

The winner is usually the player who is daifugō at the end of the game, but a point system can also be used, where the fugō and daifugō earn 1 and 2 points, respectively, every round.

Basic strategy

The basic strategy of Daifugō is very simple; players attempt to get rid of weaker cards first so that only stronger cards are left in the players' hands near the end of a game. If a player is stuck with a low card, it will be very hard to get to play it and empty a hand. However, as winning a trick lets the player lead any card to start the next trick, one weak card can be kept to be played last.
However, when trying to prevent a player who is low on cards from emptying their hand, the player preceding him/her can elect to try to block the next player by playing a high value card or combination even if a lower value combination is available, and thus hopefully prevent the next player from playing as they are unable to top it. Additional elements of strategy can be introduced with optional rules such as skips and clears, which afford the other players more options in attempting to prevent play by a person about to empty their hand.

Optional rules

One or more house rules are usually observed when playing a game of Daifugō. Here are a few examples:
;Rule No. 420
;Strict 52-card
;Dummy Hand
;Deuce Means Clear
;Match Means Clear
;Jokers are Wild
;Jokers are 2s
;Jokers are Trumps
;Forbidden Last Card
;Skips
;Multi-Skips
;Revolution
;Completo, a.k.a. Completion
;Jack-Back
;Kaidan
;Eight Enders
;Deuces Wild, Jokers High
;Direction of Play
;People's Revolution
;Bankrupt
;Metropolitan Citizens First
;Multiple Decks
;Despotism
;Three of Clubs Start
;Daifugō's Choice
;English Ranking System
;Extended Trading
;Tight, Follow Same Suit
;Poker hands
;Asshole/President
;Rule of 7
;Throwaway 10
;Double 9 Ambulance

Social aspects

Often the titles used in the game can be extended to social interactions. The daihinmin may be required to get up and fetch everyone's snacks and drinks. Also the daifugō may be able to give an order after each round that must be followed, like "all heimin must bark like dogs", or "the hinmin must give me a backrub".
The daifugō - can also add rules related to the game itself, such as the rules in the list above, or any rule that suits him. It is often a good idea to impose limitations on such rule-making before the game starts, such as a maximum number of additional rules, and allowing other players to override a new rule by unanimous vote.

Popular culture

In Fruits Basket, a popular manga and anime series, the characters in the story often play the card game with each other, emphasizing the fun social aspects of the game. In 2006, Score Entertainment released a Fruits Basket card game that contains a set of rules to Daifugō.
In volume 6 of Ouran High School Host Club, Haruhi Fujioka and Suoh Tamaki were made to obey Kyoya Ootori after a game of Daifugō.
The commercial game The Great Dalmuti is a custom Daifugo deck where lower numbered cards are strictly better, but the number of copies of each card in the deck equals its value - so, for example, 10 is the lowest card but there are 10 of them in the deck. This allows weak cards to be played in large sets which stronger cards cannot match. Dilbert: Corporate Shuffle is a further variant which adds three special effect cards.
In the PC Game "Katawa Shoujo", Misha and Shizune challenge Hisao to play Daifugō against them.
In Germany, there is a similar game by the name of "Vollarsch" or "Arschloch".
In Belgium, the loser is called "Stront"
In Sweden, a common name for this game used to be "neger och president" which means Negro and President. This title reflects the injustice and hierarchy of slave-age USA. New titles have since been adopted, since the word "neger" is considered by many to be offensive.
Similar to the Swedish and German versions, there is also a Greek variant of Daifugō called "Νίγκα". The original game play features 5 ranks. Each player gets 6 cards and cards utilized are only sevens and up, with aces being the most powerful. The remaining 2 cards are called "the Swiss cards", because it's at the Swiss' discretion to swap at the start of each round 2 cards of his for these 2 "Swiss cards" as a one-time option. Also, the Kakumei-Revolution rule is standard. Other differences from the original Daifugō: There is no seat rearrangement at each round and no wild cards are being used.
In the light novel and anime series The "Hentai" Prince and the Stony Cat., Tsukiko Tsutsukakushi invites Azusa Azuki, Yōto Yokodera and Tsukushi Tsutsukakushi to play Daihinmin while her house is flooded by the typhoon.
In the video game Persona 5 Royal, a variation of this game can be played with members of the player character's team.
*In the western release of the game, the card game goes by the name "Tycoon".
Japanese pop music group Hinatazaka46 included a group wide Daifugo tournament as bonus for the blu-ray editions of their fourth single.