Crazy Eights Rules

These Crazy Eights rules cover the standard game for 2 to 7 players with one 52-card deck, in which you follow the top card by rank or suit and use the four wild 8s to change the suit. Rule books disagree on the draw, the empty stock, and the scoring, so each section gives the common rules first and then says exactly what our game does.

Crazy 8 Rules at a Glance

A hand, in order:

1. Pick the dealer. Choose the first dealer at random. After each hand the deal passes one seat to the left.
2. Deal the hands. Deal the cards one at a time: 5 to each player, or 7 each when there are only two.
3. Turn the starter. Put the undealt cards face down as the stock and flip the top one beside it to begin the discard pile. An 8 turned up here is buried and replaced.
4. Follow the top card. From the dealer's left, going clockwise, each player lays one card on the pile that shares the top card's rank or suit.
5. Use an 8 as a wild card. An 8 may be laid on anything. Its player names a suit, and the next card must be that suit or another 8.
6. Draw when you have no play. A player who cannot follow draws from the stock. Most rule books keep you drawing until a card fits or the stock is empty.
7. Rebuild an empty stock. When the stock is gone, shuffle every discard except the top card and turn them face down as a new stock.
8. Go out and score. The hand stops the moment one player has no cards. Count what the others still hold: 50 for an 8, 10 for a King, Queen, Jack, or 10, face value for 2 to 9, and 1 for an Ace.

The Deal

Deal 5 cards to each player when three or more play, and 7 each when only two play, one card at a time starting on the dealer's left. Some families deal 8 each for a longer hand. Once more than five people play, many rule books shuffle two decks together: with eight players and 104 cards, 40 are dealt, one becomes the starter, and 63 form the stock.

The rest of the deck goes face down as the stock, and its top card is turned face up as the starter, the first card of the discard pile. If the starter is an 8, most rule books bury it in the middle of the pack and turn the next card. Others treat it as the dealer's play: the dealer names a suit, and the first player must follow it. Our game puts the 8 at the bottom of the stock, so it is the last card drawn before the first reshuffle.

7 cards

Opponent

37 cards

Stock

Starter

Your hand

On the King of spades, four of those seven cards could be played: the 3, 7, and Queen of spades by suit, and the 8 of diamonds as a wild card. In our game you deal the first hand at every table size, so your opponent plays first, and after each hand the deal moves one seat. The deal table on the Crazy Eights page shows the stock size for every table from two to seven players.

Your Turn: Match, Play an 8, or Draw

On your turn you play one card that matches the top card of the discard pile by rank or by suit, play an 8, or draw. Play starts on the dealer's left and moves clockwise. The standard game allows one card per turn.

A matching card changes the suit only when it matches by rank: the 6 of diamonds on the 6 of clubs makes diamonds the suit to follow, while the Jack of clubs keeps it clubs. That makes a rank match the cheapest way to change suit, because it saves your 8.

The Rules for 8s

An 8 can be played on any card at any time on your turn. As you play it you name one of the four suits, never a rank, and you may name the 8's own suit. The next player must then play a card of the named suit or another 8.

• The 8's own suit does not count unless it was named. After the 8 of spades with hearts named, a spade will not do.
• An 8 can go on another 8, and the new suit named replaces the old one.
• You may go out on an 8 under the standard rules and in our game. Some families forbid it, so ask before you play.
• An 8 left in your hand costs 50 points when someone else goes out, more than any other card.

Drawing Cards: Four Rules Compared

The draw is where Crazy Eights rules differ most. Most published rules make you keep drawing until you can play, and many also let you draw by choice while holding a card that fits; some groups forbid that. Settle the rule before you deal, because it decides how many cards a player can be caught holding.

Our rule has one consequence players notice: a draw cannot protect an 8. The 8 always fits, so if the card you draw does not, you still have to play the 8 that turn. The drawing section on the Crazy Eights page shows that hand.

When the Stock Runs Out

Rule books handle an empty stock in two ways. Many take every card in the discard pile except the top one, shuffle them, and turn them face down as a new stock, and play carries on. Others never reshuffle: once the stock is gone, a player who cannot play passes, and if every player passes, the hand is blocked. A blocked hand is usually scored by giving the player with the lowest hand the difference between their points and each opponent's.

Our game reshuffles, and the new order comes from the same seed as the deal, so a replayed deal reshuffles the same way. A hand can only get stuck when the stock is empty and the top card is the only one in the discard pile, which means the other 51 cards are all in players' hands. Then anyone with nothing to play passes, and after a full round of passes the player with the fewest points takes the hand while everyone else adds their own points.

Crazy Eights Scoring and Winning

The usual card values are 50 for an 8, 10 for a King, Queen, Jack, or 10, face value for 2 to 9, and 1 for an Ace. Rule books differ on who gets the points.

• Penalty scoring (our game): when a player goes out, everyone else adds the points in their own hand to a running total. The game ends when someone reaches the target, and the lowest total wins. Our target is 200 at every table size, while published targets run from 50 to 350.
• The winner collects: the player who goes out scores the points left in every other hand, and the first to the target wins. The usual target is 50 points per player.

Two Hands of Penalty Scoring

Say you go out in the first hand while Player 2 holds the 8 of diamonds and King of clubs, Player 3 the 7 of spades, 2 of hearts, and Ace of clubs, and Player 4 the Queen of diamonds, 10 of spades, and 5 of hearts. In the second hand Player 3 goes out, and you are caught with the King of hearts and 4 of diamonds, Player 2 with the 9 of spades, and Player 4 with the 8 of clubs and 2 of diamonds.

Nobody has reached 200, so a third hand is dealt. Under winner-collects scoring the same two hands would give you 95 points (60 + 10 + 25) and Player 3 75 (14 + 9 + 52), with everyone else on 0. Two 8s were caught in hand, and they account for 100 of the 170 penalty points across the two hands.

Crazy Eights House Rules

The standard game has one special card, the 8, and most families add more. These are the most common, with the rules they usually carry. None of them is part of our game.

Two rules settle most arguments. If a special card is turned up as the starter, treat it as if the dealer had played it, so a starting 2 makes the first player draw two or play a 2. If a player goes out on a special card, its effect is ignored: nobody draws for a 2 that ends the hand.

Crazy Eights Variants

Crazy Eights belongs to a large family of matching games, and several have names and rules of their own. We host the standard game only.

Crazy Eights Countdown

Every player starts on a score of 8 and is dealt 8 cards. Going out does not end the play: your score drops by 1, you are dealt that many new cards, and everyone else plays on with the cards they hold. Your score is also your wild rank, so a player on 5 has 5s wild while the others may still have 8s. The first player to go out at a score of 1, with Aces wild, reaches 0 and wins.

Switch

The British relative uses Aces instead of 8s to change the suit. A 2 makes the next player pick up two cards unless they add another 2, and players must call "last card". Groups add more special cards from there.

Mau-Mau

Germany's version is played with a 32-card pack, 7s up to Aces. Jacks are wild and name the suit, a 7 makes the next player draw two, and an 8 makes the next player miss a turn.

UNO

UNO turned Crazy Eights into a boxed game with its own deck, action cards, and wild cards, and a call of "UNO" when you are down to one card. The Crazy Eights vs UNO comparison sets the two side by side.

Mao and Bartok

Both change the rules as you play. In Bartok the rules grow from hand to hand as players add new ones. In Mao newcomers are not told the rules at all and learn them from the penalties they collect.

How Our Game Plays the Rules

The Crazy Eights FAQ answers quick questions about 2s, 7s, and the Queen of spades, and the full list of card games shows everything else on the site.