Dodo

Players and equipment

Two to eight players and a standard 52-card pack, jokers out. Two packs shuffled together from six players up, or when one pack is running thin. Dodo is Crazy Eights with a longer list of cards that do something, and it is scored the other way round: the cards left in your hand count against you and the fewest points wins.

The deal

Five cards each, or seven when only two play. The rest goes face down as the stock, and its top card is turned face up beside it to start the pile.

Play

On your turn, play a card onto the pile that matches the card showing in either rank or suit. If you cannot, draw from the stock until you can. There is no passing: you draw until a card fits, and that card goes down. When the stock runs out, the pile is shuffled below its top card to make a new one.

You may lay several cards of the same rank in one turn — three nines together, say. The last one you lay is the card showing, so its suit is the suit to follow, and if the rank does something it does it once for each card you laid. An eight is the exception that needs saying: lay more than one and only the suit you name for the last of them stands.

Announce your last card as you go down to one, before the next player plays. Caught silent inside that window and you draw two.

The cards that do something

An eight

Name the suit that must follow

Wild, on anything

A two

Stacks

The next player draws two

A four

Stacks

The next player draws four

An ace

The next player misses a turn

A jack

The direction of play reverses

A black queen

Swap your whole hand with any player you choose

Twos and fours build one chain, in any order and either size: a two, then a four, then a four, then a two leaves whoever cannot add to it drawing twelve. Answer with either rank to pass it on, and lay two of them together to add both. The chain ends the moment somebody cannot or will not answer, and only that player draws. Drawing the chain is that player's turn — they take the cards and play passes on, whatever they have picked up.

The black queen is the queen of spades or the queen of clubs. Playing one is the best thing in the game and being left with one is the worst, so it is worth watching who is holding few cards before you hand yours over. You swap what is left after the queen has gone on the pile, and the player you pick has no say in it. Lay both black queens in one turn and you swap twice, one after the other in the order you laid them, choosing again for the second — so the hand you take with the first can be given straight back away with the second.

Scoring

The player who goes out scores nothing for the deal. Everybody else scores the value of the cards left in their hand, and the fewest points wins.

Each eight

50

The wild you were hoarding

Court cards

10

Jack, queen or king

Aces

1

Low in the count

Everything else

Face value

Two through seven, nine and ten

A player left holding a black queen does not count their hand at all. They score the highest score anyone made this deal, plus ten. It is a score for the deal like anybody else's and it goes on their running total in the ordinary way — what it guarantees is the worst score of that deal, by exactly ten, however few cards they were actually caught holding. That is where the game gets its name.

Where two players are caught at once, neither of their scores counts as the highest — take the worst hand that was actually counted and add ten, and give both of them that same number. Otherwise the two would chase each other.

A worked deal

Four play: Alice, Ben, Cara and Dev. Alice lays her last card, having called it the turn before, and the deal ends.

Alice

0

Out

Ben

50 + 10 + 3 = 63

An eight, the king of spades and the three of hearts

Cara

5 + 9 + 1 = 15

The five of clubs, the nine of diamonds and the ace of spades

Dev

The worst score, 63, plus ten = 73

The queen of spades and the six of hearts

Ben's eight is the whole of his trouble: without it he would have scored 13, less than Cara. Cara counts her ace as one, not eleven. Dev holds only two cards, but the queen of spades among them means none of that is counted — he takes the highest score made at the table, Ben's 63, and adds ten. Had Cara been caught with the queen of clubs as well, her fifteen would not have counted either: the worst hand actually counted is Ben's 63, so Cara and Dev would both write 73.

After three deals the totals stand at Alice 41, Ben 118, Cara 96 and Dev 137. On the fourth Dev is caught with a black queen again for 84, which takes him to 221 and over the line, so that deal is the last. Alice, on 62, wins.

Ending

Play until somebody goes over two hundred. That deal is the last, and the lowest total when it is written down wins. The finish line is on the sheet and the host can move it, so a shorter game is a smaller number agreed before the first deal.

Get rid of the eights

An eight is the most useful card in your hand and the most expensive to be caught with: fifty, when a whole hand of number cards might count twenty. Play one the moment it does you some good — to change the suit away from a player who is running low, or to escape a suit you cannot follow — rather than saving it for a perfect moment. One eight kept back to go out on is a fair gamble; two is asking for a hundred.

When to swap

The black queen is worth most when somebody else is down to one or two cards and you are holding a fistful: the swap takes their good position and gives them your bad one. It is worth least early on, when every hand is much the same size. Count the cards in each hand before you choose, not the totals on the sheet. And remember what you are handing over: an eight or the other black queen in your own hand goes with it.

Keep a two or a four

A two or a four in hand is an answer to a chain, and a chain you cannot answer costs you every card in it. The longer a chain has run, the more it is worth being able to pass on, so a single two kept late in the deal is worth more than it looks. Laying a two and a four together adds six at once and hands the chain on.

Shedding a big hand

A deal is lost the moment somebody goes out, and not every deal can be won. When another player is on their last card, get the high cards out first: a king costs ten and a three costs three. Cards of one rank go down together, so a hand of pairs empties faster than it looks. Say your last card clearly and early — two cards drawn for forgetting is two more to count.

A shorter or longer game

Two hundred is the line, and the host can set it lower or higher before the first deal. A hundred makes a quick game of three or four deals; three hundred gives everybody time to recover from a black queen. Whatever the number, the deal that crosses it is the last.

Seven cards each

Deal seven to everybody rather than five, as the two-player game already does. Deals last longer and more cards are left to count when somebody goes out.

Two packs throughout

Use two packs shuffled together at any number of players rather than only from six up. The stock rarely runs out and there are four black queens in play instead of two.

No chains

Each two or four draws on its own: the next player picks up two or four and play moves on, with no passing it along. The game is gentler and closer to the Crazy Eights most people learnt first.

Crazy Eights scoring

Score the deal for the winner instead of against the losers: the player who goes out collects the value of every card left in the other hands, and the highest total wins. The count is the same, and the black queen's rule is dropped, since there is no worst score to add ten to.

How do you play Dodo the card game?

Match the card showing in rank or suit, or draw until you can. Eights are wild, twos and fours make the next player draw and stack into a chain, an ace skips the next player, a jack reverses the direction and a black queen swaps your whole hand with somebody else's. When a player goes out everybody else counts what is left in their hand, and the lowest total wins once somebody passes two hundred.

What does the black queen do in Dodo?

Playing the queen of spades or the queen of clubs lets you swap your entire hand with any other player, who cannot refuse. Being caught holding one when somebody goes out is the other side of it: your hand is not counted, and you score the highest score made that deal plus ten.

Can you stack twos and fours in Dodo?

Yes, and either on either. Each one played adds to the chain, and the player who cannot or will not add to it draws the whole total. Two laid together in one turn add both. Only the player who ends the chain draws, and drawing it uses up their turn.

How do you score in Dodo?

The player who goes out scores nothing. Everyone else adds up what is left in their hand: fifty for each eight, ten for a jack, queen or king, one for an ace and face value for everything else. A player holding a black queen scores the highest score anyone made that deal plus ten instead. The lowest total wins.

Do you have to say last card in Dodo?

Yes. When you go down to one card you must say so before the next player plays. Caught not having said it inside that window, you draw two cards.

How many players can play Dodo?

Two to eight. Deal five each, or seven when only two are playing, and use two packs shuffled together from six players up or whenever a single pack keeps running out.