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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:
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
© 2001 The Rules of the Game |
