Crazy 8s is the classic kid card game that even adults like. We’ve covered the original game here and the Crazy Eight’s Countdown variation here. We also have a festive Christmas Crazy 8s here. In today’s post, we’re going to share with you some more fun Crazy Eights Variations to bring even more excitement to this classic game.
This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.
What you Need for Crazy Eights Variations
You will need a standard deck of cards with the jokers removed for most games. Other variations need two decks of cards shuffled together. Need some new cards? Shop fun playing cards here; Canadians here.
Spicy Crazy Eights
The first Crazy Eights variation is the Spicy one. Don’t worry it’s family friendly. First, you will need two decks of cards for this game. To start, you play as usual with a few rules changes. First, is when a player plays a six on the discard pile, everyone needs to slap a hand on top of the six. The last player do put their hand on the pile has to pick up 2 cards and add them to her hand.
Next, when a 7 is played, everyone has to play silently until the next 7 is played. If a player can’t make it that long being silent, they have to draw one card and add it to his hand.
The third rule change is that when a player plays a 10, she may exchange her hand for someone else. This is optional, but the player who she chooses to change with must agree and switch hands.
Next, when a player puts down a 2, the next player has to pick up two cards and adds them to his hand. Except, if he has a two himself, he can place it on top of the two and not have to pick up any cards. Now, the third player either has to pick up 4 cards or add a 2 to the pile. This keeps going until someone is unable to add a 2 to the pile and has to pick the sum of all the 2s played.
The last rule change, is that if you have a card that if you have an identical card to one that is played on the discard pile, you can play it. It does not have to be your turn. When this happens, the play moves to the player to the left of the player who placed the second card.
Killer Crazy Eights
For Killer Crazy Eights, you will need two decks of cards. It is played with the basic Crazy 8 rules with the following changes.
First, if someone plays a spade, everyone changes hands to the left.
Next, if you have an identical card in your hand, you can play it out of turn. The player to your left plays next. Similarly, you can play more than one card at a time if they match. For example, if there is a 3 of hearts on the discard pile, you could play both the 3 of clubs and diamonds at the same time. The suit that is on top becomes the current suit.
The next rules change maybe the hardest to swallow. If you can’t play on the card that is on the top of the pile, you keep picking up cards from the draw pile until you can play.
Last, if someone sees you placing an eight down, they can call out what suit they would like it to change to before you do. You need to be speedy to get your choice.
Blind Crazy Eights
You can play this Crazy Eights variation with one or two decks of cards. This game starts out differently than the others. Eight cards are dealt to each player, but when they pick them up they put the backs of the cards facing them and the front of the cards facing everyone else.
On your turn, you choose a card from someone else’s hand to play.
If there is no card in anyone’s hand (except your own that you can’t see), the player to your left draws a card and adds it to her hand. You can choose that card to play if it fits. If it is not playable, the player to your left gets a turn. If there is a card in your hand that can be played, she can choose that one and play. On the other hand, if there is still no card to play, the player to her left draws a card to put in his hand. This continues until someone can play.
When you have only one card left, and it’s a two, when someone plays that card, you do not win. Instead, you pick up two (or the sum of twos) and add them to your hand.
The winner is the first player to shed all of their cards.
Pirate Crazy Eights
I think Pirate is my favorite variations. It’s crazy, unpredictable and just plain silly.
First, players should act like pirates, with lots of “arr mates” and such.
Next, you can play more than one 2 at a time and they add up. So, if you are playing three 2s then the next player needs to pick up 6 cards. When you play a 7, you can force another player to switch hands with you. When you play an ace, everyone passes their hands one to the left.
Above all, you should try to cheat like a pirate would throughout the whole game. You could add a “walk the plank” penalty of picking up two cards if you’re caught cheating.
The technical winner is the player who sheds all their cards first, but this game is such chaos that it doesn’t really matter who wins.
Crazy Eights for Points
This Crazy Eights variation is played over many rounds and you’ll need a pen and paper to keep score. The play is the same as a regular game. When a player plays his last card, winning the round, the other players count the amount of points left in their hands and the sum of everyone’s cards gets recorded as the winner’s score. You score the cards as follows: all 8s are worth 50 points. The kings, queens and jacks are all worth 10 points each. Aces count as one point. All other cards are worth their face value. The player who reaches 100 points first, wins. You could also play to 500 points for a longer game.
Alternatively, you can score Crazy Eights with players scoring points for their own hands. In this case, the player who first reaches 100 or 500 points loses the game.
Team Crazy Eights
This variation is best played with four players. The game is played the same with the cards left in your hand counting as points. When your partner goes out, you score 0 points for the round. Your teammate will earn the points from the other player’s hands.
Teams should rotate for each hand. The player with the most points after 6, 9 or 12 rounds is the winner. When playing with young kids, you don’t have to switch teams if that makes it easier for them to play. You could also play until one player reaches either 100 points or 500 points.
House Rules
This Crazy Eights variation is played the same way as the regular game with one change. The winner of the hand, gets to make up a rule change for the next round. You can play that all the rules stack as you continue, or just keep it simple with one rule change.
Add It Up Crazy Eights
In this game, players can add their cards together to match the card on the discard pile. The suits must match. For example if there is the 10 of clubs on the discard pile, the player can use the 4 and 6 of clubs to add up to 10. The top card is what the next player must match so if the 6 of clubs is on top the next player must have a 6 or a club or 8 to play.
Wild Winning
In this game, if a player has an eight as their last card, they need to draw 2 cards into their hand and continue playing, meaning that a player’s last card can’t be an 8.
Deadly Crazy Eights
This Crazy Eights variation game has a signal rule change: if you can’t play, you keep picking up until you can.
Face Up
In this game, a player’s cards are place face up on the table so everyone can see them. The game is played the same.
Solitaire
You can play Crazy Eights as a single player game with these rule changes.
First, you deal a stack of 15 cards (for a more challenging game deal 20 cards). Place the rest of the deck face down as the draw pile. To start, flip over one card from your stack.
Now turn over your stack so you hold it on your hand face up. If you can play the top card on the discard pile, do so. If you can’t play, take the top card of your stack and place it at the back of the stack.
Now, if you can play that card, do so, otherwise, place it at the back of the stack. When you are sure that there are no playable cards in your stack, draw a card from the stack. Keep drawing cards and placing them at the back of the stack until you can play.
You win when all of the cards in your stack have been played. If you’d like to keep score, count the amount of cards that are left in your stack when there are no more plays left and then see if you can get a better score in the next game.
Crazy 8s Countdown
This Crazy Eights variation was popular when I was in high school. It’s prefect for a longer, more challenging game but easy enough that players can pick it up in just a few minutes. Get the full set of rules here.
Christmas Crazy 8s
Add a little holiday spirit with this variation that will have you Ho-Ho-ing with fun. Learn how to play here.
Crazy Fun
I bet you didn’t know there were so many ways to play Crazy 8s! The next time you want to play cards, try one of the different ways. You may just find a new family favorite with a familiar feel. Get your free Crazy Eights booklet in the Fun Library. You can get your password in the black box below!
For more card games, check out Go Boom, Linger Longer and 3 to 13. And for tons of fun, check out our Family Game Shelf shop where you’ll find something for everything with seasonal and original games like our Whacky Putt mini golf dice game–maybe even crazier than the Crazy 8s card game!
Be the first to reply