CRAZY 8s: VARIATIONS OF THE GAME

The basic pattern of the Crazy eights card game has been altered to give many variants. It is also known many different names such as Mau-Mau, Crates, Rockaway, Finlander’s Uno, etc.
In some of the variants of the game, a limit is put on the number of cards that a player can pick from the pick-up stock. In such a case, when the player is not able to discard any of the cards with him, he/she is allowed to pick only one card from the lot prior to the chance passing on to the subsequent player. In a similar case there is another variant in the rule which determines whether a person who picks up the card from the lot is permitted to play it at once or not.
There are other adaptations of this card game wherein the card that changes the suit could be a different one (most frequently either Aces or Jacks) and there are varying rules whether this card should be played without consideration of the suit of top card or on a suit matching to that of the top card (for example an eight of clubs should be played on clubs only).
In some of the versions, the players reach to a consensus on the rule of “Dealer’s Goodies”, under which the person dealing out the cards is allowed to lap up the first of the discarded cards in case it’s “special card” and keep on taking cards till one “ordinary card” comes to surface.
Under some variant rules, it is imperative for a player to declare the “last card” when only one of their cards is remaining. In case the person does not make the call and is caught doing that, the player is penalised by having to pick two cards. In another version, in case the last card that the person has is eight of any suit, he has to divulge that to other players of the game.
In other versions, players get the choice of holding onto wild 8’s in case they want to. The other versions allow runs while a player is discarding the cards.
Yet another adaptation of the game permits the removal of the topmost card on discard pile and the shuffling of the remaining cards in the pile. This would yield almost a fresh stock pile when the older one runs out of cards.
Some forms of this card game have a requirement that in order to win, a player must not only finish his cards but also that the last card that finally ends the game should be an “8”. Yet other versions have those players becoming the winners who manage the least points in the game.
One of the common versions of this game includes “Crazy Eights Showdown”. This version is generally played in order to stretch out the game’s length. In this version, when a player is through with all the cards in first hand, they draw out another hand with a card less (than before).
Thus, these are some of the common versions of the game that are able to add a unique style to the basic format of the game.