How to Play Hollywood Eights

Objective

In each hand, be the first player to play every card from your hand. The winner of a hand scores points for the cards still held by the other players. Those points go onto a score sheet with three columns, one for each game, and each game ends when someone reaches 100 in that column.

Setup

Choose a dealer; the deal passes to the left after each hand. Deal five cards to each player, one at a time. Many tables deal seven each when only two are playing, as in standard Crazy Eights. Put the rest of the deck face down as the stock and turn the top card face up beside it. This is the starter, and play builds on it.

If the starter is an eight, slide it back into the middle of the stock and turn the next card instead.

Draw up a score sheet with three columns headed Game 1, Game 2 and Game 3, and a row for each player.

How to play

The player to the dealer’s left goes first, and play moves to the left. On your turn, play one card face up on the pile. It must match the top card in suit or in rank. A seven of clubs can go on any club or any seven.

Eights are wild. You can play an eight on anything, and when you do, you name a suit (never a rank). The next player must follow that suit or play another eight.

If you cannot play, or would rather not, draw from the stock until you get a card you can play, then play it. You may draw even when you hold a playable card. If the stock runs out and you still cannot play, you pass.

The hand ends as soon as one player plays their last card. If the stock is empty and nobody can play, the hand is blocked; most tables then give the hand to the player with the lowest card total.

1. 1Match the top card by suit or by rank
2. 2Play an eight on anything and name the next suit
3. 3If you cannot play, draw until you can
4. 4Empty your hand first to win the hand

Scoring

The winner of the hand adds up the cards left in every other player’s hand.

Now the Hollywood part. The first hand you win is scored in Game 1 only. The second hand you win is scored in Games 1 and 2. Your third win, and every win after it, is scored in all three games. When a player reaches 100 in a column, that game is over and goes to the player with the highest score in it. A fourth game can then open beside the others, so there are always three running until you decide to stop.

Variations

Draw limit: instead of drawing until you can play, some tables let you draw up to three cards and then pass.

Crazy Eights scoring: use the classic values (eight 50, face cards 10, ace 1, others face value) with the Hollywood columns. Eights are worth much more this way, so many tables raise the target for each game.

Partners: with four players, partners sit opposite and a hand ends when either partner goes out. Score both opponents’ cards for the winning team.

Special cards from other Eights games, such as twos making the next player draw two, are a different game. Agree before you start if you want to add them.

Tips from the table

Keep your eights for when you are stuck, or for your last card. An eight left in your hand at the end costs you 20 points in up to three games.

Change the suit to one you are long in, especially when the player after you has just had to draw. They are likely short in the current suit.

Because early wins only count in Game 1, the first few hands matter less than they look. A player who wins two hands in a row late can jump ahead in every column at once.

Frequently asked