Pig

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Playing
4. Touch your nose
5. Scoring
6. Winning the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Pig is a fast, noisy party game for children and grown-ups. Everyone passes cards around the circle at the same time, trying to collect four of a kind – four cards of the same rank, like four Queens. Whoever gets them quietly touches their nose. As soon as you notice, touch yours too: the last player to do so loses the round and gets a letter of the word P-I-G.

• Players: 3–13 – most fun with 4–7.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.

Setup

1. Pick the cards: you need one rank per player – all four cards of that rank. Take the Aces, Kings, Queens and so on until you have one rank for each player, and put the rest of the deck away.

Example: with 5 players, use all Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks and 10s – 20 cards.

2. Deal: one player shuffles and deals the cards face down, one at a time, until everyone has 4 cards.
3. Everyone sits in a circle and picks up their cards, hiding them from the others.

Playing

There are no turns – everyone plays at the same time, as fast as they like.

1. Choose one card you don't want and put it face down on the table to your left.
2. Then pick up the card your right-hand neighbour has put down for you.
3. Keep doing this again and again.

Two rules keep it fair:

• Pass one card at a time.
• Never hold more than four cards: you must put a card down on your left before you pick up the new one from your right.

Example: Anna holds 7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣. She passes the K♣ to her left and picks up the card from her right: the 7♣! She has four 7s.

Touch your nose

• When you have four of a kind, don't say anything. Quietly put your finger on the tip of your nose and keep it there.
• As soon as anyone touches their nose, everyone else may touch theirs too – even without four of a kind.
• Only the first touch must be genuine: if you touch your nose first without four of a kind, you lose the round instead of the last player.
• The last player to touch their nose loses the round. Keep your eyes open: it's surprising how long some players keep staring at their cards while everyone else is already touching their nose!

Scoring

The loser of each round gets a letter: first a P, then an I, then a G. A player who has spelled PIG (lost three times) is out of the game. Take away one rank (four cards) from the deck each time a player drops out, so that there is still one rank per player. For each new round, gather all cards, shuffle and deal again.

For fun, some groups add: nobody may talk to a PIG. Anyone who does becomes a PIG themselves – so the players who are out try to get the others talking.

Winning the game

Keep playing rounds until only two players are left – they win together.

Tips for beginners

• Keep pairs and triples; pass on the cards you have only one of.
• Watch what your left-hand neighbour keeps: if the card you pass never comes back, they collect that rank.
• Don't only look at your cards – glance at the others' hands and faces from time to time.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Out at once: the loser drops out immediately instead of collecting letters.
• With a stock: use the whole deck. After dealing 4 each, the rest is a face-down stock to the dealer's right. The dealer draws from the stock instead of from a neighbour; the player to the dealer's right puts cards onto a discard pile. When the stock runs out, turn the discard pile over as a new stock. The winner of each round deals next.
• Five or three cards: deal 5 cards each and try to get four of a kind among them, or deal 3 and collect three of a kind.
• Spoons: put spoons in the middle – one fewer than there are players. Instead of touching your nose, grab a spoon; once one is gone, everyone grabs. Whoever gets no spoon loses the round (and a letter of S-P-O-O-N-S).
• Tongue: stick out your tongue instead of touching your nose.
• Passing in turn (Vatra, Feuer): instead of everyone passing at once, cards go round one at a time. The player to the dealer's left starts by passing a card to the left; whoever receives a card keeps it and passes another, or passes it straight on. Whoever completes four of a kind slams their cards on the table and shouts "Fire!" (Vatra! in Bosnia, Feuer! in Germany); the last to do the same loses.
• Penalty pile (Kilo de merde, France): choose the ranks for the hands so that the Aces and 7s are left over (Kings, Queens, Jacks, then 2s, 3s …), and put the unused cards face down in the middle. Instead of touching your nose, put your hand on the pile. The last to do so draws a card from it and lays it face up in front of them: its value is their "kilos" (an Ace counts 100). A 7 drawn later "flushes": put all your kilos back under the pile (as your first card, a 7 simply counts 7). Nobody drops out; after the agreed number of rounds, the fewest kilos wins.