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For other uses, see Go Fish (disambiguation)Not to be confused with the card game Literature, which is also commonly called "Fish".Go Fish (also Goldfish or simply Fish) is a simple card game. It is usually played by two to five players, although it can be played with up to ten.
Basic game [edit]
Using a standard 52-card deck, five cards are dealt to each player, or seven if there are four or fewer. The remaining card pack is shared between the players, usually sprawled out in a non-orderly pile referenced as the "ocean" or "pool".
The player whose turn it is to play asks another player for his or her cards of a particular rank. For example Alice may ask, "Bob, do you have any threes?" The player who is asking must have at least one card of the rank he asked for in his hand. The recipient of the request must then hand over all cards of that rank, if he has any. If the recipient of the request has none, he tells the player to "go fish," and the player draws a card from the pool and places in his hand and ends his turn -- unless it is the card he was asking for, in which case he shows it to the other players and gets another turn. When any player at any time has all four cards of one rank, he must place the cards face up in front of himself.
Play proceeds to the left.
Winning: When all sets of cards have been laid down the game ends. The player with the most piles in front of him or her wins.
Variations [edit]
There are a number of variations of these basic rules:
You get a new turn if the call is successful. If your call is unsuccessful and you draw the card that matches the card you needed, you get another turn.
Players give just one card when they're asked.Players form and lay down pairs.Players ask for a specific card instead of a rank. A player must still have at least one card of the named rank in order to ask, and must expose that card when asking. This is similar to Happy Families.If a player runs out of cards he must wait until the game is over and cannot gain any more cards or books.If the other players got all their matches and one player has a card left while no more Go-fish cards to draw, he loses the game.Books are saved by each player face-down. When the main play is finished, a further stage of play starts, with the player who has most books. They may ask another player for a rank that they remember that player has; if correct they win the whole book; if incorrect, play passes to the other player. The winner is the player who eventually has collected a book of every rank.The winner is the player at the end with the most books. Even if players before them have gone out of cards. If playing after the winner has already been decided the next place is given to the player who has the most books first, not the player that runs out of cards.
Strategy [edit]
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 is very much dependent on the honor system; lying about the contents of one's hand is difficult to prevent.
Special card decks [edit]
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. ISBN 1-57281-308-3, Other specialist card packs which can be used to play Go Fish type games have also been produced including the Safari Pals packs which uses animal characteristics to form the sets.
A game similar to Go Fish exists, called Quartets