How to Play Go Fish

Go Fish is a simple matching game for kids.
This game is also known as fish.

Go Fish Rules

| Players: 2+ | Type: Matching | Supplies: 1 Deck |

Objective

The objective of go fish is to get pairs. A pair is two cards of the same rank.

Deal

Deal five cards to each player, one card at a time. If there are only two players, each player gets seven cards. Put the remaining cards in a facedown deck in the middle.

Game Play

All players take the pairs from their hands, if any, and place them in front of them. The player who started with the most pairs goes first, if there is a tie, or no players start with a pair, the youngest player goes first. The player will pick any player and ask them if they have a specific card rank. A player can only ask for a specific card rank that is already in their hand. If the player they ask has the card asked for in their hand, they must give it to the person who asked. If the player does not have any cards they were asked for, they say “go fish.” Go fish means the asking player draws a card from the deck, and then play continues clockwise.

If a player draws a card that gives them a pair, they immediately lay down the pair, but it is still the next player's turn. If a player runs out of cards, they draw five cards from the deck. If there are less than five cards in the deck, they take the remaining cards.

When the middle deck runs out of cards, play continues until all cards have been played as pairs. If a player runs out of cards and there are no more cards in the deck, that player waits for the game to end instead of taking turns.

Winner

The player with the most pairs at the end of the game is the winner.