Crazy 8 Rules

Objective

Be the first to play every card from your hand. Each card played must match the top card of the discard pile by suit or by rank, except the Eights, which are wild. The player who goes out scores the value of the cards the opponent is still holding, and the first player to reach 100 points over a series of hands wins the game.

Players, cards and the deal

• Players: 2 on CardCouch, head-to-head against the computer. With a physical deck the game is played by 2 to 7 (two decks for more than about five).
• Deck: a standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Deal: seven cards each, one at a time, face down. (Traditional games with three or more players deal five each.)
• Stock: the undealt cards are placed face down as the stock.
• Starter: the top card of the stock is turned face up to begin the discard pile. If it is an Eight, it is buried in the stock and the next card is turned; this repeats until the starter is not an Eight.
• Dealer: the deal alternates each hand. The non-dealer plays first. The computer deals hand 1, so you go first in hand 1, the computer in hand 2, and so on.

A legal play

On your turn you may play exactly one card from your hand onto the discard pile if it is:

1. the same suit as the suit currently to follow — normally the top card's suit, or the suit named after an Eight; or
2. the same rank as the top card — a Ten on a Ten, a Queen on a Queen — which changes the suit to that of the card you played; or
3. an Eight, which may be played on any card.

Only one card is played per turn. If you hold a legal card you must play one; drawing is only for when nothing fits (see below). There is no requirement to announce your last card and no penalty for forgetting to.

The Eight

When you play an Eight you name a suit — any of the four, whether or not you hold it. The next player must play a card of that suit or another Eight, or draw. The named suit remains in force until a card of that suit is played (after which that card is simply the top card) or another Eight is played and a new suit is named.

Drawing

If you cannot play, you draw the top card of the stock. In the rule used on CardCouch:

• You may only draw when no card in your hand fits; there is no drawing instead of playing.
• You draw one card at a time.
• A drawn card that is a legal play is played at once; you cannot draw past it.
• A drawn card that does not fit stays in your hand and you draw again.
• You continue until you play a card or there is nothing left to draw.

Your turn ends when you play a card, not when you draw. Only if the stock and the reshuffle are both exhausted while you still have no legal card does the turn end without a play — you pass (see below).

This is the rule that varies most between houses. Many rule sets let a player draw even when they could play; others end the turn after a single non-fitting draw, or after a fixed number of draws. They are listed under variations below; none apply on CardCouch.

When the stock runs out

As soon as the stock is empty and a player needs to draw, the discard pile — everything except its top card — is shuffled to form a new stock. The top card stays in place and the suit to follow does not change. This can happen more than once in a long hand.

Passing and blocked hands

A player may pass only when both of these are true: there is nothing left to draw (the stock is empty and the discard pile holds only its top card), and they have no legal card. On CardCouch a Pass button appears in precisely that situation and at no other time.

If both players pass one after the other, the hand is blocked. Both hands are totalled using the scoring table below; the player with the lower total scores the difference. Equal totals score nothing, and the next hand is dealt.

Scoring

The hand ends the instant a player plays their last card. That player scores the total of the cards left in the opponent's hand:

• Eight = 50
• King, Queen, Jack = 10 each
• Ace = 1
• 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 = face value

The first player to reach 100 points wins the game. Points are only ever scored by the winner of a hand, so scores cannot tie at the finish.

Rules at a glance

Common variations

Crazy Eights is played differently in almost every house. These are the rules you are most likely to meet; none are used on CardCouch:

• Queens skip: the next player loses their turn (with two players, you play again).
• Twos draw two: the next player draws two cards and may not play; a Two answered by a Two often stacks to four.
• Jacks reverse: in games of three or more, the direction of play reverses. Aces are the reverse card in some houses, and skip in others.
• Last card: a player down to one card must say so (“last card” or “one”) or draw a penalty card if caught.
• Voluntary draw: a player who does not wish to play may draw instead — common in published rules, and the usual way to keep an Eight back.
• Draw one only: a player who cannot play draws a single card and, if it does not fit, the turn passes.
• Draw limit: some houses cap the draw at a fixed number of cards, often three, after which the player passes.
• Starter Eight left in place: some tables do not bury a starter Eight; the first player may then play anything, or the dealer names the suit.
• Three or more players: five cards each; six or more players usually use two decks; partnership play is sometimes seen with four.
• Mau-Mau, Switch and Uno: the same game with a fixed roster of action cards — skip, reverse, draw two and wild — either agreed at the table or printed on a special deck.

Frequently asked questions

Keep learning