Played Go Stop for the First Time

Recently, I had the opportunity to sleepover at Nuri's house during the weekend. I had never been to her house and it had been a while since I had met up with her so I thought why not?


After hanging out and catching up, she had to do a little packing for her family who were overseas. Nuri is a Korean and I met here during my pre-university days in Sunway. I believe she was one of my first ever Korean friends. I find it amazing that we've kept in touch for so long cause I've lost contact with all my other pre-U friends.

Anyway. she was packing and she found her Go Stop cards. She was going to bring them with her as her family often plays the game together. I just had to ask her to teach me how to play. I had never seen the cards in real life. You often see them on Korean dramas or variety shows.

The cards are actually quite thick and stiff. I thought they were just made of thick card, but they're much thicker than that. In fact, they feel like those flat magnets, except they're not magnetic. They are also quite tiny.

So what is Go Stop?

Here's a little info about the game. The game itself is more popularly known as Go Stop(고스톱). The deck is called Hwatu (화투) and has a total of 48 cards. The game is played by a maximum of 3 players and a minimum of 2. The objective of the game is to attain 3 or 7 points. Although, the game I played needed 5 points for you to win.

Why is the game called Go Stop?

Well, once the winner get a predetermined amount of points, they can decide whether to continue the game (Go) or to end it and collect their winning (Stop). If the same winner wins the next round then his winnings are multiplied. Their winnings will be multiplied by the number of times they say "Go". This is quite risky unless you're sure the other players can't win against your score.

I was only taught briefly, but I Nuri did a good job of teaching a noob like me the basics of the game. So much so I beat her quite a few times even when I was showing her my cards. hahaha (Beginner's luck!Or she was letting me win?)

One of my favourite things about the game is probably throwing the cards down like you see on TV. The sound is so satisfying and you feel like quite a badass.

The hardest thing about this game was remembering the set of cards so you can find pairs to get points. If you don't know what I'm talking about, there are sets of 4 cards that you must remember. To use the cards in your deck and get a point, you need to pair them with a card from the same set. 

While the art on each set is different, you can easily get confused as a beginner. To read more about the rules go here or watch the video below.

Where can you get the cards?

Unfortunately, I've looked online and there doesn't seem to be a place where you can order them in Malaysia. Lazada has one listing for it here but it costs RM200+?! I think you're better off asking someone going to Korea to get you a set. haha

I'm thinking of getting a set for myself! :D