For other uses, see Go Fish (disambiguation)

Go Fish (disambiguation)

Go Fish is a children's card game. It should not be confused with another card game called Literature, which is also commonly called "Fish"Go Fish may also refer to:* "Go Fish" , an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

Not to be confused with the card game Literature

Literature (card game)

Literature is a card game for six players. It uses a modified version of the Western 52-playing card deck; the 2's are removed, leaving 48 cards...

, which is also commonly called "Fish".

Go Fish (also Goldfish or simply Fish) is a simple card game

Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

. It is usually played by two to five players, although it can be played with up to ten.

Basic game

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, "Steve, do you have any threes?" The player who is "fishing" must have at least one card of the rank he asked for in his hand. The recipient of the request must then hand over a card of that rank, if he or she has any. If the recipient of the request has none, he or she tells the player to "go fish," and the player draws a card from the pool and ends his turn. If the player receives the card he or she wanted (through either means), he may take another turn. If the player is now holding a pair of one rank, he may play the cards face up in front of himself.

Play proceeds to the left.

Winning:
When one player runs out of cards, or the pool is empty, the game ends. The player with the most piles in front of him or her wins.

Variations

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 form books of four instead of 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
  Happy Families
  Happy Families is a traditional card game played in the UK, usually with a specially made set of picture cards, featuring illustrations of fictional families of four, most often based on occupation types. The object of the game is to collect complete families. The player whose turn it is asks...
  
  .
• If a player runs out of cards he or she 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 or she 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

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

Honor system

An honor system or honesty system is a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavors based on trust, honor, and honesty. Something that operates under the rule of the "honor system" is usually something that does not have strictly enforced rules governing its principles...

; lying about the contents of one's hand is difficult to prevent.

Special card decks

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.

U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

U.S. Games Systems, Inc. was founded by Stuart R. Kaplan in 1968. This U.S. company publishes a variety of books, tarot cards, oracle card decks, and playing cards. Some of their best known products include the Rider-Waite Tarot, the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Tarot, Wyvern Collectable Card Game,...

 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

Safari Pals

Safari Pals is a range of card games that have similarities to both Top Trumps and traditional Playing Cards. Like traditional playing cards or Quartets , the cards are arranged into sets of 4. Like Top Trump packs, each card describes a particular entity with numerical data...

 packs which uses animal characteristics to form the sets.

A game similar to Go Fish exists, called Quartets

Quartets (card game)

Quartets is a card game, similar to Go Fish, which was the start of Top Trumps. They were originally created by Austrian card game company Piatnik during the 1960s., but later began being released by Dubreq, Ace, Waddingtons and other companies...