Snap is a simple matching game suitable for kids, played with a standard deck of cards or custom Snap decks. Players take turns flipping cards and shouting “Snap!” when they match. The first player to yell “Snap!” takes the discard pile. Mistakes result in penalties, and the game continues until one player remains.
Snap is a matching game, similar to games like Slapjack and Egyptian Rat War, but with simple game play suitable for kids. The goal is to be the last player with all cards left to play. Playing snap requires a standard deck of cards, but custom Snap decks are also available, often featuring characters from popular children’s shows or movies. Two to four players is standard, but the game can be played with multiple players. Larger groups of players may want to build a larger deck by shuffling two or more decks together.
A player deals the cards one at a time into face down piles in front of each player. The stacks may not all be even if the number of people playing the snap game doesn’t fit evenly within the number of cards, but they should be as close as possible. Typically, the player to the dealer’s left starts, or it is common to allow the youngest player to go first. Play then proceeds clockwise.
Players leave their decks of cards face down in front of them. In the simplest version of the snap game, each player quickly flips the top card of their pile face up onto a common discard pile. If the card has the same value as the previously played card, for example the previous player played the four of clubs and the current player played the four of hearts, players must shout the word “Snap!” The first player to yell “Snap!” takes the discard pile, shuffles it and places it on the bottom of their deck of cards. A player who runs out of cards to turn over is out of the game.
Most commonly, each player has their own face-up discard pile. When a player takes his turn, he quickly flips the top card from the pile face up into the discard pile. The first player to notice two face-up discard piles with a common value and yells “Snap!” he takes these two piles, shuffles them, and puts them on the bottom of his pile face down. In this version of the game of snap, a player who runs out of face-down cards shuffles his discard pile and turns it over as a new face-down pile.
In both variations, if two or more players yell “Snap!” at the same time, the contested cards are set aside in a separate face-up pile, called a “snap pot,” with the matching cards on top. If at any time a player plays a card that matches the card on top of the snap pot, the first player to yell “Snap Pot!” he adds both the snap pot and the appropriate discard pile to the bottom of his face-down card deck. If there is a tie in shouting “Snap Pot!” or if another tie occurs before the snap pot is collected, the snap pot simply grows larger to include the contested cards in the new tie. For too many ties in a game, players may be required to grab a physical object while yelling “Snap!”, such as the joker or an index finger labeled “Snap!” on it.
If a player makes a mistake, yelling “Snap!” when there is no match or exchanging “Snap!” and “Snap Pot!”, he must pay a penalty by immediately giving one face-down card to each player still in play to put on the bottom of that player’s face-down pile, starting with the player to his left. If a player runs out of cards, because he doesn’t have enough cards to pay a penalty or loses all his cards due to the “Snap!” of another player, then he is eliminated.
Once all but one player has been eliminated, the remaining player wins. It is sometimes possible for all probable games to be locked in the snap pot; should that happen, the game is a draw between all surviving players. Otherwise, the game continues until there is a winner.
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