How to Play "Go Fish" With Cards

"Go Fish" can be played with a standard deck of cards.

"Go Fish" is a simple card game for at least two players, and according to Board Game Geek, it's one of the first card games taught to kids in the United States. Children's decks with colorful images printed on the cards instead of numbers are widely available, but all you need to play "Go Fish" is a standard deck of playing cards and no more than six players.

Things You'll Need

• Standard deck of playing cards

Instructions

1. Shuffle the deck and deal five cards to each player if there are more than two of you. If there are only two, deal seven cards to both. The player to the left of the dealer goes first and play continues clockwise.

2. Ask any other player for a particular rank of card when it is your turn. For example, you might ask a player if he has any sixes. You must have at least one such card in your hand when you ask.

3. Take all of the cards of the rank you asked for from the player. For example, if you ask a player for sixes and he has three of them, he must hand you all three.

4. Take another turn, asking any player for any rank of card. Continue taking turns as long as you are successful in receiving at least one card of the rank you asked for.

5. Draw the top card off of the draw pile if a player tells you to "Go Fish." A player may tell you this only if he does not have a card matching what you asked for.

6. Turn over the card you drew if it is the same rank as what you asked for, and take another turn. In other words, if you asked a player for a jack and he said, "Go Fish," but the top card of the draw pile is a jack, you can take another turn. If the card does not match, add it to your hand and let the player to your left take his turn.

7. Lay down four cards of the same rank when you collect them. These are known as "books" of cards.

8. Win the game by either running out of cards in your hand--meaning you've collected all of the books you can--or by having the most books when all of the draw pile cards have been taken.

References

• Pagat: Go Fish, Authors, Happy Families, Quartet
• Board Game Geek: Go Fish