Crazy Eights is a shedding-type

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

for two to seven players and the best known American member of the Eights Group which also includes

Pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

and

Spoons Spoons may refer to: * Spoon, a utensil commonly used with soup * Spoons (card game), the card game of Donkey, but using spoons Film and TV * ''Spoons'' (TV series), a 2005 UK comedy sketch show *Spoons, a minor character from ''The Sopranos'' ...

. The object of the game is to be the first player to discard all of their cards. The game is similar to

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

and Mau Mau. Originally this was played primarily by children with the left over cards not used in

Euchre Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. Normally there are four players, two on e ...

. Now a standard 52-card deck is used when there are five or fewer players. When there are more than five players, two decks are shuffled together and all 104 cards are used.

Origins

The game first appeared as ''Eights'' in the 1930s, and the name ''Crazy Eights'' dates to the 1940s, derived from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

military designation for discharge of mentally unstable soldiers, Section 8. It may have derived from the German game of

Mau-Mau The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', an ...

. There are many variations of the basic game, under names including ''

Craits Craits (sometimes spelled Crates or Creights) is a shedding card game for two to five players. It was invented in the 1970s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is derived from Crazy Eights, which forms the origin of its name. Craits is similar to ...

'', '' Last Card'', ''

'', and '' Black Jack''. Bartok, Mao, Taki, and Uno add further elements to the game.

David Parlett David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many pop ...

describes Crazy Eights as "not so much a game as a basic pattern of play on which a wide variety of changes can be rung," noting that players can easily invent and explore new rules.

Basic play

Five cards are dealt to each player (or seven in a two-player game). The remaining cards of the deck are placed face down at the center of the table as the stock pile. The top card is then turned face up to start the game as the first card in the discard pile. Players discard by matching rank or suit with the top card of the discard pile, starting with the player left of the dealer. They can also play any 8 at any time, which allows them to declare the suit that the next player is to play; that player must then follow the named suit or play another 8. If a player is unable to play, that player draws cards from the stock pile until a play can be made, or until the stock pile is exhausted. If the player cannot play when the stock pile is exhausted, that player must pass the turn to the player on the left. Other variations have players limit the maximum number of cards drawn. A player may draw from the stock pile at any time, even when holding one or more playable cards."How to Play Crazy Eights," ''Bicycle'', 2020, https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/crazy-eights/#:~:text=If%20unable%20to%20play%2C%20cards,exhausted%2C%20the%20player%20must%20pass.&text=That%20is%2C%20an%20eight%20may,(but%20never%20a%20number). As an example: If the top card on the discard pile is , the next player can: #play any 6 (i.e. , or ) #play any club #play any 8, then declare a new suit #draw from the stockpile until a play can be made If the stock pile runs out, all played cards except for the top one are reshuffled to form a new stock. The game ends as soon as one player has emptied their hand. That player collects a payment from each opponent equal to the point score of the cards remaining in that opponent's hand. 8s score 50,

court cards In a deck of playing cards, the term face card (US) or court card (British and US), and sometimes Royalty, is generally used to describe a card that depicts a person as opposed to the pip cards. They are also known as picture cards, or until the e ...

10 and all other cards face value. If the players run out of cards in the deck, the player with the lowest point score in their hand scores the difference between that hand and each opponent's hand. The game cannot end with a special card, this includes two, queen or eight(wild) card. The winner of the game is the first player to reach a specific number of points. For two players it is 100 points, three players 150, four 200, five 250, six 300 and for seven players 350.

Variations

Card game historian John McLeod describes Crazy Eights as "one of the easiest games to modify by adding variations", and many variant rules exist. Common rules applied to cards include: ;Queens skip: Playing a Queen causes the next player to miss their turn. ;Aces reverse direction: Playing an Ace reverses the direction of play. ;Draw 2: Playing a two forces the next player to draw two cards, unless they can play another two. Multiple twos "stack"; if a two is played in response to a two, the next player must draw four. A popular variant of the game in the United States is Crazy Eights Countdown, where players start with a score of 8. A player's score determines how many cards they are dealt at the start of each round, and which rank of card is wild for them. (So initially, all players are dealt eight cards and 8s are wild for everyone; after one round, one player will be dealt seven cards and 7s will be wild for them, but 8s will be wild for everyone else.) The first player to reduce their score to zero wins the game.

References

{{Children's card games Card games introduced in the 1940s American card games Australian card games Eights group French deck card games Shedding-type card games Card games for children Multi-player card games

Origins

Basic play

Variations

See also

References