player's knees. Players also cannot put their other hand on their laps until after the card reader begins reading. If any players touch a card that was not read, they must give one of their cards to their opponent as a penalty. When there are only two cards remaining, they need to be lined up side by side, with 30 centimeters of space between them. After the second reading (which should be one of the two remaining cards), players may try and take the card. Whoever succeeds is given the last remaining card as a bonus; therefore, the last card is not read aloud. When playing in teams, the players sitting in the middle are the ones who try and grab the final cards. Scoring The scoring system is different for single and team matches. In the former, the player with the most cards in hand simply wins. In the latter, the score is calculated first at one point for each card the player has in his or her hand. Then, the same cards get awarded extra points based on a special scale seen below. The team with the highest total score wins. In the event of a tie, the player or team who holds the 'tsu' card becomes the winner. This means that the 'tsu' card is the most important card in the game, so players will need to move quickly if they want to be able to snag it. Special scoring scale In team matches it is beneficial to gather specific card combinations. The special scale awards points as seen below: Note that this scale does not apply during single matches. Elementary school players can only use the 5 Cities and/or the 3 Mountains combinations whereas junior high school players can use any of the three. See also Goita Menko Competitive karuta References and notes External links Japanese playing cards of western origin: Portuguese-derived patterns. Andy's Playing Cards: Portuguese derived cards: An in-depth look at Portuguese-derived patterns. Andy's Playing Cards: E-awase playing cards (archived): E-awase type cards. Japanese Traditional Games: Card Games Edo Karuta Research Center (archived) Japanese card games