Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights is the shedding game behind most of the modern card games people already know. Each player is dealt seven cards, one is turned face up to start the pile, and from there you play a card that matches either the suit or the number showing. The first player to run out of cards wins.

The eights are what give the game its name and its shape. An eight can be played on absolutely anything, and whoever plays it names the suit that has to follow, so an eight is both a way out of a suit you cannot match and a way to strand an opponent in one they cannot. You play a computer opponent at three strengths, and the deal is different every time.

There is a two-seat online game as well. Open a table and you get a room code and a link to hand somebody; they sit down in the other seat with no account on either side, and neither of you ever sees the other's hand — the server sends each seat only its own cards. A bot holds the empty seat until a person takes it.

Cards you cannot legally play are greyed out and will not respond, so you never discover that a move was illegal by making it. Draw and Pass appear only on the turns when the rules allow them. Playing an eight opens a small suit picker over the board, and nothing is sent until you choose, so a stray tap can be taken back. When the suit in play is not the suit showing on the pile, the marker beneath it carries a gold ring. That ring is the only sign that an eight has been played. Your difficulty setting and your record stay in this browser.