| I've broken the game
of hearts down into basics and variations.
Basic Game:
You use a standard deck of 52 cards for the basic
game of Crazy 8's, you can use two decks depending on how many
people are playing. The dealer will deal five cards to each
player, 7 cards if only two people are playing. The rest of
the unused deck is placed face down on the table, top card turned
over and placed beside it to create a discard pile. The player
to the dealer's left starts up the game, and you continue clockwise,
each player must either take a card from the discard pile or
the un-dealt pile. These are a listing of the legal plays:
- If the top card of the discard pile is not an eight,
you can play any card which matches the rank or suit of
the previous card. Ex: If the card say was a 10 of diamonds,
you could either play a 10 or a diamond.
- An eight may be played on any card, and the player of
the eight must nominate a suit, which must be played next,
if an eight is on top of the pile, you may play any card
of the suit nominated by the person who played the eight.
The first player who gets rid of all their cards wins, and the
other players score penalty points according to the cards they
have left in their hands - 50 for an eight, 10 for a picture,
and spot cards at face value.
Variations of the Game
The game of Crazy 8's can have numerous variations and you
can easily change some of the rules to make a variation that
you like. You can change how many cards are dealt, how you draw
cards, and scoring. You can also make certain other cards special,
where it would effect game play.
Drawing Cards:
In the basic game you use your turn to draw a card. You can
vary this in a way that you may only draw if you are unable
to play, if you can play you must.
Some allow the drawn card to be played immediately if it is
a legal play.
Some allow more than one card to be drawn - either up to a
fixed number of cards, after which if you still cannot (or
will not) play the turn passes to the next player. Others
require you to continue drawing until you can play.
Last Card:
You may want to add the rule that you have to alert a player
when you have one card left. If you don't you must draw additional
cards, maybe two, unless you would like to make the penalty
even worst :o)
Cards having special meaning:
- Change suit: Alright, now here is where you can expanded
to the game of Crazy 8's. In the basic rule set, you can
play the 8 at anytime and the player can pick any suit.
You can have the variation that the eight must match the
suit of the card, before you can play it. Another variations
is that a player can use the 8 at any time, but can't pick
the suit, so the next player would have to match the suit
of either the 8 or the card before the 8. I like this variation
the best, you can use the 8 at anytime, but can't switch
the suits unless it matches the 8 matches the suit that
was already down.
- Skip: Some play that when a queen (or some other designated
rank) is played, the next player in rotation misses a turn,
and the turn passes to the following player.
- Reverse direction: Some play that when an ace (or some
other designated rank) is played, the direction of play
reverses, becoming anticlockwise if it had been clockwise,
or vice versa. Now of course, this wouldn't work with two
players.
- Draw cards: Some play that when a two is played the next
player must either draw two cards or play another two. If
several consecutive twos have been played the next player
must either play another two or draw two cards for each
two in the sequence.
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