How to Play Crazy Eights
Crazy Eights is one of the great family card games. Children can learn it in a few minutes, and grown-ups keep playing it long after, because there is always a little decision to make: which card to let go of, when to spend your eight, which suit to name. If you have played the colorful store-bought game with the numbered cards, you already know the idea, because that game is a descendant of this one. This page explains the rules step by step, exactly as our free online Crazy Eights game plays them.
What You Need
- One ordinary deck of 52 cards, with the jokers taken out.
- Two to four players. (With five or more, many families shuffle two decks together.)
- Paper and a pencil if you want to keep score over several hands.
The Object of the Game
Be the first player to get rid of every card in your hand. When you do, you win the hand and score points for all the cards your opponents are still holding. Over several hands, the first player to reach 100 points wins the game.
The Deal
Pick a dealer any way you like. The dealer shuffles and deals the cards one at a time, face down, starting with the player on their left:
- Two players: seven cards each.
- Three or four players: five cards each.
The rest of the deck goes face down in the middle of the table. This is the stock. The dealer turns over its top card and puts it face up beside the stock to start the discard pile, sometimes called the starter.
If the starter is an eight: an eight is too good to waste at the start, so it is pushed back into the middle of the stock and the next card is turned over instead. Our game does this for you and mentions it in the message box.
The deal passes to the left after each hand.
Taking a Turn
The player to the dealer's left goes first, and play continues to the left. On your turn you play one card from your hand face up onto the discard pile. It must match the card on top of the pile in one of two ways:
- The same suit. On the 6 of hearts you may play any heart: the 2 of hearts, the King of hearts, and so on.
- The same number (rank). On the 6 of hearts you may play any 6: the 6 of spades, the 6 of clubs or the 6 of diamonds.
Matching by number is how the suit changes without an eight. If the top card is the 6 of hearts and you play the 6 of spades, the next player must now play a spade or a 6.
Eights Are Wild
An eight can be played on any card, whatever its suit or number. When you play an eight, you name a suit, and the next player must play a card of that suit (or another eight). You can name any of the four suits, including the suit of the eight you played.
In our game, tapping an eight opens four large buttons, one for each suit, with its symbol and name. Tap the one you want. The panel in the middle of the table then shows the new suit in large print, for example Play a heart or an 8, so nobody can miss that the suit has changed.
When You Can't Play
If none of your cards fits, you draw from the stock, one card at a time, until you get a card you can play. Then you play it. In our game you tap Draw a Card for each card, and the moment a card that fits arrives it rises up out of your hand, marked New.
Under the usual rule you may only draw when you cannot play. Some families let you draw even when you could play, to save a card for later, and some draw just one card and then pass if it does not fit. Both are house rules you can switch on in Settings; see the rule variations.
When the Stock Runs Out
Take every card in the discard pile except the top one, shuffle them, and turn them face down as a new stock. The top card stays where it is, so the suit to follow does not change. In the rare case that there is nothing left to shuffle and a player still cannot play, that player passes. If every player passes in turn, the hand is blocked, and the player holding the lowest count of points wins it.
Going Out and Scoring
The first player to play their last card wins the hand. Everyone else adds up the cards still in their hand, and the winner scores the total:
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Each eight | 50 |
| King, Queen or Jack | 10 |
| Ace | 1 |
| 2 through 10 (except the eight) | The number on the card |
Hands are played until someone reaches 100 points; that player wins the game. Our game also offers 200 or 500 for a longer game, or a single hand when you only have a few minutes.
A Worked Example
Four players: you, then Computer 1, Computer 2 and Computer 3 around the table. You have five cards: 8♣, 6♠, 9♥, K♥ and 3♦. The starter is the 9♦.
- You could play the 3♦ (same suit) or the 9♥ (same number). You hold two hearts, so you play the 9♥: now hearts are being followed, and you have the K♥ ready for later.
- Computer 1 plays the 4♥. Computer 2 has no heart and no 4, so it draws three cards before it finds the 4♣ and plays that. Now clubs are to be followed.
- Computer 3 plays the Q♣. Your turn: you hold no club and no Queen, but you have the 8♣. You play it and name hearts, because you still hold the K♥, and because you just watched Computer 2 fail to follow hearts.
- Computer 1 plays the 7♥, Computer 2 draws again, Computer 3 plays the 7♠ (same number), which turns the play to spades.
- You play the 6♠. You now hold the K♥ and the 3♦. A few turns later you play both and go out.
Suppose the others are left holding these cards: Computer 1 has an 8 and a 2 (52 points), Computer 2 has the K♠, the 10♦ and the 5♣ (25 points), and Computer 3 has the A♠ (1 point). You score 52 + 25 + 1 = 78 points. Notice how much the 8 cost Computer 1: holding an eight at the end of a hand is expensive.
Rules People Often Ask About
Can I play an eight on an eight?
Yes. An eight goes on anything, including another eight. You then name the suit yourself.
After an eight, can I match the number eight?
Only with another eight. Otherwise you must follow the suit that was named.
Can I go out with an eight?
Yes. In our game your last card is played straight away; there is no need to name a suit when the hand is over.
Do I have to say "last card"?
Some families make you announce it, with a penalty if you forget. Our game does it for you: a Last card! label appears beside any player down to one card, and the card counts of every player are always on show.
Can I play more than one card in a turn?
No. One card per turn, unless your family plays one of the house rules described on the variations page.
Playing Online
In our game the cards you may play are raised and outlined, and the others are shaded, so you never have to wonder whether a play is allowed. The Hint button suggests a play and explains it, and the Why? button beside each computer play shows its reasoning. When you are ready to win more often, read the strategy guide. If you like games where you race to empty your hand, try Switch, the British cousin with more special cards, or Kings in the Corners.