Crazy Eights

Overview

Crazy Eights is a shedding card game. You empty your hand by matching the card on top of the discard pile, and the lowest total after five rounds wins — so the goal is not just to go out first, but to avoid being caught holding expensive cards when somebody else does.

On the web you can play 4-player against three AI opponents or 2-player against one. Each player is dealt five cards. The Android app also supports online multiplayer.

Playing a card

Play any card that matches the suit or the rank of the card showing on the discard pile. A 7♥ can be followed by any Heart or any other 7.

Eights are wild. An 8 can be played on anything, and playing one lets you name the suit the next player must match.

When you cannot play

Draw up to three cards, one at a time, stopping as soon as you can play. If you still cannot play after three draws, you pass.

If the draw pile empties, the discard pile is recycled to refill it. A round ends when a player empties their hand, or when every player passes in succession.

Scoring

When a round ends, every player scores the cards left in their hand:

• Eights — 50 points each
• 10, Jack, Queen, King — 10 points each
• Ace through 9 — face value, so an Ace is 1

Going out scores nothing, which is the whole point. Scores accumulate over five rounds and the lowest total wins the match.

The cost of an eight

An 8 is the most powerful card in the game and by far the most expensive to be caught with — 50 points is five times a King and fifty times an Ace.

That tension runs through every hand. An 8 always gives you an out and control of the suit, but a round that ends while two of them are still in your hand costs 100 points on its own, which is more than most complete rounds are worth.

Controls

Tap a card to play it; illegal cards do not respond. Tap the draw pile when you have no legal play. After playing an eight, a suit selector appears. The current suit, each player's remaining card count and the running five-round scores are displayed throughout.