How to play crazy eights: rules, scoring and variants
Updated · 4 min read
Crazy eights is the shedding game most of us learned first: match the card on the pile, get rid of your hand, and keep an eight up your sleeve for when you are stuck. It works for two players or six, for kids and grandparents at the same table, and a hand rarely lasts more than a few minutes. Here are the classic rules, the popular house rules, and exactly how our version plays.
What you need and the goal
- Two to six players and one standard 52-card deck. Larger groups sometimes shuffle in a second deck.
- A score sheet if you are playing a full game rather than single hands.
The goal of each hand is to be the first player with no cards left. In a full game, the player who goes out scores points for the cards stuck in everyone else's hand, and the first to reach the target, often 100, wins.
Setup and the deal
With two players, deal seven cards each. With three or more, deal five each. Put the rest face down as the stock and turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile. If that first card is an eight, most people bury it back in the stock and turn another, so nobody starts with a free choice of suit.
How a turn works
Play passes to the left, starting with the player left of the dealer. On your turn, play one card face up on the pile that matches the top card either by suit or by rank. On the 9 of hearts you can play any heart or any 9.
Eights are wild. You may play an eight on anything, and when you do, you name a suit. The next player must follow that suit, or play another eight. The eight itself does not have to match anything.
If you cannot play, or choose not to, you draw from the stock. The classic rule is that you keep drawing until you find a card you can play. Many tables instead let you draw a single card and pass if it does not fit. When the stock runs out, the discard pile, except its top card, is shuffled to make a new stock. If there is truly nothing left to draw and nobody can play, the hand is blocked.
Scoring
When a player goes out, they score the cards left in their opponents' hands:
- Each eight: 50 points.
- Each king, queen, jack or 10: 10 points.
- Each ace: 1 point.
- Every other card: its number.
In a blocked hand, the player holding the fewest points wins it. Many families skip the points entirely and simply count who went out first.
Common house rules
- Draw two: playing a 2 makes the next player draw two cards, unless they answer with a 2 of their own, which passes a bigger penalty along.
- Skip: a jack or a queen skips the next player.
- Reverse: an ace turns the direction of play around. With two players, it means you go again.
- Draw one and pass: instead of drawing until you can play, draw once and pass if it does not fit.
- Last card: some tables make you announce when you are down to one card, with a penalty draw if you forget.
How crazy eights plays on Knockout
Our Crazy Eights seats two to six and follows the classic rules above by default. From the game's settings:
- Scoring: a race to 100 (the default), scored exactly as above, or a single hand where the first player out wins.
- When you cannot play: keep drawing until you can (the default), or draw one card and pass if it does not fit.
- Action cards are off unless the host turns them on. Then a 2 makes the next player draw two (and another 2 passes the stack on, two more each time), a jack skips, and an ace reverses. The card turned up to start the pile never acts, and only a 2 can answer a 2; an eight cannot.
- There is no last-card call to remember, and an eight turned up at the start goes back in the stock.
Beginner tips
- Do not waste an eight early. It is your escape when you are stuck, but it also costs 50 if someone else goes out first.
- Change suit by rank. Playing the 6 of a suit you hold plenty of, onto a 6 of another suit, moves the pile your way without spending an eight.
- Watch who draws. A player who had to draw on spades probably has none, so leading spades when they are close to going out can keep them stuck.
- Dump high cards when someone is about to go out. Tens and faces cost 10 each in the count.
Where to play crazy eights free
Crazy Eights is free in a browser here. Against the computer there is no account and no sign-up: open the game and computer players take the empty seats at Easy, Normal or Hard. To play with family or friends, make a free player (a username and a PIN or password), create a game and send the invite link or code. Empty seats can still go to computer players.
For more easy games with a mixed group, Go Fish and Old Maid are both a tap away, and Game night ideas for groups of every size has ideas for a whole evening. When you are ready for tricks, try How to play hearts: rules, passing and shooting the moon.