How to play Crazy Eights

What Crazy Eights is

Crazy Eights is a card game for two to four players with one standard 52-card deck. Everyone tries to be the first to get rid of all their cards by playing them onto a discard pile, one a turn. A card must match the top of the pile by suit or by rank, and the four eights are wild: they can be played on anything, and the player who plays one chooses the suit that comes next.

Playing Crazy Eights on AllFun

In AllFun Crazy Eights you play one, two or three computer players at Easy, Medium or Hard, for a single round or a match to 100, 200 or 500 points. The Daily challenge is one round against three Hard players, with the same deal for everyone that day. Play Online finds you an opponent, and Play with a friend gives you a link and a room code; online, each move has a 25-second clock.

Cards you can play lift up in your hand: tap one, or drag it to the pile. After an 8 a picker shows the four suits, and the suit to follow is always shown under the pile.

The rules

The deal

With two players each gets seven cards; with three or four, five cards each. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the rest form the stock. If that first card is an 8, it goes back into the stock and another is turned. The player after the dealer starts, and play goes round to the left.

A turn

• Play one card that matches the top card's suit or rank: a 7 of clubs on any club, or on any 7.
• Or play an 8 on any card and name a suit. The next player must follow that suit, or play another 8.
• If you cannot play, or would rather not, draw from the stock until a card fits. With our Draw 1 option you draw one card, then play it or pass.
• When the stock is empty, the discard pile under the top card is shuffled to make a new one. If nobody can play and there is nothing left to draw, the round ends and the lowest hand wins it.

Scoring

The first player to empty their hand wins the round and scores the cards left in the other hands: each 8 is 50, each King, Queen or Jack 10, each Ace 1, and every other card its number. In a match, rounds add up until someone reaches the target.

House rules

Many families add extras from close relatives of the game; in our game each is an option, off in the classic rules. A 2 makes the next player pick up two unless they play a 2, which passes four on. A Jack makes the next player miss a turn. An Ace turns the play round; with two players it gives you another turn. With Last card, call it before your second-last card or pick up two if caught.

Five tips for Crazy Eights

1. Save your eights for when nothing else fits, but do not be caught holding one at the end: it counts 50.
2. Name your longest suit after an 8, so your next turns are easy.
3. Watch what others draw. A player who has to draw on hearts has no hearts. Name that suit when you can.
4. Change suit with a rank match. A 9 of spades on a 9 of hearts moves play into your own suit without using an 8.
5. Shed high cards late in a round. When someone is down to a card or two, play your Kings and Queens first to keep your losses small.

A short history

Crazy Eights belongs to a large family of shedding games in which players race to empty their hands by matching the card before. It and its relatives are played under many names around the world, with wild eights in some homes and wild jacks in others, and the house rules above are borrowed from those relatives.

Crazy Eights FAQ