How to play Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights is a classic shedding game: you and your opponent each start with seven cards, and the first player to get rid of every card wins. On each turn you cover the top card of the pile with a card of the same suit or the same rank. The eights are wild, so they can go on anything and let you choose which suit comes next.

The rules take a minute to learn, but the game rewards real thinking: which matching card to play, when to spend an eight, and what your opponent's last draw told you about their hand. Here you play head to head against the computer.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy), check your record at that level, and press PLAY. The cards are dealt and you always make the first move.

• Your hand is fanned along the bottom of the screen. The computer's cards are face down at the top, and the deck and the pile sit in the middle.
• Playing a card: cards that can be played right now are lifted and glow. Tap one to play it, or drag it onto the table. A card that doesn't fit gives a small shake instead.
• Arranging your hand: drag a card sideways along your hand to move it to a new spot.
• Playing an 8: after you play an eight, four suit tiles appear. Tap the suit you want to call. A badge on the pile shows the called suit.
• Drawing: if nothing fits, the status line tells you to tap the deck. Tap it to draw one card. If that card fits you can play it; otherwise press PASS.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new one or switches the sound on or off. The game is saved at every turn, so if you close the page mid-match you can press CONTINUE next time.

When the match ends, the results screen shows the cards left in each hand and the turns played, plus your statistics for that difficulty: wins, losses, draws, win rate and streaks.

Rules

Setup. A standard 52-card deck is shuffled and each player gets seven cards. The next card is turned face up to start the pile. If that first card is an eight, it goes back into the deck and another card is turned. The rest of the deck is the stock.

Your turn. Play one card from your hand onto the pile. It must match the top card in one of these ways:

• the same suit as the suit in play (normally the top card's suit, or the suit named with an eight), or
• the same rank as the top card (a 5 on a 5, a queen on a queen), or
• it is an eight, which may be played on anything.

Eights. When you play an eight you name a suit, and the next player must follow that suit (or play an eight of their own).

If you can't play. You may only draw when you have no playable card. Draw one card from the stock. If it fits, you may play it straight away. If it doesn't, you pass and the turn goes to your opponent. Only that one drawn card can be played after drawing.

Running out of stock. When the stock is empty, every card in the pile except the top card is shuffled to form a new stock. If even that is impossible, a player with nothing to play simply passes.

Winning. The first player to play their last card wins the match. In the rare case that the stock and pile are both used up and four turns in a row pass without anyone playing, the game stops: the player with fewer cards wins, and equal hands are a draw.

Strategy tips

• Keep your eights for emergencies. An eight can rescue you from any position, so spending it when you hold an ordinary matching card usually wastes it. The best moments are when you would otherwise have to draw, or when the eight lets you go out.
• Name the suit you hold most of. After an eight, call the suit where you have the most cards, so your next few turns are easy.
• Watch what your opponent draws. If they draw when the suit was hearts, they almost certainly have no hearts. Steer the game back into that suit whenever you can.
• Switch suits with a matching rank. If you hold the 9 of spades on a 9 of clubs and you have plenty of spades, playing it changes the suit to one that suits you.
• Think one turn ahead. Prefer the play that still leaves you a card that fits next turn.
• Count the cards. If most of a suit is already on the pile, your opponent is less likely to be able to follow it.
• Plan the finish. With two cards left, play the awkward one first and keep the flexible one, ideally an eight, for last.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: the computer plays a random legal card more than half the time and spends its eights freely, even when it has other plays. A relaxed game for learning the rules.
• Normal: the computer mostly plays sensibly, keeping cards that match its hand and holding its eights back until nothing else fits. It still makes the occasional careless choice.
• Hard: no more careless plays. The computer notices which suits and ranks you couldn't follow when you drew, and steers the game into them, including when it names a suit with an eight.
• Crazy: everything Hard does, plus it keeps track of the cards it has seen and judges how likely you are to have an answer to each card before it plays.