Go Fish

Go Fish is the drinking card game you already know how to play. The rules you learned at eight years old stay exactly as they are; the drinking layer attaches a sip to every moment that was already a small win or a small loss. Asking and missing costs you a drink, handing over a card costs you a drink, and laying a pair costs everyone else. It is slow enough to talk over, which makes it a good first game of the night with four people and a table.

What you need

• A standard 52-card deck, jokers out (two decks if you have more than 6 players)
• A drink per player
• A table big enough to spread the pond of face-down cards in the middle
• 2 to 6 players; 3 or 4 is the sweet spot

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal. 7 cards each for 2 players, 5 cards each for 3 or more.
2. Spread the rest face down in the middle. This is the pond. Spread, not stacked, so fishing means actually picking a card.
3. Agree on pairs or books. The common version lays down pairs (2 of a rank). Books of 4 is the other way; see variations. Decide now.
4. The player to the dealer’s left goes first. Play goes clockwise.

How to play Go Fish

1. On your turn, ask one player for a rank you already hold. “Any sevens?” You must have at least one seven in your hand to ask for sevens.
2. If they have it, they hand over every card of that rank and drink. 2 sips per card handed over, 3 sips if it is a face card or an Ace. You then take another turn.
3. If they do not, they say “go fish” and you drink 1 sip. Then draw one card from the pond.
4. If you fish the rank you asked for, show it and go again. If you fish anything else, your turn ends.
5. Lay down a pair as soon as you have one. Place both cards face up in front of you. Everyone else at the table drinks 2 sips.
6. If you run out of cards, fish 1 from the pond on your turn. If the pond is empty too, you sit out and wait for the count.
7. The game ends when the pond is empty and nobody can pair. Count pairs. The player with the most wins; everyone else drinks once for each pair the winner has that they do not.

Variations and house rules

• Get Drunk and Go Fish. The stripped-down version from the older drinking-game sites. Make a pair, drink. Get asked for a rank you do not have, drink. Get the card you asked for, everyone else drinks. No counting sips, no difference at the end.
• Books of 4. The British rule: you only lay down a set when you hold all four of a rank. Games run longer, hands stay bigger, and hand-overs (and the drinks that go with them) happen far more often because everyone keeps asking for ranks they are hoarding.
• Fish Pond (the old DrinkPlays version). This one is not really Go Fish, but it lived on this page for years and people still ask for it. Deal 5 each and spread the pond. The first player fishes a card and flips it. Everyone must immediately lay a card of equal or higher value, or fish one and play that; fish and fail, drink. The last person to act drinks twice, the played cards go back into the pond, and whoever laid the highest card starts the next round. A King makes everyone pass their hand to the right before the next round. First to empty their hand gives out 4 drinks.
• Face-card tax. Any pair of face cards or Aces is worth 4 sips to the table instead of 2. Encourages people to chase Kings, which is how most hands end up with three of them.
• Fishing shark. Our house rule. If you fish the rank you asked for three turns in a row, you name a player to finish their drink. It happens about once a night and it is always the person who cannot believe it.
• Two-deck pond. For 7 or more players, shuffle two decks together and play books of 4 so the game does not end in ten minutes.

Tips

• Keep sips small. Every hand-over is a drink and a four-player game has dozens of them; the tally runs far higher than the gentle pace suggests.
• Ask for ranks you hold two of. You are already halfway to the pair and the hand-over only helps you.
• Watch what people ask for and miss. That is the one real tactic in Go Fish, and it works better after a drink than you would expect.
• Decide who drinks on a pair before the first pair. “Everyone else” and “the person who gave it to you” are both common, and switching mid-game starts an argument nobody wins.