Try to take turns being the dealer so that one person doesn’t get stuck doing it every time.
Remove all the jokers from the deck before you shuffle and deal the cards. It’s okay to look at your cards! Just keep your hand hidden from the other players so they can’t see what you got.
If you don’t have a lot of room at the table, just stack the cards face-down in the middle. When someone has to “go fish,” they can just pick up the top card from the deck.
The “rank of card” means the number and not the suit. It doesn’t matter if the person has a jack of hearts or a jack of diamonds; if they have any jack at all, they must give it to you. You can only ask for a specific card if you have one or more of them in your hand already. For example, you can’t ask for threes if you don’t have a three in your hand. Keep in mind that once you ask about a specific card, the other players will know that you have that card in your hand. You can all strategize and try to keep track of who has what to give you the advantage in the game.
Remember that you’re trying to make matches from the cards you have in your own hand.
It can be fun to order people to “go fish,” but remember to do it with a friendly attitude. After all, you’re playing a game with your friends!
You have to keep the card you pulled, even if it isn’t one you want. You can’t throw it back and pick another one.
In some variations of the game, 2-card matches can be played instead of 4-of-a-kind matches. Sets of 4 are often called “books. ”
You could also choose to keep playing even after the fishing pond is empty. You’ll just take turns trying to get cards from your opponents without having to “go fish” at the end of your turn.
