How to Play Crazy Eights Countdown

Have you ever played Crazy Eights Countdown? This is a fun family card game to try, and it works well for all ages.

There are so many games you can play with just a deck of cards! It’s nice to have a variety of options for family game nights.

Crazy Eights Countdown is a fun variation of the classic Crazy Eights game. The game is played basically the same way as Crazy Eights, but the wild card changes every round. You have to pay attention, which makes the game more exciting!

As is the case with most card games, there seem to be different variations of this game. We modified the rules a bit ourselves from the instructions we read. So the good news is that you can easily adapt this game to the rules you like – ha! If you want to play it a different way, then do it.

How to Play Crazy Eights Countdown

The goal of this game is to get rid of all your cards.

Start by dealing out 8 cards to each player.

Turn over the top card from the remaining pile. Shown below is a sample hand. The ace of spades was turned over from the top of the deck.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first. The three cards shown below are the possible cards that this player can play. They can either match the suit or the card value (ace, in this case), or they can play an 8 as a wild card.

The next player takes their turn, either matching the suit, the card number, or playing an 8.

The person who plays an 8 gets to announce which suit they would like to change to. A player could play the eight of hearts and announce diamonds, for example.

If you can’t play with what you have in your hand, draw one card at a time until you have something to play.

Play continues in this way until someone is able to play all of the cards in their hand. The first one to get rid of all their cards is the winner!

The Countdown

Here’s where it gets interesting! In the next round, 7’s are wild and you only deal out 7 cards.

Then, the next round is 6 cards and 6’s are wild. And so on. Keeps everyone thinking!

Spice up the Rules

Once the players have gotten the hang of the basic game, you can add in special cards if you’d like.

Some options:

2 – the next player draws two cards (and that’s their turn)

3 – skip the next player

Jack – reverse directions

And that’s it! Family card games are so much fun.