Crazy Eights

How to Play Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights uses a standard 52-card deck. In this two-player version, each side is dealt 7 cards, and one non-eight card is flipped from the stock to start the discard pile. On your turn, play a card that matches the top discard's suit or rank. Eights are wild: play one at any time and declare the suit the next player must follow - a suit picker will pop up when you play an 8.

If you have no playable card, click the draw pile. This table uses the common house rule: draw up to three cards, and if you still can't play, your turn passes. When the draw pile empties, the discard pile (minus its top card) is reshuffled to refill it; if no cards remain anywhere, a stuck player simply passes. The first player to empty their hand wins - and if the game deadlocks with both players passing, the smaller hand takes the win. Play the AI at four difficulty levels or face a friend in real-time multiplayer.

Strategy Tips

• Hold your eights - an 8 always plays, so it's your escape hatch. Spending it early often means drawing three cards later when you're truly stuck.
• Switch to your long suit - when you match by rank, the active suit changes. Pivot into the suit you hold most of so your next several turns are already covered.
• Watch what your opponent draws on - if they draw whenever hearts are up, they're short on hearts. Steer the game back to that suit again and again.
• Use pairs as steering wheels - two cards of the same rank in different suits let you jump out of a suit that helps your opponent and into one that drowns them.
• Don't shed your last matching suit - before playing a card, check what you can follow with. Emptying yourself of a suit hands control to your opponent.