Crazy Eights
In Crazy Eights, playing an 8 card will change the current suit of the game.
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| Origin | Venezuela |
|---|---|
| Type | Shedding-type |
| Players | 2+ |
| Skills required | Tactics and communication |
| Age range | 4-12 |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise and counter-clockwise |
| Card rank (highest to lowest) | 8 J A 2 joker 4 K Q 10 9 7 6 5 3 |
| Playing time | Various |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| UNO, Seven Seas | |
Crazy Eights is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players. The object of the game is to be the first to get rid of all the player's cards to a discard pile. The game is considered a pre-extension of Switch and Mau Mau.
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.
The game first appeared as Eights in the 1930s, and the name Crazy Eights dates to the 1940s, derived from the United States military designation for discharge of mentally unstable soldiers, Section 8.
There are many variations of the basic game, and a number of different names including Craits, Last One, Mau-Mau, Pesten, Rockaway, Swedish Rummy, Switch, Last Card, Screw Your Neighbour, Püskiyon, and Tschausepp. Bartok, Mao, Quango, Zar, Taki, and Uno are more extreme variations.
David Parlett 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.
Eight 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. The top card is then turned face up to start the game.
Players discard by matching rank or suit with the top card of the discard pile, starting with the player left of the dealer. If a player is unable to match the rank or suit of the top card of the discard pile and does not have an eight, they draw cards from the stockpile until getting a playable card. When a player plays an eight, they must declare the suit that the next player is to play; that player must then follow the named suit or play another eight.
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Wikipedia