rules to play go fish

As play moves around the circle, players start collecting enough cards to make complete books. When a book is complete, the player shows the other players the book, then lays the cards in the book face down.As players ask each other for cards, try to remember which cards they asked for. When its your turn, youll have the advantage of knowing whats in their hand. For example, if you hear a player ask someone else for an eight, and youre hoping to collect a book of eights yourself, remember to ask that player for an eight next time its your turn.

Eventually the draw pile will dwindle and the cards will run out. When this happens, each player counts his or her books. The person with the most books is the winner.

Rather than asking for a card in the same rank, ask for a specific card. For example, if you have a jack of hearts, ask another player for a jack of diamonds, rather than just asking for a jack. This variation makes the game more difficult, and it tends to last longer this way.

When you form a pair of two cards of the same rank and color, show the other players and lay the pair down. An easier variation would be to form pairs of two cards of the same rank, even if they arent the same color.

In a typical game of Go Fish, the game is over when a player runs out of cards. Play a variation in which the game continues among the players who still have cards.

When all the cards have been drawn and all the books collected, whoever has gathered the most books wins.

Call for cards from all players at once the game moves faster when everyone must give up the wanted cards. This also makes it a better move to ask for a card when your book lacks just one, since whoever might have drawn the fourth one must give it to you. An interesting scoring variant is to assign each book a value equal to its rank. Aces would then count 11, picture cards 10, and all other cards would be worth their face value.

Once a player collects a set of all four cards of the same rank, they place them face down on the table. The game continues until a player is out of cards or the stock deck is gone. The player with the most sets is the winner.

If, when fishing, a player draws a rank they did not have, they should ask for it on their next turn. Otherwise, they should rotate among the ranks that they already hold. In the more difficult variants, strategy often requires memorizing what cards each player possesses. Unlike many card games, Go Fish depends on the honor system; lying about the contents of ones hand is difficult to prevent.

Instead of using a standard 52 playing card deck, various speciality decks have been manufactured including the 169 count playing card Kids Classic Go Fish Card Game by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.. Other specialist card packs which can be used to play similar games have also been produced including the Safari Pals packs which uses animal characteristics to form the sets.