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Go Fish·Card Games
Go Fish
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Card Games
2–6 players
deck
9 essential rules
Go Fish is a children's matching game and usually the first card game anyone learns. Players ask each other for cards of a particular rank, trying to collect all four of a kind — a book. Ask someone who does not have it and they tell you to "go fish".
On your turn, ask one specific player for one specific rank — "Marco, do you have any sevens?"; You must already hold at least one card of that rank. This is the rule most often forgotten.
Whenever you hold all four of a rank, lay the book face up in front of you immediately.
If you run out of cards, draw a new hand from the pond if any remain. The game ends when all thirteen books have been made.
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One standard 52-card deck, no jokers.; Only rank matters — suits are irrelevant.; A book is all four cards of one rank.
Two or three players: 7 cards each. Four or more: 5 each.; The rest becomes the pond (stock), spread face down.; Play begins to the dealer's left.
Whenever you hold all four of a rank, lay the book face up in front of you immediately.
Each completed book is worth one point. There are thirteen in the deck, so ties are possible only with an even split among players.
Pairs instead of books: collect two of a rank rather than four — much faster, better for very young players.; Ask anyone: some versions drop the "must hold that rank" requirement, which makes the game almost pure chance.; Literature / Canadian Fish: the serious adult relatives, played in teams wi...
They have it: they hand over every card of that rank, and you go again.; They do not: they say "go fish". You draw one card from the pond and your turn ends — unless you draw exactly the rank you asked for, in which case many households let you go again.