Fish

OK, here are the rules:

Setting up

Fish is a six person card game, played by two teams of three. So, first you have to choose teams. You spread the cards out face down on the table and everybody draws a card. The low three cards form one team, and the high three cards form the other. If you need to, you use suits (clubs < diamonds < hearts < spades) to rank the cards. Whoever draws the highest card goes first. Make sure that you pick new teams for each game.

You usually sit around a table like this:

    A    B    C
   -------------
  |             |
   -------------
    D    E    F

where A, B, C are one team and D, E, F are the other. You remove the eights and jokers from a deck of cards and deal them out evenly. Instead of four suits, you now have eight half-suits (2-7 of spades, 9-Ace of diamonds, etc).

Taking a turn

When it’s your turn, you get to ask someone on the opposite team for a card. The rules are that 1) you can’t ask for a card that you have and 2) you must have at least one card in the half-suit that you’re asking for.

If they have the card, they give it to you and you get to take another turn. If they don’t have the card, it becomes their turn.

Claiming a half-suit

If you know that all of the cards in a half-suit are on your side of the table, and you know where they all are, you can claim the half-suit by saying, e.g. “I claim the low spades. I have the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and Joe has the 7.” You don’t actually have to have a card in the half suit to claim it, but the cards must be held by your teammates. If you’re correct, you get the half suit (you lay the cards face up on the table to show everyone that you were right, then you stack them in a pile). If you’re wrong, the other team gets the half suit. One common rule is that if anyone says the word ‘claim’ then they have to claim something. Important note: it does not have to be your turn (or even your team’s turn) in order for you to claim.

The object of the game is to have your team claim more half-suits than the other team. If both teams end up with four half-suits, it’s a tie.

Running out of cards

So, of course, if you run out of cards, you don’t get any more turns. But, you can still claim half-suits for your team. If you run out of cards on your turn, someone else on your team takes over your turn. The decision of who gets the turn is made by the player who last asked a question of the person who just ran out of cards. That player decides whose turn it is without input from the other players.

In fact, discussing strategy during the game is a big no-no. The only strategy-esque questions that you’re allowed to ask are “how many cards do you have,” “what was the last question that was asked,” and “what was the answer?” You should note that, once a new question is asked, you may not ask about the previous question nor its answer. This is the rule that is most tempting to break. Other than those questions, no questions or comments about “history” are allowed.

One final rule: once a team is out of cards, the other team must claim each of the remaining suits without any discussion. In particular, they can’t discuss who will make a claim or which suit to claim first.

A little strategy

Here are some very simple bits of strategy:

If you have a card in a suit and watch someone on your team collect four cards in that suit, you should claim. (When people first play, they often forget about the card that the person started out with.)
Like counting cards in bridge, you shouldn’t try to keep everything in your head at first. You should probably only pay attention to the half suits that you have at first. Unlike bridge, you’ll never be able to keep everything in your head.
Often, you’ll know that you have all of a half-suit on your side of the table, but you won’t know who has what. E.G. suppose it’s clear that A has the 2, 3, 4 and 5 of clubs, and B and C have the 6 and 7. If B asks for the 7 and C asks for the 6, you now know that B has the 6 and C has the 7, so you can claim. Often, this happens to both teams at the same time, and you’ll get runs of “do you have the two of hearts?” “no. do you have the four of spades?” “no. do you have the three of hearts?” “no. do you have the five of spades?” “no. do you have the five of spades?” “CLAIM!”
Once you’re playing with more experienced players, you’ll notice that someone will usually be ‘locked out.’ For example, in the table that I drew above, suppose it’s clear that A has the 2 and 4 of spades, while E has the 3, 5, 6 and 7. If you’re B, you shouldn’t ask E for a card. If he doesn’t have it, he’ll get A’s 2 and 4 and you’ll lose the half suit. Of course, eventually enough time will go by that someone will have to ask A or E a question. Even if you’re only paying attention to half suits that you have, you should be on the lookout for people who are locked out. It’s usually pretty hard for newbies to notice/keep track of who is locked out, so if you have even one or two newbies, they’ll accidentally break lockouts before they really get established.