Crazy Eights

How to play

Seven cards each. One is turned up to start the pile. On your turn you lay a card that matches the top one by suit or by rank — the six of hearts goes on any heart and on any six.

Cannot match? Draw. Under the default rule you draw one card, and if that does not help either, you pass and the turn moves on.

First empty hand wins the round and scores the value of every card still in the other hands. First to the target wins the match.

The eight

An eight can be played on any card, and whoever plays it names the suit everybody must follow next. It is the only card you can always play, which makes it worth saving for the moment you would otherwise be stuck.

It is also worth fifty points against you if somebody goes out while you are holding it — more than five kings. That is the whole game in one card: the thing that saves you is the thing that ruins you.

Eights are marked in your hand with a ring of all four suits, so you never have to remember which rank is wild. An eight is never the card turned up to start a round, because there would be no suit to match.

What a card costs you

The rules this table uses

• Only eights are special. No skips, no reverses, no draw-twos, no stacking. Every one of those is a real house rule somewhere and adding them would make a different game; this is the plain original.
• A called suit persists. It stays in force through every draw and every pass until somebody lays a card. It is not recalculated from the top card each turn.
• The pile recycles. When the stock runs out the pile is turned over and shuffled, leaving the top card in place.
• A stuck table is a draw. If nobody can move and there is nothing to draw, the round is thrown in and nobody scores.
• An eight can win. Playing your last card ends the round whatever it is, and you still name a suit.

Modes

Two-player duel

You against one opponent, drawing a single card when you are stuck. Rounds are short and being caught with an eight costs fifty.

Table of three or four

A full table, which is a different game rather than a longer one: you wait three turns between plays, so the hand you keep matters more than the card you lay.

Family

One round, first empty hand wins, and you draw until you find something you can play — so nobody is ever stuck waiting for a suit. The reasoning behind every play is shown. Nothing is recorded.

Daily hand

Five rounds against one opponent, and everybody gets the same deal today.

The opponents

They weigh up four things: how much a card is worth shedding, how long a suit they are left in, whether they hold a second card of the same rank, and when an eight is worth spending. Every one of those weights was settled by playing thousands of deals rather than by picking a number that sounded right — and one of them was measured, found to be worth nothing, and deleted.

Casual

Plays more or less whatever it can, and will happily spend an eight to save itself a moment's thought. A friendly game.

Steady

Saves its eights until they are worth something, which is most of what good play in this game amounts to. It will still tidy its hand in the wrong order now and then.

Sharp

Saves its eights, and shapes the hand it keeps — which at a full table means holding a suit it can follow with, and heads-up means shedding before it is caught with anything.

The levels are one measured idea apart, not one number apart. With every deal played from every seat in turn, Steady goes out about 14% more often than Casual heads-up and about 30% more often at a table of four; Sharp is ahead of Steady by about 1% heads-up and 6% at a full table. Two identical opponents come out level, which is how those numbers are known to mean anything at all. They never differ in what they are allowed to see.

A few things worth knowing

• Shed your expensive cards early. A king is ten against you and a two is two, and they are equally easy to play — so if both fit, lay the king.
• Save the eight. It always plays, so keeping it costs you nothing until the round ends. Spend it when you are about to be stuck, or when somebody is one card from out.
• Watch the hand counts, not the cards. Somebody down to one card will play it if they can — the useful reply is a suit they are least likely to be holding.
• At a full table, keep a suit you can follow in. You only get one turn in four, so being unable to play costs you a whole circuit. Heads-up the opposite is true: the round is short, and what costs you is being caught holding an orphan.

Privacy and local play

Your hand, your settings and your record are stored on this device and nowhere else. There is no account, no sign-in and no gameplay request to any server. The reset button clears this game’s data and leaves every other Zerdly tool alone.

Questions

Why is an eight worth fifty points?

Because it is the most useful card in the game and it should cost you something to hoard it. An eight plays on anything, so keeping one means you can never be truly stuck — but if somebody goes out while it is still in your hand, they score fifty for it. That single number is the whole tension of the scored game: hold the eight too long and it is the most expensive card in the pack.

Does this have skips, reverses and draw-twos?

No, and that is a decision rather than an omission. Almost every household plays Crazy Eights with a different set of special cards — queens skip, aces reverse, twos make the next player draw — and every one of those is somebody's real rules. This table plays the plain original, where only eights are special. It is the version the rules of the game are actually agreed on.

What is the difference between the two draw rules?

Draw one is the default: if you cannot play, you take a single card, and if that does not help either you pass. Draw until playable means you keep drawing until something fits, so you can never be stuck. The second makes a gentler, longer game — and it removes a real decision, because being stuck no longer has a cost. The Family preset uses it; everything else uses draw one.

The pile shows an eight. What suit do I have to follow?

Whatever the person who played it called — not the eight's own suit. This is the single easiest thing to get wrong at a real table and the easiest thing for a website to hide, so the suit in force is shown beside the pile in words as well as in symbol, with a border that appears only while a suit has been called. It stays in force through every draw and pass until somebody lays a card.

What happens when the deck runs out?

The pile is turned over, shuffled, and becomes the new stock — the top card stays where it is so there is still something to match. If the stock is empty and nobody at the table can move, the round is thrown in and nobody scores. Both of those are real positions, not error states.

Can I go out with an eight?

Yes. Playing your last card wins the round whatever it is, and if it is an eight you still name a suit — the round simply ends before anybody has to follow it. Refusing that play would make the last card of a winning hand illegal, which is a rule nobody has ever played by.

Is the three-player game different from the four-player one?

Enough that they keep separate records. At a bigger table there is more in the losers' hands to win, so the scores are not comparable — and the play changes too. With four players you take one turn in four, so being able to follow the suit next time matters more than tidying your hand now. Heads-up you play every second card and the priority is the opposite: shed before you are caught with anything.

Can the computer see my cards?

No. It is given one player's view of the table, and that object has no field for another hand and none for the stock at all — it knows how many cards you hold, exactly as you know how many it holds, and neither of you knows which. That is checked by a test that searches the whole view for any card another seat is holding, rather than only the fields somebody thought to name.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The rules, the shuffle, the scoring, the opponents, the sounds and your saved game all run in your browser. There is no account, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool untouched.

More Zerdly Interactive

• Four in a Row — The other game everybody already knows the rules to.
• Cribbage — A pegging board and every hand counted out for you, item by item.
• Euchre — Twenty-four cards, and the jack of the same colour is a trump.
• Hearts — Four players, no trumps, and every trick you take costs you.