Crazy Eights is a quick shedding game: be the first to get rid of every card in your hand. You play against one or three computer players, and the first to 100 points wins the game.
The deal
Against one computer each player gets 7 cards; against three, 5 cards each. The rest of the deck is the stock, and its top card is turned over to start the discard pile. If that card is an 8, it goes back into the stock and another is turned.
Playing a card
On your turn, play one card that matches the top of the discard pile by suit or by rank: on a 9 of hearts, any heart or any 9.
8s are wild. Play one on anything and call the suit the next player must follow.
The cards you can play rise up in your hand, so you can tap one to play it.
Drawing and passing
If nothing in your hand fits, draw from the stock one card at a time until you can play. You can only draw when you have no play.
Once the stock is empty, a player who can’t play passes. The discards are not reshuffled.
If every player passes in a row, the hand is blocked and the player with the lowest count wins it.
Scoring
The player who goes out scores the cards left in everyone else’s hand: 8s are worth 50, kings, queens and jacks 10, aces 1, and every other card its number.
In a blocked hand, the lowest count scores the difference between its count and each other hand. A tie for lowest scores nothing.
Hands continue until someone reaches 100 points, and a score sheet between hands shows how the game is going.
Strategy tips
Save your 8s. They get you out of any spot, and they are worth 50 points against you if someone else goes out first.
Change to the suit you hold the most of by matching rank, so you have more plays later.
Watch what makes an opponent draw: if they couldn’t follow a suit before, calling it again with an 8 may block them.
When an opponent is down to one or two cards, get rid of your high cards and kings first.
Easy computers play loosely, Normal ones hold 8s and play their long suits, and Hard ones count cards and remember which suits you couldn’t follow.