How to play Crazy Eights

What you need

• One standard 52-card deck, jokers removed.
• Paper and pencil if you want to keep a running score across several hands.
• For big groups, Pagat notes that two decks shuffled together are common. With one deck, seven players is about the limit before the stock gets thin.

Set up the game

1. Pick a dealer any way you like. The deal can pass to the left after each hand.
2. Deal five cards each, one at a time and face down, starting with the player on the dealer’s left. Players pick up and look at their own hands.
3. Make the stock. The rest of the deck goes face down in the middle of the table. This is the stock you will draw from.
4. Turn the starter. The dealer flips the top stock card face up beside it. This starter begins the discard pile.
5. Bury an opening eight. If the starter is an eight, Bicycle’s rule is to push it into the middle of the stock and turn the next card instead. Nobody has to call a suit before the game begins.
6. Begin. The player on the dealer’s left goes first, and play continues clockwise.

Match, change suit, and go out

1. Play one matching card. On your turn, place one card face up on the discard pile. It must match the top card’s suit or its rank. On a 6 of clubs you can play any club or any 6.
2. Eights are wild. You may play an eight on any card at any time on your turn. When you do, announce a suit. The next player must play a card of that suit or another eight. You name a suit only, never a number.
3. Draw if you can’t, or won’t, play. If you have no legal card, draw from the stock one card at a time until you get one you can play, then play it. Bicycle also lets you draw even when you hold a playable card, which is useful for hiding an eight.
4. Empty stock means pass. If the stock runs out and you still cannot play, you pass and the turn moves on.
5. Go out to win the hand. The first player to get rid of every card wins. Everyone else adds up what is left in their hands and the winner collects that total.

A sample round, turn by turn

Three players: Jo (left of dealer), Raf, and Lin (dealer). The starter is the queen of hearts.

1. Jo holds 4♥, 9♣, 8♠, K♦, 2♣. She plays 4♥ on the queen of hearts, matching suit.
2. Raf holds 4♠, J♣, 7♦, 10♠, 3♣. He plays 4♠, matching the rank. Spades are now in play.
3. Lin holds 6♦, A♦, 5♥, J♦, 9♥. No spade, no 4, no eight. She draws: Q♣, no good. She draws again: 7♠. That plays, so she lays it down.
4. Jo could play her 8♠ but would rather keep it. She has no other spade and no 7, so she draws: 7♣. She plays it, matching rank. Clubs now.
5. Raf plays J♣.
6. Lin plays J♦, matching rank, and switches the game to diamonds, her strongest suit.
7. Jo plays K♦.
8. Raf plays 7♦. He now holds 10♠ and 3♣.
9. Lin plays 6♦, then on later turns A♦, then is left with hearts.
10. The hand continues. Jo sheds 9♣ and then 2♣ when clubs come back around, leaving only 8♠. On her next turn she wins on her next turn by playing the eight. Because it is her last card, the suit she names does not matter.

Jo’s patience with that eight paid off twice: it was never stuck in her hand when someone else went out, and it guaranteed her final play.

Scoring with a worked example

In Bicycle’s scored game, the player who goes out collects points for every card still held by the others:

Example. Jo goes out. Raf is caught holding 10♠ and 3♣: 10 + 3 = 13. Lin holds Q♣, 5♥, and 9♥: 10 + 5 + 9 = 24. Jo scores 13 + 24 = 37 for the hand. Had Lin also been sitting on an eight, that one card would have added 50, which is why holding eights too long is risky.

Bicycle does not set a target score. A common house rule is to play to an agreed total such as 100 or 200, or simply play a set number of hands and add up.

Beginner strategy

• Hold an eight, but not forever. An eight guarantees you a play, and it is ideal as your last card. It also costs 50 if someone goes out first. Once an opponent is down to two cards, start thinking about spending it.
• Change into your long suit. When you play an eight, name the suit you hold most of. Four hearts and one spade? Call hearts. Every card in that suit is now playable for you.
• Use rank matches to switch suits for free. Lin used J♦ on J♣ to move the game into diamonds without spending an eight. Look for these swaps before you reach for a wild.
• Get rid of tens and faces early. They score 10 each against you. If two plays are equally good, dump the higher one.
• Watch what people draw on. If Raf drew three cards when spades were up, he probably has no spades. Steering the pile back to spades may keep him drawing.
• Draw on purpose sometimes. Bicycle allows a voluntary draw. If your only legal play is your last eight, drawing a card or two can save it for later.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

• Drawing only one card and passing. In the Bicycle game you keep drawing until you can play or the stock is empty. Draw-one-and-pass is a house rule.
• Calling a number with an eight. “Eight, and now it’s fives” is not allowed. You name a suit only.
• Playing a card that matched the card under the eight. After an eight, the named suit or another eight is all that counts. A queen does not match just because a queen was played before the eight.
• An eight as the starter. Bicycle buries it and turns another card. Pagat describes a different custom: the dealer treats it as played and names a suit. Both exist, so pick one before the first deal.
• What happens when the stock runs out? Bicycle: players who cannot play simply pass. Pagat notes many people reshuffle the discards, except the top card, into a new stock. Either is fine if agreed.
• Twos, queens, and aces doing things. They have no special powers in the Bicycle game. Those powers come from popular house versions, listed below.

Popular variants and house rules

These are variants. None of them is part of the Bicycle base game.

• Seven cards for two players. Pagat’s basic game deals seven each in a two-player game and five each otherwise. Some groups deal eight.
• Action cards. Pagat lists typical ones: a queen skips the next player, an ace reverses direction, and a two forces the next player to draw two unless they play another two. Stacked twos add up. If you have played Uno, this will feel familiar.
• “Last card.” A player down to one card must say so. Pagat describes a two-card penalty for forgetting, caught before the next player’s turn.
• Must play if able. Some groups ban voluntary drawing: if you can play, you must.
• Multiple equal cards. Some allow, say, three nines in one turn if the first one is legal.
• Crazy Eights Countdown. Each player starts at a score of 8 with eight cards. Each time you go out, your score drops by one, you get a new hand that size, and your wild card changes to match your score. First to zero wins.

Teach it in five minutes

1. Hold up the starter. “Match this card by suit or by number.” Show a matching suit card and a matching number card.
2. Hold up an eight. “Eights go on anything. When you play one, you choose the suit we play next.”
3. Explain drawing. “Can’t play? Draw until you can. If the stock is gone, you pass.”
4. Explain winning. “First to empty their hand wins. Whatever you are left holding counts against you, and eights are worth a painful 50.”
5. Deal one open hand. Play the first round with everyone’s cards face up so new players can see options, then deal for real.

Age and group-size advice

Bicycle lists the game for ages 4 and up; we suggest 6+ so players can track suits and do the scoring arithmetic. For younger kids, skip scoring and just play “first one out wins.” Three to five players is the sweet spot. Two players is quick and tactical, especially with a seven-card deal. Six or seven players works but the stock empties fast; Pagat suggests a second deck for large groups.

Check yourself

Questions people ask

Sources and edition notes

Bicycle Cards standard-deck Crazy Eights, five-card deal and draw-until-playable procedure. Additional action cards from house versions are excluded.

Sources and stated format checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing. Variants are taken from Pagat’s survey of how the game is played in different groups.

• Bicycle Cards: Crazy Eights rules
• Pagat: Crazy Eights and its variations

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