Go Fish is a popular card game among children. Go Fish is a very simple card game that can include anywhere from two to ten players. Four to six players are generally ideal for game play. The phrase “Go Fish” is also sometimes used in slang to indicate a lack of faith in someone’s effort or to suggest that a seeker look elsewhere for an object or information. Go Fish appears to have originated in the Middle Ages, along with many other similar card games.

Go Fish is played with a full 52-card deck, which is shuffled before each player is dealt five to seven cards, depending on the number of players and the rules being followed. Generally, games with fewer players use larger hands, in order to go through the deck more rapidly. Players take turns dealing between games.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first and is allowed to ask any other player at the table for a card of a particular rank. Players are not allowed to ask for cards that they are not holding, although they are certainly permitted to take note of cards that other players ask for. For example, if a player has a five-card hand containing a three, five, seven, jack, and king, he or she might turn to a neighbor and ask for that person’s three. If the player being asked has the card in question, it must be surrendered to the player asking for it. If the player does not have the card, he or she says “Go Fish,” and the player requesting a card may draw from the deck.

If a player has two cards of the same rank, they form a pair and are placed face up on the table for other players to see. In some variations of Go Fish, a player must collect all four cards of the same rank, which makes the game more challenging. This rule only works well in games of Go Fish with two to four players. Should the player draw a card that fills a pair or a quartet, he or she is generally expected to put the cards down on the table immediately. When playing with the pair rule, players are not allowed to hold pairs in their hand.

The game continues until there are no cards left in the deck and all the cards have been paired, or quartered, off. If a player has no cards in his or her hand at the time of play, a card may be drawn from the deck to play with. The winner is the player with the largest number of pairs.