Crazy Eights

How to play Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights is a race to get rid of your cards. You play one card at a time onto a pile, and each card must match the one before it in suit or in rank. The eights are wild: an eight goes on anything, and whoever plays it chooses the suit that comes next.

Here you play against Otto. The first to play their last card wins the hand and scores for the cards the other player is still holding. The first to 100 points wins the game, or the first to 50 if you would like a shorter one: choose with the switch above the table.

The deal

Each player is dealt seven cards. The rest of the pack goes face down in the middle as the stock, and its top card is turned over beside it to start the pile. If that card is an eight it is put back into the middle of the stock and another is turned. The deal alternates, and the player who did not deal plays first.

Your turn

• Play one card onto the pile. It must be the same suit or the same rank as the card on top: on the 6 of hearts you may play any heart or any 6.
• Or play an eight, whatever is on the pile.
• If nothing fits, take one card from the stock. If that card fits you may play it straight away; if not, your turn is over.
• You may take a card even when you could have played. After that you can still play, or press Pass.

When it is your turn, the cards that do not fit are dimmed. With a mouse, click a card to play it or drag it onto the table. On a touch screen the first tap lifts the card and a second tap plays it. To take a card, tap the stock or press Take a card.

Eights

An eight can be played on any card, and you then name the suit the next player must follow. Four buttons appear for the four suits; press Back if you change your mind. The suit that was named is shown beside the pile, and at the top of the page, until another card covers the eight.

The next card must be of the named suit, or another eight. The rank no longer matters: an eight on the pile cannot be matched by rank, because every eight is wild anyway.

When the stock runs out

The top card of the pile stays where it is. The cards under it are shuffled and turned face down to make a new stock, and play goes on. It does not happen often: about one hand in a hundred when both players play sensibly.

Because the pile is turned over like this, a hand can never get stuck. It always ends with somebody playing their last card.

Scoring

The player who goes out scores for every card left in the other hand:

A typical hand is worth about 14 points, so a game to 100 runs to eleven or twelve hands and a game to 50 to about six. Now and then somebody is caught holding an eight and a hand is worth 60 or more. The Scores button shows the game hand by hand.

Tips for winning more often

• Play your most expensive card first. When several cards fit, the one to play is the one that would cost you most if Otto went out: a king before a 3. In our test games a player who always played the highest card that fitted beat one who played the lowest in 68 games out of 100.
• Keep your eights until you need them. An eight is the one card that always fits, so it is worth most on the turn when nothing else does. A player who kept eights back beat one who played them at once in 69 games out of 100.
• But do not die with an eight in your hand. It costs 50 points. When Otto is down to his last card, play it.
• Name your longest suit. When you play an eight, call the suit you hold most of, so that your next few turns are already paid for.
• Watch what Otto takes. If he takes a card when hearts are wanted, he probably has no hearts. Leaving the pile on hearts, or naming hearts with an eight, may cost him another turn.
• Count Otto’s cards. The number is beside his name, and it says “last card” when he has one left.

How good is Otto?

Otto plays the plan in the tips above, and he plays fair. He goes only by his own cards and what both of you have seen: the cards played, and the turns on which you took a card instead of playing. He never looks at your hand or at the stock, and the Hint button uses exactly the same thinking for you.

Crazy Eights has a good deal of luck in it. Over thousands of test games Otto beat a player who chose at random among the cards that fitted in 88 games out of 100, and one who simply played the first card that fitted in 67. We also tried more elaborate plans for him, such as counting suits or looking ahead through possible deals, and none of them did better than the plain one. So a careful player should expect to win about half the games against him, and a hand can always turn on one eight.

Other ways to play

Crazy Eights is played by many house rules. Some players keep drawing until they find a card that fits, instead of taking just one. Others give extra jobs to other cards: a 2 makes the next player draw two, a queen skips a turn, an ace reverses the order of play. This table plays the classic game with none of those, where the eights are the only special cards.