Type | Matching |
---|---|
Players | 2–8 |
Skills | Quick reactions |
Cards | 52 |
Deck | French-suited |
Rank (high→low) | A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 |
Play | Clockwise |
Playing time | 5 minutes |
Chance | Low-Moderate |
Related games | |
Beggar-My-Neighbour, Slapjack |
Snap is a card game in which players deal cards and react quickly to spot pairs of cards of the same rank. Cards are either dealt into separate piles around the table, one per player, or (particularly when played with young children) into a single shared pile. The game may be a simplified version of the older Snip Snap Snorem. [1]
The pack of cards is dealt out among the players in face-down stacks as equally as possible. Play proceeds with the players taking it in turns to remove a card from the top of their stack and place it face-up on a pile alongside it. [1] If two cards on the tops of any of these piles are ever identical (or, if a conventional pack of cards is used, are of the same number), the first player to shout "Snap!" takes both face-up piles and adds them to the bottom of their own stack. The player who accumulates all the cards wins.
A "snap pool" is created from matching stacks if two players shout "Snap!" at the exact same time, or from a player's own stack if they shout "Snap!" in error. [1] Players can shout "Snap pool!" instead of "Snap!" if the matching cards also match the pool, and may take the pool for doing so. (If multiple players call "snap pool", the newly matching cards are also added to the pool.) [2]
Cards can be played onto a single shared stack, and players call "snap!" if two consecutive cards on this pile are identical. [1] This makes the game easier for younger children. In this version, players may race to call "snap" while slapping the central pile, making the game similar to Slapjack. [1]
A variation called "Menagerie" assigns each player an animal, and requires players to shout the name of animal corresponding to the player who laid a matching card in order to win the pile. [3]
The game is often one of the first card games to be taught to children and is often played with special packs of cards featuring popular children's characters from television programmes or recent films.
In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , Harry and his friends sometimes play a game called "Exploding Snap", in which some of the cards will explode at random during the game.
In the Goon Show , Eccles will yell "snap", sometimes during a poker game or while on the telephone.
In Germany and Austria, the game is known as Schnipp-Schnapp or Spitz, pass auf! [4]
Klondike is a card game for one player and the best known and most popular version of the patience or solitaire family, as well as one of the most challenging in widespread play. It has spawned numerous variants including Batsford, Easthaven, King Albert, Thumb and Pouch, Somerset or Usk and Whitehead, as well as the American variants of the games, Agnes and Westcliff. The distinguishing feature of all variants is a triangular layout of the tableau, building in ascending sequence and packing in descending order.
Spit is a card game of the shedding family for two players. It is a form of competitive patience. The game is played until all of a player's cards are gone. It has a close variant known as Speed. Spit appears to have originated in the UK in the 1980s.
Uno, stylized as UNO, is a proprietary American shedding-type card game originally developed in 1971 by Merle Robbins in Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, that housed International Games Inc., a gaming company acquired by Mattel on January 23, 1992.
Cheat is a card game where the players aim to get rid of all of their cards. It is a game of deception, with cards being played face-down and players being permitted to lie about the cards they have played. A challenge is usually made by players calling out the name of the game, and the loser of a challenge has to pick up every card played so far. Cheat is classed as a party game. As with many card games, cheat has an oral tradition and so people are taught the game under different names.
Slapjack, also known as Slaps, is a card game generally played among children. It can often be a child's first introduction to playing cards. The game is a cross between Beggar-My-Neighbour and Egyptian Ratscrew and is also sometimes known as Heart Attack. It is also related to the simpler 'slap' card games often called Snap.
Spite and malice, also known as cat and mouse, is a relatively modern American card game for two or more players. It is a reworking of the late 19th-century Continental game crapette, also known as Russian bank, and is a form of competitive solitaire, with a number of variations that can be played with two or three regular decks of cards.
Perpetual Motion is a Patience game which has the objective of discarding playing cards from the tableau. The name relates to the time-consuming process of the game. It is also called Idiot's Delight or Narcotic.
Gargantua is a patience or solitaire card game that is a version of Klondike using two decks. It is also known as Double Klondike.
Speed is a game for two players of the shedding family of card games, in which players try to get rid of all of their cards first. It is a form of competitive patience similar to Spit.
Kings in the Corner, or King's Corners is a multi-player patience or solitaire-style card game for two to four players using a standard 52-card pack, the aim being to be first to shed all one's hand cards.
Domino, also known as Card Dominoes, Spoof, Sevens, Fan Tan (US) or Parliament (UK), is a card game of the Layout Group of matching card games for 3–8 players in which players aim to shed cards by matching the preceding ones or, if unable, must draw from the stock. Cards are played out to form a layout of sequences going up and down in suit from the agreed starting card. The game is won by the player who is first to empty their hand. The game is a cross between dominoes and patience and is suitable for children who have learnt the various card values.
Leoni's Own is a 19th century American card solitaire played with two decks of playing cards shuffled together. This game may have come from Austria, takes approximately 20 minutes and is described as medium regarding difficulty and also uses an ingenious method called weaving. It is often confused by card game book writers with Weaver's which has a similar mode of play but different rules and terminology.
Duchess of Luynes is a patience or card solitaire game played with two packs of playing cards. It is a member of the Sir Tommy family. A unique feature of this game is the building of the reserve, which is not used until the entire stock runs out.
Go-Stop, also called Godori is a Korean fishing card game played with a Hwatu (화투) deck. The game can be called Matgo (맞고) when only two players are playing.
Chinchón is a matching card game played in Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Cape Verde and other places. It is a close variant of gin rummy, with which it shares the same objective: making sets, groups or runs, of matching cards.
Go Fish or Fish is a card game usually played by two to five players, although it can be played with up to 10 players. It can be played in about 5 to 15 minutes.
James Bond is a matching card game where players compete to see who can assemble piles of four-of-a-kind the fastest.
Travellers is a card game of the patience or card solitaire genre which uses a single card pack of either 52 or 32 playing cards. It is an interesting game based on "an entirely new principle" which Parlett describes as a "rhythmical feature that might be called 'shuttling'", as in the game of Weavers. It should not be confused with the twin-pack patience game, also called Travellers.
Schrum-Schrum or Alte Jungfer is a simple, domino-like, card game from Germany which is suitable for children.
Bettelmann or Tod und Leben is a simple, trick-taking card game for 2 players that is suitable for children. Bettelmann is of German origin and is mentioned as early as 1841. It closely resembles Battle.