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Crazy Eights Rules in Plain Words

These are the standard published rules, rewritten in plain words. Crazy Eights is famous for picking up local extras — where the books disagree, this page prints the disagreement instead of hiding it.

What the game is

Crazy Eights is the game Uno was built from. You play cards onto a pile by matching the top card's suit or rank — and every 8 is wild. First player out of cards wins the hand.

Players: 2 or more (best with 2–7). Ages: 5 and up.

What you need: one standard 52-card deck. With more than five players, many books shuffle two decks together so the draw pile lasts.

Setting up

Deal 5 cards to each player — or 7 cards each in a two-player game.
The rest of the deck goes face down in the middle as the stock.
Flip the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile. If that card is an 8, the usual rule in published sets is to bury it in the middle of the stock and flip the next card.
The player to the dealer's left plays first.

How a turn works

Play one card onto the discard pile that matches the top card by suit (any heart on a heart) or by rank (any 6 on a 6).
An 8 can be played on anything. When you play an 8, name the suit the next player must follow. That player must play that suit — or another 8.
If you cannot play, draw cards from the stock until you can play. (Some tables cap the draw — see the box.)
If the stock runs out, keep the top card of the discard pile and shuffle the rest to make a new stock. If the stock is gone and you still cannot play, your turn passes to the next player.
The hand ends the moment a player plays their last card.

Keeping score — the books print two ways

The card values agree everywhere: a leftover 8 counts 50, face cards count 10, an Ace counts 1, and every other card counts its number. What the winner does with those points is where the books split:

Pagat (John McLeod) and Parlett's Oxford Dictionary of Card Games print it this way: the player who went out collects the value of the cards left in each opponent's hand. The game winner is the first to reach a target of 50 points times the number of players — 100 points for two players, 150 for three, and so on. If the stock runs out and nobody can finish, the player holding the lowest-value hand scores the difference from each opponent.
Many family rule books print it the other way: leftover cards count against the player holding them. Scores pile up over hands, and when someone's total passes 100, the game ends and the lowest total wins.

Both ways are in print. Pick one before the first deal and write it on the score sheet.

Official rule or house rule?

Queens skip the next player: A well-known variant, listed by John McLeod at pagat.com among the common added rules. It is not in the basic game — in the plain rules a Queen does nothing special.

Aces reverse the direction of play: Also a pagat-listed variant, not part of the basic game.

Twos force the next player to draw two: Variant again — and in its popular form the Twos stack, so answering with another Two passes a draw of four down the line. Great fun, but it is an agreed extra, not the standard rule.

Draw only one card when stuck, then pass: House rule at many tables. Bicycle's published rules and pagat both say you keep drawing until you can play (or the stock gives out). A one-card or three-card cap is a table choice — say which before you start.

Ending the hand on a special card: If your table plays the skip/reverse/draw variants, pagat notes a common companion rule: a special card played as the very last card does not trigger its effect, because the hand is already over.

Crazy Eights Countdown: A whole published variant, popular in the United States. Everyone starts with a personal score of 8, is dealt that many cards, and that rank is wild for them; win a hand and your number drops by one. First player to reach zero wins the game.

Common questions

Can I play an 8 even when I have a card that matches?

Yes. An 8 may be played at any time, matching or not — that is what makes it the strongest card in the game.

After an 8 names a suit, can I play a card of a different suit that matches the 8's rank?

No. The named suit rules until another 8 changes it. Your only plays are the named suit or another 8.

May I draw from the stock even when I could play?

Pagat's rules say yes — drawing is allowed at any time on your turn. Many families require you to play if you can. One more thing to agree on before the deal.

What wins if two players both hold an 8 at the end?

Nothing special — each leftover 8 counts 50 against its holder (or into the winner's collection), like any other hand.

Sources: Bicycle Cards, "How to Play Crazy Eights"; pagat.com (John McLeod), "Crazy Eights"; David Parlett, Oxford Dictionary of Card Games. Read in full and rewritten in our own plain words. Where they disagree, both versions are printed above with their sources named.