How to play Crazy Eights

The goal

The deal

• Play against 1 computer (7 cards each) or 3 computers (5 cards each). Turns go clockwise.
• The rest of the deck is the stock. Its top card is turned over to start the discard pile; an 8 is tucked back in and another card turned.

Your turn

• Play one card on the discard pile that matches its suit or its rank: on a 9♥, any heart or any 9.
• Cards you can play rise up in your hand. Tap one to play it.
• 8s are wild: play one on anything, then call the suit the next player must follow.

Drawing

• If nothing in your hand fits, tap the deck to draw, one card at a time, until you can play. You can only draw when you have no play.
• Once the stock runs out, a player who can’t play passes (the discards aren’t reshuffled). If everyone passes in a row, the hand is blocked and the lowest count wins it.

Scoring

• The player who goes out scores the cards left in everyone else’s hand: 8s are 50, kings, queens and jacks 10, aces 1, and other cards their 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 are dealt until someone reaches 100 points. A score sheet shows each hand’s points between hands.

Controls and modes

• Undo takes back your last move and the computers’ replies.
• Choose 1 or 3 computers and Easy, Normal or Hard from New game. Easy computers play loosely; Normal ones save their 8s and play their long suits; Hard ones also count cards and remember which suits you couldn’t follow.
• Your record is kept separately for each difficulty and table size.

Questions

Strategy guides