Overview
There is exactly one number to write per player per deal — the books they finished — and thirteen books exist in a deal, so a correctly filled row always adds to thirteen. That is a genuinely useful property for a scorepad: the sheet can be checked at a glance.
Setup
Use a standard fifty-two card deck. Deal five cards each to four or fewer players, or seven each with five or six. Spread the rest face down in the middle — that is the pond.
Sort your hand by rank. The whole game is about which ranks you hold and which ranks other people have asked for.
How to play
On your turn, ask one player for a rank: "Anna, do you have any sevens?" You may only ask for a rank you already hold at least one card of.
If they have any, they must hand over every card of that rank, and you ask again — the same player or a different one. If they have none, they say go fish and you draw the top card of the pond. Drawing the exact card you asked for lets you continue; otherwise play passes to the left.
Collect four of a rank and you have a book. Lay it face up in front of you. The deal ends when all thirteen books are down.
Scoring
Count the books in front of each player.
- Each completed book: 1 point.
- A player with no books: 0, and the zero is written rather than left blank.
- Under the card-counting setting: 4 points a book instead of 1, which changes the size of the numbers and nothing about the result.
Thirteen books exist, so the row across all players adds to thirteen every deal. If it does not, a book has been miscounted.
Ending the game
The deal ends when the last book is completed and the highest number of books wins. With the pond empty and hands running out, the last few books tend to land in quick succession.
Most tables play several deals and keep the running total, which is what the sheet is for. There is no target score in the standard game — the winner is simply whoever is ahead when everybody has had enough.
Common variations
Book size is the setting that changes the game most. Pairs instead of fours makes every question likely to complete something, which is exactly right for a five-year-old and far too fast for anybody else.
Asking any player versus asking only your neighbour is the difference between a memory game and a taking-turns game. The open version rewards paying attention to what everybody else has asked for.
Whether you may ask for a rank you do not hold is the one house rule that fundamentally breaks it. Allowing it turns careful deduction into blind guessing.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | Highest score |
|---|---|
| Score sheet | One number per player per round, with a running total |
| Typical round score | 0 – 13 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | One number per player per deal — the books they collected. Thirteen books exist in a deal, so the row across all players always adds up to thirteen. |
Go Fish — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: Cards in a book4, Score byBooks collected, What you may ask forOnly ranks you hold. Players: Anna, Ben, Cara, Dan. Three deals.
| Deal | Anna | Ben | Cara | Dan | row |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 13 |
| 2 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 13 |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 |
Running totals:
| After | Anna | Ben | Cara | Dan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 1 |
| 3 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 4 |
Expected standings after deal 3: Ben 13, rank 1; Anna 11 and Cara 11 tied at rank 2; Dan 4, rank 4. the game is still running — Go Fish has no target, so the sheet never declares itself over.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Go Fish a little differently. These are the 8 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Cards in a book: what is the default in Go Fish?
How many matching cards make a set. Four is the standard book; playing to pairs makes a much faster game and suits the youngest players.
Default: 4. Adjustable from 2 to 4 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Cards in a book”.
What you may ask for: what are the options in Go Fish?
The usual rule is that you may only ask for a rank you already have a card of, which is what stops the game being pure guesswork.
Default: Only ranks you hold. Two options:
In the app: “What you may ask for”.
Ask any player: on or off in Go Fish?
Whether a question may go to anybody at the table or only to your neighbour. Restricting it slows the game and helps younger players keep track.
Default: on.
In the app: “Ask any player”.
Another turn on a hit: on or off in Go Fish?
A player who successfully takes cards asks again. Turning this off passes play along every time and keeps a lucky streak from running long.
Default: on.
In the app: “Another turn on a hit”.
Another turn on a book: on or off in Go Fish?
Whether completing a book earns an extra question even if the fishing failed. A small kindness that speeds the endgame up.
Default: off.
In the app: “Another turn on a book”.
Fishing ends your turn: on or off in Go Fish?
What happens when you are told to go fish. Traditionally the turn passes, unless you happen to draw the very card you asked for.
Default: on.
In the app: “Fishing ends your turn”.
Running out of cards: what are the options in Go Fish?
What a player does when their hand empties but the pond still has cards. Drawing a fresh hand keeps everybody playing to the end.
Default: Draw a new hand. Three options:
In the app: “Running out of cards”.
Score by: what are the options in Go Fish?
Whether a completed set is worth one point or four. Counting cards changes nothing about who wins, but it makes the running total look busier.
Default: Books collected. Two options:
In the app: “Score by”.
Variants of Go Fish
Pairs Go Fish
A book is two matching cards rather than four, so sets complete constantly and a deal is over in a few minutes.
Canadian Fish
Two teams, six-card sets by half-suit, and questions that everybody at the table can hear and reason about.
Go Fish is also known as
Fish, Authors, Happy Families, Kortspil Fisk, Fiskespil. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.