Learning how to play the snap game is simple. Kids can easily pick up how to play snap as there aren't many rules. Snap only uses one deck of playing cards. If you want to play the snap card game with more than six players, add another deck of cards.
| Players: 2-6 | Type: Matching | Supplies: 1 Deck |
The objective of the snap game is to win all the cards.
Deal the entire deck to the players, one card at a time. Some players may have one more card than others, this is ok. Cards stay face down in a stock pile in front of each player. Players may not look at the cards in their stockpile.
The player left of the dealer goes first. The first player starts the round by flipping the top card of their stockpile
to form a face up waste pile next to their stockpile. Play continues clockwise with each player flipping the top card
from their stock pile onto their waste pile. Only the top card of each waste pile is available for play.
When there are two available cards in matching ranks between all piles, players try to be the first player to call out
“snap.” The first player to call out “snap” for a match takes both waste piles that have the matching cards and adds
them face down to the bottom of their stockpile.
Play then continues with the player to the left of the last player to flip over a card from their stock to their waste.
If a player runs out of cards, they are out of the game.
If two or more players tie when calling out “snap,” combine the waste piles of all tied players and move it to the
middle to form a snap pot pile. When an available card in any player's waste pile matches the top card of the snap pot
pile, the first player to call out “snap pot” wins the snap pot pile and the matching waste pile, adding these piles to
the bottom of their stock.
When flipping up a card, a player should flip the card out to avoid getting the advantage of seeing the card first.
If a player runs out of face down cards, their face up pile will be flipped over to become their new face down pile.
If a player calls out "snap” in error when no top cards match in rank, that player’s waste pile goes into the middle as
a snap pot pile and can be won by a “snap pot” call.
A player can still win the game if there are middle card piles, as long as no other player has cards.
There can be multiple snap pot piles. When forming the snap pot piles, never let the top card of one snap pot pile match
in rank to another snap pot pile.
When a player plays their last card, they have until their next turn to obtain cards through calling “snap” or “snap
pot.” If it comes back to their turn and they don't have a card to play, they are out of the game and their waste pile,
if any, is moved to the middle to become a snap pot pile.
The last player with cards wins snap.