What is Queen of spades draws five?
With queen of spades draws five switched on, one card in the pack becomes a heavy penalty. When you play the queen of spades, following suit or rank as usual, the next player must draw five cards. Their turn is spent drawing: they can't play anything first, not even an eight, and the five cards stay in their hand until their next turn.
The penalty can't be answered or passed on, so it always lands on the player after you. If the queen of spades is turned up as the first card of the discard pile, the first player draws five before anyone has played.
The other queens are ordinary cards. A queen of spades that is your last card wins the hand at once, and nobody draws.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Crazy Eights | Queen of spades draws five |
|---|---|---|
| The queen of spades | Standard Crazy EightsAn ordinary card: follow suit or rank. | Queen of spades draws fiveThe next player draws five cards. |
| Answering it | Standard Crazy EightsThere are no penalties to answer. | Queen of spades draws fiveNothing answers it: the next player must draw, and can't play any card first. |
| Drawing the penalty | Standard Crazy EightsYou draw one card, and only when you have nothing to play. | Queen of spades draws fiveYou draw all five in one move, your turn ends, and the drawn cards can't be played until your next turn. |
| The queen of spades as the first card | Standard Crazy EightsPlay starts normally. | Queen of spades draws fiveThe first player draws five cards. |
| Other options | Standard Crazy EightsTwos draw two, jacks skip, aces reverse, draw until playable and the points game can be chosen. | Queen of spades draws fiveThe queen works with all of them. With twos draw two it doesn't stack: a two can't answer the queen, and the queen can't be played on a run of twos. In the points game it counts 10, like any queen. |
History
Crazy Eights is played with many house rules that give powers to cards other than the eights. A card that makes the next player draw five is one of the harsher ones. The queen of spades also has a bad name in Hearts, where taking it costs 13 points.
Unlike the draw two, this rule has no settled form: the basic rules of Crazy Eights give no power to any queen, and the rule turns up in lists of house rules rather than in published rule books. Groups that play it differ on whether it can be passed on. Here it can't, and it doesn't combine with a run of twos, so the five cards always go to the next player.