You can visit the gambling den in Rakugai to play any of these mini-games.
When you enter the building, on the left hand side there are 2 guys sat there. You can exchange your points (earned by gambling here) for prizes with the guy on the left. You can purchase points with money from the guy on the right (you need points in order to gamble, so you'll have to buy some from him).
When you speak to the guy to exchange points for prizes, the first option is for items and materials, while the second option is for equipment.
When you play poker, you get many options:
Play Texas Hold 'em
Play Pineapple Hold 'em
Play Omaha Hold 'em
Practice Texas Hold 'em
Practice Pineapple Hold 'em
Practice Omaha Hold 'em
When you choose to play a type of poker, you get a choice of 2 takes (low stakes and high stakes). If after selecting stakes it doesn't let you play, that means you don't have enough points to gamble.
When you choose to practice one of the poker types, it just gives you a tutorial of that style of poker.
When you play Koi-Koi, you get a choice of difficulties. At first, you can only do intermediate (top option) and beginner (middle option). Once you start, choose the top option to begin playing.
Koi-Koi is a Japanese card game with the objective of scoring card combinations. Basically, you are drawn a hand and then cards from the deck are placed on the table and you match up cards in your hand with the ones on the table to form a "Yaku" (specific card combinations) and score points (different "Yaku" score different points - you can see how many points different "Yaku" give you by pressing square). This is made nice and simple in Ishin because matching cards are highlighted on the screen (as you can see in the pic above), so even if you've never played Koi-Koi before it should be pretty straightforward. When you pick a card from your hand that doesn't match with any of the ones on the table, you place that card onto the table with the others. After you form a "Yaku", you can choose to keep going (top option) to score more points with more "Yaku", or bank the points you have won (bottom option).
If you want to learn about the game in more detail (such as a full list of "Yaku"), try searching around online for tutorials/lessons.
When you play Oicho-Kabu, you get a choice of difficulties (though you can only pick beginner at first). Once you start, choose the top option to begin playing.
Oicho-Kabu is like Japanese blackjack. Like in blackjack, you compete against the dealer's hand (unless you're the dealer - it rotates between the players - in which case you compete against all the other guys), though instead of aiming for 21 points, you aim for 9. When your hand exceeds 10, the last digit of the total of your cards becomes your number - so, if you have a hand adding up to 17, your hand will count as 7. When the game starts, you select one of the 4 cards on the table as your starting hand. The dealer's hand is at the top left of the screen. If you can't read Japanese number characters, don't worry - the value of your hand (and everyone else's hands) is indicated on the screen.
Cee-Lo is a dice game played with three 6-sided dice. The banker rolls first after all bets have been placed, then the other players roll. Players roll up to 3 times, until they get a scoring combination. If the player does not roll a scoring combination after 3 rolls, they score nothing. If the banker scores nothing, he automatically loses and the other players get the points.
When a player gets a roll where two of the dice are the same number, the remaining number on the third dice becomes the player's score. So, for example, if a player rolls 5-5-3 the 3 becomes the player's score. If another player rolls 2-2-6, that will give them a score of 6, beating the score of 3. If the banker scores a roll of 1, they automatically lose (other players don't have to roll and get the points in the bank). If the banker scores a roll of 6, he automatically wins.
Special dice rolls:
Triples - If the banker rolls anything from all 2s to all 6s he wins and gets 3x the amount in the bank. Rolling triple 1s gets 5x the amount in the bank.
4-5-6 - If the banker rolls this combo, he wins and 2x the amount in the bank.
1-2-3 - If the banker rolls this combo, he loses and has to pay out 2x the amount in the bank to other players. This is like if he scores a 1, but instead he pays out double.
6-3-4 - This is like getting a score of 6 (like when you roll 2-2-6), but you get 2x the amount in the bank.
Strange Eye - When rolling a 1-3-5 combo, the score becomes the same as the player who rolled before you. When the banker or first "child" (non-banker - first one to roll after banker) rolls this, his score is 3.
Receiving Sound - When rolling a 2-4-6 combo, the score becomes the same as the player who rolls after you. When the banker or 3rd "child" rolls this, his score is 4.
You can press square when it's your turn to roll to take a gamble and have just one throw instead of 3. If the gamble pays off for you and you go on to win the round, you get 3x the amount in the bank.
In this game, the dice roller rolls 2 dice in a container and places it in the ground, then the players bet on whether the result (of the 2 dice added up) will be an odd number or even number. Choose the top option to bet Even and 2nd option to bet Odd. After playing a certain number of games, more options appear. You can eventually bet on the exact number of one of the dice (3rd option) and the exact numbers on both of the dice (4th option).
