rules

Here are the rules for Go Fish card game. This is a popular, fun and simple card game for 2 to 6 players. It’s played with a standard 52 card deck and really easy to learn.

The Goal of the Game

The point of the game is to form as many “books” as possible. Books are four cards of the same rank(For example, four Kings). The player that forms the most books wins the game.

The Deal

Each player gets dealt 5 cards(in a two player game, each player gets 7 cards) and the rest of the cards form the stock pile(the drawing pile).

Gameplay

Game starts with the player to the dealers left. That player asks the player to his left for a card of a certain rank(“Give me Kings” for example). When ever a player is asked for a card, there are two possible scenarios:

1. The asked player doesn’t have a card of that rank and says “Go fish”. The asking player than has to draw a card from the stock pile. If the drawn card is the card he asked for, he can ask any player for any card again, if not, the play passes to the last player to say “Go fish”.

2. The asked player has one or more cards of the rank that he was asked for. In this case, he has to give all of his cards of that rank to the asking player. The asking player then gets to ask any player again for any rank card.

The asker can only ask for the same rank of card that he already holds at least one of in his hand!

When a player forms a book(four cards of the same rank), he has to show it and put it face up on the table. The game is over when one player runs out of cards or the stock runs out.

Scoring

There are at least two ways of scoring(probably more):

1. The first way is simpler and more popular. All players simply score 1 point for each book they form.

2. The second way is a bit more complex. Each book is worth a different amount of points:

• A book of any cards from 2 to T is worth as much points as the face value of one of the cards.
• Book of Jacks is worth 11 points
• Book of Queens is worth 12 points
• Book of Kings is worth 13 points
• Book of Aces is worth 15 points

Special rules

There are a lot of variations of Go Fish card game. Here are just a few rules you can change to make the game different:

• Play always passes to the left and not the last player to say “Go fish”.
• The game doesn’t end when a player or the stock runs out of cards. Instead the player draws additional 5 cards from the stock, or when the stock runs out, the game is played until all players are out of cards.
• A player has to ask for a specific hand, rank AND suit.

That’s it, enjoy playing Go Fish!