What is Aces reverse?
Play normally goes round the table in one direction. With aces reverse switched on, playing an ace turns it round: the player who played before you plays next, and play carries on in the new direction until another ace turns it back.
A reverse matters only when three or more play. With two players the turn goes back to the same opponent either way, so here an ace has no effect and is an ordinary card.
If an ace is turned up as the first card of the discard pile in a game of three or more, play starts in the other direction from the dealer. An ace that is your last card wins the hand at once.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Crazy Eights | Aces reverse |
|---|---|---|
| The ace | Standard Crazy EightsAn ordinary card: follow suit or rank. | Aces reverseReverses the direction of play. |
| With two players | Standard Crazy EightsTurns alternate. | Aces reverseUnchanged: the ace has no effect. |
| An ace as the first card | Standard Crazy EightsThe player after the dealer starts, and play goes the usual way. | Aces reverseWith three or more players, play starts the other way round from the dealer. |
| Other options | Standard Crazy EightsTwos draw two, the queen of spades drawing five, jacks skip, draw until playable and the points game can be chosen. | Aces reverseAces reverse works with all of them. Penalties and skips go to the next player in the current direction. |
History
A reverse card belongs to the same set of action cards as the skip and the draw two, and like them it is a house rule in Crazy Eights, whose basic rules give powers only to the eights. Mau Mau, also on this site, gives the same job to the ace.
Rule sets disagree on what a reverse does with two players. One common account of Crazy Eights says that in a two-player game an ace has no effect, and that is how it plays here. Some commercial shedding games instead make a reverse act like a skip with two players, so the player who played it goes again.