Kaiji Itou's dull world is turned upside-down when he is paid a visit by a man named Endou, a loan shark coming to collect on a loan Kaiji once co-signed as a favor to a friend.

Boarding the ship of hope, the Espoir, Kaiji prepares to play a unique game called Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Kaiji, his old friend Furuhata, and newcomer Andou band together to try and conquer the Espoir with the power of teamwork.

Pooling their resources, Kaiji's team begins buying up all the Rock cards on the floor; if things go according to plan, they could walk away with enough stars to win the game and have leftovers to sell.

Kaiji is caught off guard when he realizes too late that another player, Kitami, has been buying Paper cards to counter Kaiji's Rocks.

After soundly defeating Kitami, Kaiji weasels his way into getting their pool of Paper cards as well; with 30 Rocks, 34 Papers and five Scissors, Kaiji's team now has a huge deck to draw on.