How to Play Crazy Eights: Rules, Scoring and a Worked Example

Shuffle one standard 52-card deck without jokers. How many cards each player gets depends on the number of players:

Turn the next card face up to start the discard pile: this is the starter. The rest of the deck goes face down as the stock. If the starter is an 8, the dealer names the suit to follow.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first, and play continues clockwise. On your turn:

1. Look at the top card of the discard pile, and at the suit named if that card is an 8.
2. Play one card of the same suit or the same rank on top of it, or play an 8.
3. If you play an 8, name a suit: clubs, diamonds, hearts or spades.
4. If you cannot play, or would rather keep your cards, draw 1 card from the stock instead.
5. The turn then passes to the next player on the left.

An 8 is wild: it can go on any card, whatever its suit or rank. The player who plays it names a suit, and the next player must play a card of that suit or another 8. The suit printed on the 8 no longer counts.

Because an 8 always fits, it is the safest card to hold, and the most expensive to be caught with: 50 penalty points. A common habit is to keep eights until nothing else can be played.

This guide follows Pagat’s basic drawing rule: a turn is either one play or a draw of 1 card. If the card you draw fits, you may play it straight away; if it does not, your turn is over. You may also draw when you hold a card you could play.

When the stock runs out, keep the top card of the discard pile and shuffle the rest into a new stock. If nothing is left to shuffle, a player who cannot play passes, and if every player passes in a row the hand is blocked: everybody scores the cards in their hand.

A hand ends the moment a player plays their last card. The other players count the cards left in their hands as penalty points:

Pagat’s basic rules do not set a target. On this site the game ends after the hand in which any player reaches 100 points, and the player with the lowest total wins.

With 2 players each gets 7 cards and 37 cards stay in the stock, so drawing is cheaper and a hand lasts longer. Every draw by your opponent is a clue: a player who draws right after hearts were named probably has no hearts.

Against a single opponent, an 8 is best used to switch to a suit the other player has shown they lack. Keep track of the 4 eights: once 3 have been played, the last one is the only wild card left.

Three players, Ana, Ben and you, with the 6♣ as the starter. Ana plays the 6♦ (same rank) and Ben plays the K♦ (same suit). You hold Q♠, 3♥, 8♣ and 9♥. Nothing matches diamonds or kings, so you play the 8♣ and name hearts, the suit you hold most of.

Ana has no heart and no 8, draws 1 card, the 2♠, which does not fit, and the turn passes. Ben plays the 5♥ and you follow with the 9♥.

A few turns later you play your last card. Ana is left with 7♣, 4♣ and 2♠: 7 + 4 + 2 = 13 penalty points. Ben is left with 8♦ and J♥: 50 + 10 = 60. You take nothing.

Pagat lists several popular extras. They bring the game closer to Uno, and any of them is fine if everyone agrees before the deal:

• Draw until you can play, instead of 1 card a turn.
• Draw up to 3 cards, then pass if none of them fits.
• A 2 makes the next player draw 2 cards unless they also play a 2, and the penalty stacks.
• A queen skips the next player; with 2 players, you play again.
• An ace reverses the direction of play.
• A player down to 1 card must announce it or draw 2 cards as a penalty.

The tables on this site play the basic game: only eights are special, and you draw 1 card a turn.