(In Crazy Eights, an 8 of any suit is wild and may be placed as any card)
Card Game Rules
Crazy Eights is a classic game for 2 or more players played with a standard 52 playing card deck. The objective is to have the least number of points after a player gets 100 or more points.
For more classic games, check out our guides for Spit and Slapjack.
If you are looking for cards to play Crazy Eights with check out a standard pack here or one of our specialty Crazy Eights decks here.
A free online version of Crazy Eights may be found here.
Set Up
Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be selected. Each player draws one card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. The dealer shuffles the deck and passes out 5 cards faced down one by one to all players.
The remaining cards form the stock pile and are placed in the center of the group. The top card from the stock is flipped over and placed next to the stock and gameplay begins.
If the first card is an 8, the 8 is placed somewhere in the middle of the stock pile and a new starter card is flipped over.
How to Play
Starting with the person to the left of the dealer, players try to get rid of their cards by placing them on top of the flipped up card in the center. Players may do so if the card they want to get rid of is the same rank or suit of the card flipped up. 8s are wild and if a player plays an eight, they must state what suit the eight will be for the next player.
If a player cannot place any of their cards on the one in the center, they must draw cards from the stock until they can do so or until they’ve drawn a maximum of five cards.
Scoring
After a player gets rid of all of their cards, the round is over and points are tallied. Cards remaining in players’ hands are counted as the following point values:
Cards 2 through 9 (except the 8) are worth their face value
Aces are worth 1 point
Cards 10 through King are worth 10 points
8s are worth 50 points.
Once a player reaches 100 points or above, the player with the lowest number of points wins the game.
For more information on the game Crazy Eights and its rules, check out Wikipedia's article here and Pagat's article here.
Variations
Hollywood Eights
In Hollywood Eights, the goal is to be the first player to reach 100 points. Players tally their score by the cards they play. Cards are worth the following points:
8s are worth 20 points.
Aces are worth 15 points.
Face cards are worth 10 points.
Numbered cards are worth their pip value.
Recommended products to play Crazy Eights:
The Planets: Neptune Playing Cards USPCC
Looking for more card games to play? Check out this article:
40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions
About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.
