Snap

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Playing a turn
4. Snap!
5. Running out
6. Wrong snap: the snap pool
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Snap is a fast game of watching and reacting for 2–6 players. Everyone turns up cards from their own pile, and as soon as two face-up cards match, the first player to shout "Snap!" wins them. There is almost no luck in who wins a snap – just sharp eyes and a quick voice. The player who ends up with all the cards wins.

• Players: 2–6 (with more it gets unwieldy).
• You need: a standard 52-card deck, no jokers.

Two cards match when they have the same rank – two 6s, two Kings and so on. Suits don't matter: 6♠ and 6♥ match.

Setup

1. Anyone can deal. Shuffle and deal out all the cards one at a time, face down, as evenly as possible. It doesn't matter if some players get one card more.
2. Nobody looks at their cards. Each player keeps them in a neat face-down pile in front of them – this is your stock.

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's left starts; play goes clockwise.

1. On your turn, take the top card of your stock and turn it face up next to your stock. Over time this builds your own face-up pile.
2. Turn the card away from you, so that the other players see its face at the same moment as you (or a moment earlier). No peeking first!
3. Then it's the next player's turn.

Example: Anna turns up a 7♦ onto her face-up pile, Ben a Q♣, Carla a 4♠. Next Anna turns up a J♥ – it covers her 7♦.

Snap!

Whenever the top cards of two face-up piles match, anyone who notices shouts "Snap!". The first one to shout wins both face-up piles and puts them face down under their own stock.

Play then continues with the player to the left of the one who turned the last card.

Example: Carla's face-up pile shows a 9♣. Ben turns up a 9♥. Anna shouts "Snap!" first and takes both piles – Carla's and Ben's – under her stock. Carla and Ben have no face-up pile now; they carry on from their stocks.

Running out

• If your stock is empty when it's your turn, turn your face-up pile over and use it as your new stock.
• If you have no cards at all – no stock and no face-up pile – you are out.

Wrong snap: the snap pool

If you shout "Snap!" when there is no match, your whole face-up pile goes face up into the middle of the table. It becomes a snap pool.

If a player's top card later matches the top card of a snap pool, the first player to shout "Snap pool!" wins that player's face-up pile and the snap pool. If several players make mistakes, there can be several snap pools.

Winning the game

Players drop out as they run out of cards. The last player left with cards wins.

Tips for beginners

• Watch all the face-up piles, not just the newest card – a match can be between any two players.
• Turn your card away from you, quickly and fairly.
• Don't shout too early: a wrong "Snap!" costs you your face-up pile.
• Agree before you start what happens if two players shout at exactly the same time (see Variants).

Variants

These are optional – agree before you start.

• One pile: easier for very young children. Everyone turns their card onto one shared pile in the middle. When two cards in a row match, the first to shout "Snap!" wins the whole pile. A wrong call costs you your top card, face down, to the player who turned the card.
• Snap and slap: with one shared pile, you must also put your hand on the pile when you shout. If several do, the hand at the bottom wins.
• Tie: if two players shout at exactly the same time, the two matching piles go together into the middle as a new snap pool.
• Grab the object: put a small object in the middle. When you call snap, you also have to grab it – whoever has it wins the cards.
• Only the owners: only the two players whose cards match may call snap.
• Animals: each player picks an animal. When two piles match, their owners must call out the other player's animal; whoever does so first wins the other's pile. Some play with animal noises instead.