Players in Donburiko (ドンブリコ) need to grab acorns while staying out of the ponds, as acorns don't appreciate spending lots of time in the water. (The game's setting comes from the children's nursery song "Donguri Korokoro" (どんぐりころころ), in which acorns roll down from the hills into the ponds, first excitedly playing with the loaches – a type of freshwater fish – only to then pine for the mountain left behind. The last line of the song: "He cried and the loach didn't know what to do.")

Each player starts with a few chips, each worth a point. The 16-card deck – which consists of two loaches (worth 0), four ponds (worth -1 or -2) and ten acorns (worth 1-5) – is shuffled, then a number of cards equal to the number of players are laid face-up. Each player receives a hand of 3-4 cards.

On a turn, a player either places a card from his hand into one of the columns or claims one of the columns. When placing a card, he can lay it face-up (taking one chip from the bank) or face-down (placing one of his chips on the card); when taking a column, it must have at least two cards and at most six.

After taking a column, the player sums the cards in that column, with a loach turning the negative ponds positive and with two of the acorns worth either 1 or 5 at the player's discretion. If the column's sum is between 0-6, the player takes that many chips from the bank; if more than 6 or less than 0, he pays the difference to the bank. This player is then out of the round, while the others continue to play cards or take columns.

A round ends when no columns remain, columns with only one card remain, or someone scores 6 chips from a column; in the latter case, the round ends immediately, and no one else scores anything. Players then start a new round. When the bank empties or a player has 20 or more chips, players complete the current round, then the player with the most chips wins!