Go Fish
Also known as Fish
- Players
- 2-6 players (best with 4)
- Deck
- 1 standard deck (52 cards), jokers removed
- Time
- 10-20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Simple
- Category
- Matching & collecting
Setup
Use a standard 52-card deck with the jokers out. Suits do not matter at any point; only rank does. Two can play, but the game is at its best somewhere between three and six. The short name Fish belongs to this game, though it is also used for the much more complicated partnership game Literature, which is not this one.
Choose a dealer however you like. Deal one card at a time, clockwise.
How many cards each player gets depends on the size of the table, and the two published accounts draw the line in different places. Both deal five each once four or more are playing, and both deal seven each at two players. At three they part company: one deals seven, the other five. Say which you are using before the deal. The smaller hand keeps more cards in the middle to fish from.
Spread the undealt cards face down in a loose pile in the centre. This is the stock. Keep it spread out rather than squared up so everyone can reach it without knocking it over.
Pick your hand up and sort it by rank so you can see what you already hold. A complete book of four that you were dealt goes straight down in front of you before the first turn: a book is laid down whenever it is complete, and the end of the deal counts. Play starts with the player to the dealer's left.
Play
Turns pass clockwise. On your turn you ask one specific opponent, by name, for one specific rank. Say who you are asking and what you want: "Priya, do you have any sevens?"
Two restrictions govern the ask. Ask only for a rank you are already holding — no fishing for sevens unless a seven is sitting in your hand. And you must direct the question at a single named player, not at the table in general.
If the player you asked holds any cards of that rank, they must hand over every one of them, not just one. You add them to your hand and your turn continues: ask again, of anyone at the table, for any rank you now hold. A good run can strip several opponents in one turn.
If the player you asked has none of that rank, they say "Go fish." You draw the top card of the stock. If it happens to be the very rank you just asked for, show it to the table and take another turn. Otherwise you keep the card quietly and your turn ends, passing to the player on your left.
Whenever you complete a book, meaning all four cards of one rank, put it down in front of you straight away. The accounts differ on whether it sits face up or is shown and then turned face down; either way the table has seen it, and those cards are out of play and cannot be asked for again. Completing a book does not end your turn and does not earn you an extra one; carry on with whatever you were doing.
A hand ends as soon as either the stock is exhausted or a player is left holding no cards, and whoever has the most books at that moment wins it. That is worth reading twice, because it means emptying your hand is not itself a way of winning — it is a way of stopping the game, which is a different thing, and it can stop it while you are behind. One of the two accounts disagrees and hands the win outright to whoever sheds their last card first, so settle which version you are playing before the deal; they reward opposite play.
Both accounts also describe carrying on until every card has been made into a book, with anyone who runs dry drawing a fresh hand from the stock. That is the alternative rather than the rule, and it is in the variants below. Thirteen ranks at four cards each accounts for the whole pack, which is what gives that version a natural stopping point.
Goal & scoring
You are collecting books, and a book is four cards of the same rank. Suits are irrelevant. The player with the most books when the hand ends wins it.
The bare game needs no scoring beyond counting books, but one account gives two ways of making a session of it. Play a series of hands, score a point per book, and run to an agreed target — ten points is the figure it suggests. Or score the books by their cards, counting 2 to 10 at face value, 11 for a jack, 12 for a queen, 13 for a king and 15 for an ace, which makes the high ranks worth chasing rather than just worth counting.
Neither account says what to do if two or more players tie for the most books. Sharing the win is the obvious answer, and nothing in either of them suggests a decider.
The skill in the game is memory. Every question tells the table what you hold and what you were missing, and every handover tells them what you just gained. Track who asked for what, and go after players you know are sitting on a rank you need. There is a habit worth copying from one of the accounts: put the same rank to different opponents in turn rather than working steadily through your own hand in front of everybody, so that your questions give less of it away.
Variants
Ask for the exact card — Instead of naming a rank, you name a single card by rank and suit, such as the nine of clubs. You must still be holding a card of the named rank yourself before you may ask, and one account has you show it as you do. Successful requests become far rarer, so hands last longer and remembering exactly which cards have surfaced matters much more. Settle one point first: whether you may ask for a card you are holding yourself. You will certainly be told to go fish, which is the point — it is a pure bluff, and it costs you your turn.
The blocker plays next — When someone tells you to go fish, the turn moves to them rather than to the player on your left. Turn order becomes unpredictable, which stops players from timing their questions around a fixed rotation, and it rewards answering "go fish" honestly and fast. Both accounts carry it, one as a variation and one beside the ordinary rule, so agree on it before the deal rather than discovering it mid-hand.
Play on to all thirteen books — Keep going past the point where the ordinary game would stop, until every card has been made into a book. Run dry and you take five fresh cards off the stock, or all that is left of it if it holds fewer. Once the stock itself is gone there is nothing to fish for, so an unsuccessful ask simply ends your turn and play moves on. Hands run considerably longer and the result turns on memory rather than on when somebody happened to run dry.
Pairs instead of books — Collect pairs of matching rank rather than sets of four, laying each pair down as you make it. Twenty-six pairs in the deck instead of thirteen books means cards leave hands much faster and a hand finishes in a few minutes. One account records this as the ordinary Australian game, dealt seven cards each, with one rule worth keeping: a pair goes down the moment you make it, so you may not sit on one as a licence to ask for the other two.
Happy Families and other purpose-made decks — Dedicated illustrated packs replace ranks with themed sets. The best known is the British game Happy Families, whose 44-card pack holds eleven families of four members each. It is close to Go Fish rather than identical to it: you ask for one named card rather than a rank, a player who has not got it says "not at home", and the turn then passes to them instead of to your left. Many modern children's Go Fish decks work the same way, matching by picture rather than by rank, which lets players who cannot yet read card ranks join in.
Rules checked against Pagat, Bicycle Cards, Wikipedia, Geeky Hobbies, Ducksters, Solitaire Paradise.