Crazy Eights is the game that commercial card games like Uno were built from. You match the card on top of the pile by suit or by number, and the first person to run out of cards wins. It takes about a minute to teach and a round lasts around 10 minutes.

What You Need

Players: 2-8. Use two decks shuffled together if you have more than five players.
Deck: One standard 52-card deck.
Extras: Pen and paper if you want to play multiple rounds for score.

Key Terms

Stock: The face-down pile you draw from when you cannot play.
Discard pile: The face-up pile in the middle. Only its top card matters.
Match: Playing a card with the same suit or the same rank as the top card.
Wild card: An 8. It can be played on anything, and its player chooses the suit that must follow.

Setup

Deal 5 cards to each player, or 7 each if only two of you are playing.
Put the rest face down as the stock.
Turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile. If it is an 8, bury it in the middle and turn another.

How to Play

Play passes clockwise, starting to the dealer's left. On your turn:

Play one card from your hand onto the discard pile. It must match the top card's suit or its rank.
An 8 may be played at any time regardless of what is showing. When you play one, name the suit the next player must match. You can name the suit that was already in play.
If you cannot play, draw from the stock until you get a playable card, then play it. If the stock runs out, your turn simply passes.

Scoring & Winning

The first player to get rid of every card wins the round.
If you are keeping score, the winner collects points for the cards left in everyone else's hands: each 8 is 50, each face card is 10, each ace is 1, and every other card is its face value.
Play to an agreed total, often 100 or 200 points.

Example

The top card is 9♦. You play the 9♠ to match the rank. The next player has no spades and no 9s, so they play an 8 and call hearts.

Variations

Crazy Eights Countdown: each round you are dealt one fewer card, from eight down to one.
Action cards: 2 makes the next player draw two, jack reverses direction, queen skips a player, ace changes direction. These house rules are what turned the game into Uno.
Draw one only: if you cannot play, draw a single card and pass rather than drawing until playable. This speeds the game up considerably.

Tips for New Players

Save at least one 8 for late in the round. It guarantees you can play when the suit turns against you.
If you hold several cards of one suit, call that suit when you play an 8.
Getting rid of high face cards early costs you less if someone else goes out first.