Go Fish Rules

Go Fish is the card game most people learn first: ask another player for a card, and if they don’t have it, they tell you to “go fish” from the pile in the middle. The aim is to collect books – all four cards of one rank – and whoever has the most books at the end wins. It is quick to teach, works for two to six players and suits children from about four, but there is more to it than luck: remembering who asked for what is the difference between winning and losing. This guide covers the Go Fish rules, a worked example turn, the main variations and the real odds behind every ask.

Go Fish Rules at a Glance

How to Play Go Fish

1. Deal. Shuffle and deal one card at a time, face down: seven each for two or three players, five each for four or more. Spread the rest face down in the middle – that is the pond.
2. Lay down any books. If you were dealt four of a kind (rare: 0.17% of seven-card hands), put it face up in front of you.
3. Ask. The player to the dealer’s left starts. Pick one opponent and ask for a rank: “Sam, do you have any sevens?” You must already hold at least one seven to ask for sevens.
4. Catch. If Sam has any sevens, he must hand over all of them, not just one. You have made a catch, so you ask again – the same player or anyone else, for the same rank or another.
5. Go fish. If Sam has no sevens, he says “Go fish!” and you draw the top card of the pond. If it is a seven, show it and ask again. If it is anything else, keep it and the turn passes to your left.
6. Make books. As soon as you hold all four of a rank, lay them face up. That is a book.
7. Running out. If your hand is empty on your turn, draw a card from the pond and ask for that rank. If the pond is empty too, you are out for the rest of the game.
8. Win. When all 13 books are down, the player with the most books wins. Seven books guarantees a win, since nobody else can then reach seven.

An example turn

Four players: you, Sam, Priya and Leo. You hold 7, 7, Q, 4, 2. You ask Sam for sevens and he hands you one: a catch, so you go again. You ask Priya for queens. “Go fish!” You draw a 4 – not the queen you named – so you keep it and your turn ends. Sam now asks you for fours. You must give him both, and everyone at the table now knows Sam holds at least three fours. You can’t ask for fours now (you have none), but if you draw the last four later, you know exactly who to ask.

How Many Cards Do You Deal in Go Fish?

Pagat lists seven cards for two players and five for everyone else; Bicycle deals seven to two or three players. Both work – agree before you start.

Go Fish Variations

Go Fish Odds: Who Should You Ask?

At the start of a four-player game, with five cards each, you can see 5 of the 52 cards. The other 47 are spread between three hands and the pond, so most of the cards you need are still in the pond:

• A blind ask usually misses. Holding one seven, the player you ask has another seven only 29% of the time (41% in a two-player game with seven cards each).
• The more you hold, the worse a blind ask gets. Hold three sevens and only one is left to find: 11% that your chosen player has it, 32% that anyone at the table does.
• Fishing the card you named is a long shot: 6.4% when you hold one of the rank.
• Bigger tables help. With six players, at least one opponent holds a card of your rank 91% of the time.
• Your starting hand has at least one pair 49% of the time with five cards, and 79% with seven.

How much does a good memory matter?

Every ask gives information away: to ask for sevens you must hold one, and a player who says “go fish” has none (until they draw). In 60,000 simulated four-player games where one player remembered all of this and the other three asked at random, the player who kept track won 84% of them, against the 25% you would expect by luck, and made about six books a game to the others’ two. Even in a two-player game, memory alone won 58% of games.

Go Fish strategy tips

• Ask for what someone else has asked for. If Leo just asked for Kings, he holds at least one. When you get a King, ask Leo – it is a sure catch unless he has since lost them.
• Remember who said “go fish”. They have none of that rank, so don’t ask them for it again until they have drawn a few cards.
• Ask for a card you have just fished on your next turn if you had none of that rank before: nobody knows you hold it, and it is a fresh lead.
• Keep a catch going. After a successful ask, go for the rank where you have the best information, not the one you hold most of.
• Don’t give your hand away. Asking the same player for the same rank again tells the table you are still collecting it; spread your asks around.

Go Fish and Its Relatives

Games built on asking for cards go back to the mid-1800s, often with special packs. In Britain, Happy Families replaced the older Spade the Gardener; in the United States, Dr Busby (1843) and Authors (1861) came first; Germany plays Quartett with 32-card packs, and Thailand has Pâi Hông. The name “Fish” is also used for Literature, a harder partnership game.

More Card Games

For more family card games, try Switch, the bluffing game Cheat, President or Chase the Ace. If you like collecting sets, rummy and Canasta take the same idea further.

Another first card game: Old Maid, where you pair up your cards and try not to get stuck with the last Queen.

Another four-of-a-kind game: Spoons, where you pass cards as fast as you can and grab a spoon when you have four of a kind.

Got only two players? Try Spit (also called Speed), a race to get rid of your cards.

Next game for the kitchen table: Kings Corner, a shared game of solitaire for two to four players.

Another easy game for young players: Trash, also known as Garbage, where you fill a layout from Ace to 10.

Another first card game: War, which only needs players to know which card is higher.

Go Fish: frequently asked questions