Fishing games
Fishing games have no obvious counterparts in European traditions, but they are quite common in Asia. The Korean card game Hwatu (the same as Japanese Hanafuda), which eventually displaced Chinese dominoes in Korea, is itself a fishing game.
The basic idea of a fishing game is simple. Domino tiles are laid out on the table and represent a “lake,” or fish swimming in a lake. Players use tiles from their hand—or sometimes from the deck—to “catch” fish according to specific, usually straightforward, rules. If a player cannot catch anything with a tile, they place it into the lake, where it may later be caught by another player.
A turn often consists of two parts: first, the player uses a tile from their hand; then they draw and use a tile from the deck. As a result, during a single turn a player may catch two fish, release two tiles into the lake, or catch one and release one.
Fishing games generally involve a significant element of luck, since the second part of the turn depends entirely on the randomly drawn tile. Two games - Tiu-U (Catching Fish) and Shi Wu Hu (Fifteen Lakes) are classic examples of the genre. They are very similar and can even be regarded as variants of the same basic game.
Tsung Shap (Disputing for Tens) stands somewhat apart. In its classical form, it contains very little skill component, with outcomes depending almost entirely on chance.
Today, it seems that only Fifteen Lakes still maintains a living playing tradition.