Crazy Eights
Match the suit or the rank, and get rid of your cards first.
At a glance
A standard 52. Five cards each, or seven with two players.
Match the top card by suit or rank and be first to empty your hand. Eights are wild — play one on anything and name a suit.
Cards left count against you: an eight is 50, a face card 10, an ace 1, the rest their face value.
When somebody crosses the target, the lowest score wins.
How Crazy Eights scoring works
A hand ends the moment somebody plays their last card. Everyone else counts what they are still holding, and it counts against them:
An eight is 50 points. A king, queen or jack is 10. An ace is 1. Every other card is worth its face value. The player who went out scores nothing.
Play continues until somebody crosses the target — 100 is a short game, 200 is usual — and the player with the lowest score wins. Like Hearts, the scoreboard climbs and you want to be at the bottom of it.
Why an eight costs fifty
Eights are wild: play one on anything and name the suit you want. It is the card that gets you out of trouble, and it is deliberately the most expensive card to be caught holding.
That single rule is the whole tension of the game. Holding an eight means you can always play — and it means the hand ending suddenly, on somebody else's last card, costs you fifty points. Playing it early is safe and wastes it; holding it is powerful and expensive.
The other way to score it
Some tables score it the other way round: the player who goes out gains the total of everybody else's cards, and the highest score wins.
The arithmetic is identical — you still count what everyone is holding — but the game feels different, because a big hand you are caught with is somebody else's reward rather than your own punishment. Casetta Cards scores either; pick when you start, and the scoreboard ranks the right way up.
Common disputes, settled
How many cards to start? Five each, or seven with two players.
What if the deck runs out? Shuffle the discards, leaving the top card, and carry on.
Can I play an eight on an eight? Yes, and name a new suit.
Do I have to draw if I cannot play? Most tables say draw until you can, some say draw one and pass. Agree first — it changes how long a hand takes far more than it changes who wins.
Does the winner score anything? Not under the usual rules. They score nothing, which is the good outcome.
Keeping score without the arithmetic
Counting four hands of cards at fifty for an eight, ten for a face and one for an ace is the part that slows a good game down — and the part people get wrong. Casetta Cards keeps the running totals, knows which direction the game is won in, and tells you who is closest to ending it. Free, in a browser, nothing to install.
Variations
All off unless you turn them on when starting a game.
200 points — The usual length.
500 points — A long evening of it.
The winner takes everyone's cards — Whoever goes out gains the total of everybody else's hand, and the highest score wins.