About Crazy Eights

The card game where you race to get rid of your hand. Put down a card that matches the one on top of the pile — same suit or same rank — and play passes on. Can't go? Draw one, and play it if it fits. The first player with no cards left wins the deal. Eights are wild: an eight goes on anything, and whoever plays it names the suit that has to follow.

This table plays with the action cards many families add. A two makes the next player pick up two cards — unless they answer with a two of their own, which passes the debt on, two bigger. A jack skips the next player, and an ace turns the direction of play round. You play against one or three computer players, and they play properly: they follow into the suits they hold, keep their eights back, and save their twos and jacks for whoever is about to go out.

A match is three deals. Whoever goes out scores nothing; everyone else scores the cards left in their hand — fifty for an eight, ten for a picture card, the face value for the rest — and the lowest total after three deals wins. The daily match gives everyone the same three deals against the same three players, ranked by points; free play deals new cards every time, head to head or four at the table.

Tips to win

• Keep your eights: they get you out of any corner, and they cost fifty points each if you are caught with them
• Get rid of picture cards early — they are worth ten against you
• Name the suit you hold most of, not the one on top
• Save a two or a jack for the player with one card left