Go Fish

How to play Go Fish

Go Fish is a friendly card game that families have loved for generations, and it is one of the easiest card games in the world to learn. You play against one, two or three computer players using a standard 52-card deck. On your turn you ask another player whether they have any cards of a rank you already hold — “Do you have any Kings?” — and try to collect all four cards of a rank to make a “book”. Whoever has gathered the most books once every card has been sorted is the winner. The rules take a minute to learn, but remembering who asked for what turns Go Fish into a gentle memory-and-deduction game that rewards paying attention.

The goal

The aim of Go Fish is to make more books than anyone else. A book is a full set of all four cards of the same rank — four Kings, four Sevens, four Aces, and so on. There are thirteen ranks in the deck, so there are exactly thirteen books to be made in every game. As soon as you gather the fourth card of a rank you lay that book face-up in front of you. When all thirteen books have been completed the game ends and whoever holds the most books wins. Because there are thirteen books, a tie is possible on an even split, but with sharp play you can usually pull ahead.

Setting up

Choose how many players sit at the table — two, three or four in total, meaning you plus one, two or three computer opponents — and pick a difficulty for those opponents. The deck is shuffled and cards are dealt to everyone: five cards each in a three- or four-player game, or seven cards each in a two-player game, because with fewer players you need a bigger hand to get things moving. The cards left over are placed face-down in the middle to form the “ocean” (also called the stock or pool). That pile is where you “fish” when nobody can answer your request.

Taking a turn

• On your turn, pick one opponent and ask them for a rank. You may only ask for a rank you already hold at least one of — you cannot ask for Queens unless there is a Queen in your own hand. This single rule is the heart of the game’s strategy.
• If the player you asked has any cards of that rank, they must hand over every single one of them. You add those cards to your hand — and then you take another turn straight away. A good run of matches lets you ask again and again before your turn ends.
• If the player you asked has none of that rank, they say “Go Fish!” and you draw the top card from the ocean. Your turn then passes to the next player — unless you are lucky.
• The lucky case: if the card you draw from the ocean happens to be the exact rank you just asked for, you take another turn immediately, just as if a player had given it to you.
• If your hand ever runs out of cards while the ocean still has cards in it, you draw a fresh card so you can keep playing. If both your hand and the ocean are empty, you simply sit out until the game ends.

Making books

The moment you hold all four cards of a rank — for example all four Nines — you have completed a book. Set it aside face-up where everyone can see it; those cards are safe and can never be asked for again. Completing books is how you score, so it is worth chasing the ranks where you already hold two or three cards. Watch the book counts beside each opponent to see who is pulling ahead, and remember that every book laid down removes one of the thirteen ranks from play.

Winning the game

The game ends when all thirteen books have been made, which happens once every card in the deck has been sorted into a set of four. Count the books: the player with the most wins. When you beat the computer players you earn ranking points — Easy is worth 10, Normal 30 and Expert 100 — and if you sign in, your best result is saved to the leaderboard. Losses and ties score nothing, so choose the highest difficulty you can reliably beat to climb the board fastest.

Why there is no two-players-on-one-screen mode

Go Fish depends on secret hands: half the fun is that you cannot see what your opponents hold and must deduce it from the questions they ask. On a single shared screen there is nowhere to hide your cards, so a pass-and-play mode would spoil the game. For that reason Go Fish here is played only against the computer, whose hands stay hidden from you exactly as a real opponent’s would. You see only your own cards, the face-down ocean, and the number of cards and books each opponent has.

The computer players (ranked)

You can choose from three levels of computer opponent. Easy players ask for random ranks from random opponents and forget what they have seen, so beginners can win comfortably. Normal players remember which ranks you and the others have revealed by asking for them, and they aim their questions at a player they believe is holding the card. Expert players keep a full memory model: they track who asked for, received, or fished each rank, and they target the opponent most likely to hold what they need, while giving as little away as possible. All three levels think entirely on your device, so the game works offline.

Strategy tips

• Listen to the questions. Every time an opponent asks for a rank, you learn they hold at least one of it. File that away — later you may be able to take those cards, and you will know not to waste a turn asking someone who clearly has none.
• Chase your near-complete sets. Ranks where you already hold two or three cards are the quickest books to finish, and finishing books is the only thing that scores.
• Use successful asks to keep your turn going. Because a match lets you ask again, you can sometimes empty an opponent’s hand in a single turn by chaining requests — so think about the order in which you ask.
• Be careful what you reveal. Every rank you ask for tells your opponents you hold it, and a smart computer will use that against you. Sometimes it pays to ask for a rank you only have one of, to disguise the sets you are really building.
• Near the end, when the ocean is empty, the cards are concentrated in just a few hands. This is the moment to use everything you have remembered about who asked for what, and to sweep up the last books before your opponents can.

Frequently asked questions