The card game Crazy Eights has been around for years and years. Certainly, I played this game for hours when I was a kid and through the years. As young children, my girls had several themed decks for this game— Sesame Street, animals, that kind of thing. So I was surprised when I mentioned it to my 10 year-old and received a blank stare. “How do you play Crazy Eights?” she asked.
I guess we’ve neglected this tried and tested game. Now, it’s her go-to game, especially Crazy Eight Countdown.
In this post, I will cover how to play Crazy Eights, the basic Crazy 8 Rules as well as some Crazy Eight variations.
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What you Need For Crazy Eights
A standard deck of playing cards with the jockers removed. We love playing with cute cards like these Sanrio Characters cards. You can get some themed card sets that are just for playing Crazy Eights like Party Animals, Jumbo cards and Monster but you can play just as well with a regular deck.
Setting Up Crazy Eights
First you need to know that the object of Crazy Eights is to be the first person to shed of all of your cards.
To set up a hand, deal seven cards to all players. Then place the remaining cards in the middle of the playing area; this is the draw pile. Next, flip over the top card and place it next to the draw pile. This is the discard pile.
How to Play Crazy Eights
The player to the deal’s left goes first. Play continues around in clockwise fashion.
You must match the top card on the discard pile either in suit or number. For example, if the top card is the 4 of hearts, then you can play any four or any heart card.
The play moves on to the player on the left. If a player can’t go, she picks up off the draw pile. If the player can then play, she may and play moves on.
Special Cards
Special card: 8
As the name says, the eights are “crazy” or wild. This means that you can place an eight at any time on your turn. You then get to pick a suit to change the play to. The suit on the eight and the suit that you choose do not have to match, nor does the eight you play have to match what is on the discard pile.
Special card: 2
When a two is played, the next player must pick up two cards and add them to his hand. If he can go then he does so and play moves on. On the other hand, if he can’t go then play moves on. If a two is played on top of another two, the next player has to pick up four cards. The same goes if yet another two is played. The twos can only be played according to the suit on the discard pile or if another two is on top.
Special card: Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades is nicked named “The Mean Queen” in our house. When this card is played then the next player needs to pick up 5 cards before playing. Just like the twos, this card must be played on another spade or another queen. If the queen is played on top of the two of spades, the next player would have to pick up 7. Similarly, if the two of spades was played on top of another two and then the queen was played, the player would have to 9 cards.
The Last card
When a player has only one card, she must knock, announcing that she only has one card left. If she does not knock before the next player plays, and someone points it out, she then has to pick up 7 cards from the draw pile as a penalty.
Winning Crazy Eights
The first player to discard all of her cards is the winner.
Other names of the game
As Crazy Eights is a very old game, it is known as many different names and variations. Here are just a few: Creights, Switch, Last One, Swedish Rummy and Rockaway. In Germany, it is Mau-mau. In the Netherlands, it is called Pesten. And the name that I like the best is Suits.
Crazy Eights Rule Variations
As with many things that have travelled around the world and through time, Crazy Eights has many different variations here are a few.
Skip a Turn
In this Crazy Eights variation, the Queens are skip a turn. Some other vaiarions have the Jacks as the skip a turn card.
Change Direction
The aces in this variation have the power to change the direction of play. So once an ace is played the direction goes form clockwise to counter clock wise.
Queen of Spades
In some variations the Queen of Spades is a normal card and no cards are picked up after she is played.
Picking up Two Rule Variation
If a two is played and you place down a two, you don’t have to pick up any cards but the next player has to pick up 4.
Keep Picking Up
Some variations, say that if you can’t play, you must keep picking up off the draw pile until you can.
Picking Up Rule Variation
If you can’t play and pick up a card that could be played, you have to wait until your next turn to play it.
Crazy Eight Rule change
Some games say that when you play an eight, the suit of that eight is now the suit of play.
Multi Card Play
In this variation of Crazy Eights you have the ability to play more than one card at a time—if you have three 3s then you can place them down at the same time, presuming that the bottom card matches the discard pile.
Crazy Eights Scoring
Some variations have a score option that has any cards left in your hand that count against you. 8s are worth 50 points, any picture cards are worth 10 points and the rest of the cards count as to the face value of the cards.
Crazy Eights Countdown
This is a longer variation of the classic game. What card is wild depends on what round you are on – and everyone can be on a different round. To learn how to play Crazy Eights Countdown, read the full how to here.
It’s All Fun and Games When the Eights Go Crazy
Overall, Crazy Eights is a fun card game that the whole family can enjoy. The basic game is quick and easy. It is best to state the rules at the beginning of a game if you are playing with someone new as you can see from above there are many rules to play by. The whole family can play this game. It transports easily and only takes a short time to play around. Crazy Eights is a keeper for your Family Game Shelf. Get the printable rules here.
We’d love to hear any other rules or variations that you have! Let us know how you play Crazy Eights in the comments!
If you’re looking for more fun card games to play with the kids, check out our post 10 Easy Card Games for Kids. You can also get the rules for Crazy Eights as well as other kid favorite games in our Quick Play booklet that you can get for free! It’s in our Fun Library (click on the black box below to get your password). You can also get our 10 More Kid Favorite Card games Booklet in our Family Game Shelf shop. Hours of fun for everyone!
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