Go Fish

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For other uses, see Go Fish (disambiguation).

Go Fish
Players	2-5
Age range	6 +
Setup time	1 min
Playing time	5-15 minutes
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Strategy

Go Fish, also called Fish (not to be confused with the card game Literature, which is also commonly called Fish), is a simple card game popular among children. It is usually played by two to five players^[1], although theoretically it can be played with up to ten.

1 The basic game
2 Variations
3 Strategy
4 Special Card Decks
5 References
6 External Links
7 See also

[edit] The basic game

Using a standard 52 card deck, five cards are dealt to each player, or seven if there are only two players, and the remaining card pack is placed between the players.^[1]

The player whose turn it is to play asks another player for their cards of a particular rank. For example, "Liz, do you have any threes?" A player may only ask for a rank of which they already hold at least one card. The recipient of the request must then hand over all cards of that rank. If the call was successful, the same player has another turn. If the player who was asked has no cards of that rank, they say "Go fish" (or simply "Fish"), and the asking player draws the top card from the pack. The turn then passes to the player who was asked.

When one player has two of the same cards of a given rank, they form a pair, and the cards are placed face up on the table. The game ends when all cards in a player's hand are played down, and the player who won the most books wins.

If the player whose turn it is has no cards left in hand, the game is not over, but they simply draw the top card from the pack and the turn passes to the next player in the rotation, or, in the case of a two-player game, the other player. Whoever has the most pairs wins.

[edit] Variations

There are a number of variations of these basic rules:

Players form books of four instead of pairs.
Players form books of three instead of pairs, then giving the ability to any other player to place the same number card down as their own. For example, if John places down three 5s, and Agatha has the last five, she can play it to get points.
Extra conditions are added under which a player's turn continues. For example, if the card fished from the pack matches the rank that was asked for, or if it completes a book.
With three or more players, all players must respond to each call. A player draws a card from the pack only if no opponent has a card of the requested rank, and then the turn passes clockwise.
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.
Another variation is that players still ask for a rank and play for books of two, but only one card is handed over in each call instead of all cards of the rank that the player holds.
In the event that a player runs out of cards he should draw a new hand from the top of the pack.
Another variation is that if a player runs out of cards he must wait until the game is over and cannot gain any more cards or books.
In one variation of the game, when a player is told to "Go fish!" they then draw a card directly from their opponent's hand, not from the card pack. Then the player who has been "fished" draws a replacement card from the pack and play continues.
Instead of cards being placed in a stack, they can be spread out to form a "pond" on the table.

[edit] Strategy

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.

[edit] Special Card Decks

Instead of using a standard 52 playing card deck, varrious speciality decks have been manufactured including the 42 card Kids Classic Go Fish Card Game by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. ISBN: 1-57281-308-3,