Spoons

Full rules

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

Overview

Spoons is a fast, noisy party game. Everyone passes cards around the table at the same time, trying to collect four of a kind – four cards of the same rank, like four 7s. In the middle of the table lie spoons, one fewer than there are players. Whoever has four of a kind grabs a spoon – and then everybody else grabs one too. The player left without a spoon gets a letter of the word S-P-O-O-N.

• Players: 3–13 – most fun with 4–8 (13 only without a draw pile, see Variants).
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and spoons (or other objects that are easy to grab and safe to fight over, like corks or wooden blocks) – one fewer than the number of players.

Setup

1. Put the spoons in the middle of the table, within everyone's reach.
2. Choose a dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals 4 cards to each player, one at a time, face down. Keep your cards hidden.
3. The dealer puts the rest of the deck face down beside them as the draw pile.

Playing

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

1. The dealer takes the top card of the draw pile, so they have 5 cards. They choose one card they don't want and pass it face down to the player on their left.
2. Each player picks up the card passed from the right, then passes one card they don't want to the left.
3. The last player (on the dealer's right) doesn't pass to the dealer but puts their card face down on a discard pile.
4. Keep going as fast as you can. You may never hold more than 5 cards: pass one on before you pick up the next.

If the draw pile runs out, the dealer shuffles the discard pile and uses it as a new draw pile.

Example: Ben holds 9♠ 9♥ 9♦ 2♣. He picks up the card from his right: the 9♣! Four 9s – he reaches for a spoon.

Grabbing the spoons

• When you have four of a kind, take a spoon from the middle. You can do it quietly and hope nobody notices – or make a grab for it.
• The first spoon may only be taken with four of a kind. Anyone who takes it without loses the round.
• As soon as one spoon is gone, everyone may grab a spoon, even without four of a kind.
• Only one spoon per player. The player who ends up without a spoon loses the round.

Stay alert: while you are busy sorting your cards, the spoons might already be disappearing!

Scoring

The loser of each round gets a letter: first an S, then a P, then O, O and N. A player who has spelled SPOON (lost five times) is out of the game. Each time a player drops out, take away one spoon, so there is still one fewer spoon than players.

For the next round, gather all cards, shuffle and deal again with all 52 cards; the deal passes to the left.

Winning the game

Keep playing rounds until only one player is left – they win.

Tips for beginners

• Keep pairs and triples; pass on cards you have only one of.
• Watch the spoons, not only your cards – and watch the other players' hands.
• Bluff: reach towards the spoons without taking one, to make others grab too early. (Only a player with four of a kind may take the first spoon.)
• When you get four of a kind, take your spoon quietly and keep passing cards – the others might not notice.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Without a draw pile: as in Pig, use only one rank per player (all four cards of it) and deal all of them, 4 each. Everyone passes to the left at the same time; nobody draws.
• Out at once: the player without a spoon drops out immediately, instead of collecting letters.
• Longer word: spell S-P-O-O-N-S (six letters) instead.
• Extreme spoons: the spoons are not on the table but somewhere else in the room or the house – so when the first spoon is taken, everyone has to run.
• Other signals: in Pig you touch your nose instead of grabbing a spoon; in Tongue you stick out your tongue.