Crazy Eights Rules: How to Play Step by Step

2026-11-02 · 6 min read

Crazy eights is a shedding game: you win a hand by getting rid of all your cards first. You need one standard 52-card deck, two to five players and about ten minutes. The rules fit on an index card, which is why it is usually the first card game kids learn after Go Fish.

Below are the standard rules, then the scoring, then the house rules people argue about at the table.

What you need

One 52-card deck with the jokers taken out. For six or more players, shuffle two decks together.
Two to five players. Three or four is the sweet spot.
Paper and a pen if you want to play to a score.

How many cards to deal

Players	Cards each
2	7
3 to 5	5
6 or more (two decks)	5

Deal one card at a time, face down. Put the rest of the deck face down in the middle: this is the stock. Turn the top card of the stock face up next to it to start the discard pile. If that first card is an 8, bury it in the middle of the stock and turn up another one.

How a turn works

The player to the dealer's left goes first, then play moves clockwise.

Look at the top card of the discard pile.
Play one card from your hand that matches it by suit (hearts on hearts) or by rank (a 6 on a 6 of any suit).
If you have an 8, you can play it on anything and name the suit the next player has to follow. The suit you name does not have to be the suit of the 8.
If you cannot play, or do not want to, draw from the stock. In the classic rules you keep drawing until you get a card you can play. Many families play "draw one": take one card, play it if it fits, otherwise your turn ends.
The first player with no cards left wins the hand.

That is the whole game. A couple of details settle most arguments:

You can choose to draw even when you have a playable card. Holding an 8 back for later is a real strategy.
When the stock runs out, keep the top discard, shuffle the rest of the pile and turn it face down as the new stock. Some groups instead say that a player who cannot play simply passes.
When you play an 8 as your last card, you still win. You do not have to name a suit.

Crazy eights scoring

You can play single hands, but the game gets better with a running score. When someone goes out, everyone else adds up the cards still in their hand, and the winner of the hand gets that total.

Card	Points
Each 8	50
K, Q, J	10
10 down to 2	face value
Ace	1

The first player to reach 100 points wins with two players. With more players, a target of 200 or 500 keeps the game going longer. The 50 points on the 8 matter: holding an 8 until the end is safe only if you are about to go out, and getting caught with two of them can hand the game to someone else.

Crazy eights rules for 2 players

The rules do not change, but two-player games feel different because every card you hold is a card your opponent can guess at. Deal 7 cards each instead of 5. Hands are short, so play to 100 points.

Two habits that win more two-player games:

Count suits. If you have played three clubs and seen two more on the pile, your opponent likely has few clubs left. That is the suit to name when you play an 8.
Play your high cards early. A stuck king costs 10 points; a stuck 2 costs 2.

Popular house rules

Most people learned crazy eights with at least one of these special cards. None of them are in the original game, so agree on them before the first deal.

2: pick up two. The next player draws two cards and loses their turn. In many groups they can dodge it by playing their own 2, and then the next player draws four.
Queen of spades: pick up five. The next player draws five. Some tables let them stop it with another queen of spades only (there is just one, so this rarely works) or with any 2.
Jack: skip. The next player loses their turn.
Ace: reverse. Play changes direction. With two players an ace works as a skip, so you go again.
Last card call. When you are down to one card you must say it out loud. If someone catches you before the next player starts their turn, you draw two.
Run or sequence plays. You may play several cards of the same rank at once, for example three 5s. This shortens games a lot.

If these sound familiar, that is because crazy eights is the ancestor of most shop-bought "match the color or number" card games. The rules for 2s, skips and reverses all started as house rules on a standard deck.

Crazy eights strategy that actually works

The game is mostly luck in a single hand, but over a match to 200 points the same players tend to win. They do a few simple things.

Save at least one 8, but not two. An 8 is your way out of any spot. Two 8s in your hand at the end cost 100 points, so if you are holding a pair, use one when someone is close to going out.

Change the suit to one you are long in. When you play an 8, name the suit you have the most cards in, not the suit you happen to need right now. You want to play several turns in a row without drawing.

Watch who is close to going out. When a player is down to two cards, stop thinking about your own hand and start thinking about theirs. If they just failed to follow hearts, keep hearts on the pile. Use your pick-up cards on them if your house rules have them.

Draw on purpose. In the draw-until-you-can-play version, drawing is expensive. In the draw-one version it is cheap, and taking a card instead of breaking up a suit you want to keep can be the right move.

Common questions

Can you play an 8 on an 8? Yes. An 8 can go on any card, including another 8.

Can you finish on an 8? Yes, unless your table has a house rule against it. Some groups say your last card cannot be a special card, so check before you play.

What happens if nobody can play? If the stock is empty, the pile cannot be reshuffled and nobody can play, the hand ends. Everyone counts their cards, and the lowest count wins the points.

How many people can play with one deck? Up to five. With six or more, the stock runs out too fast, so shuffle two decks together and deal 5 cards each.

Play crazy eights online

No deck nearby? Kek Cards is our free crazy eights game in the browser. It follows the rules above with pet suits instead of hearts and spades: crazy 8s are wild, a corgi skips the next player, a spinning cat reverses play, and +2 and +4 cards can be stacked to pass them on. Tap the KEK! button when you are down to two cards, or a cat flies in and gives you two more. You can play against bots or pass one phone around between two to four people.