Snap Card Game | How to Play Snap: Rules, Instructions and More
What is the Snap card game?
Snap is a fun, fast-paced game where players attempt to identify matching cards before their opponents and ultimately win all the cards in the deck. Be the first to yell “SNAP” when a match is revealed and you add a stack of cards to your deck. But you better be sure there’s a match, because if you incorrectly call Snap and get it wrong, you lose a stack of your cards. The tension between fear and greed keeps players on their toes and makes it a fun game for family game night.
Objective
The goal of Snap is to win all of the cards in the deck. Players earn cards by being the first to identify matching face-up pairs.
Equipment / What you need
Standard 52 card deck
# of players
Snap is played with 2-8 players.
Skills
- Social Skills: Kids learn social skills such as turn taking, communicating with other players, and following rules.
- Math skills: Snap involves basic number matching.
- Attention, Focus, and Memory: Players need to focus and pay close attention on every card flip to identify matches. And a memory of the existing face-up cards also helps players find matches.
Why we like for kids and families
Snap is a fast-paced, fun, high-focus game, but still has rules that are easy enough for all ages (5 and up) to play. Kids just need to be able to identify number matches 2-10.
How to Play the Snap Card Game
1: Grab a deck of playing cards and 2 or more players
All you need to play a game of Snap is a standard deck of playing cards and two or more players.
2: Determine who goes first
The player to the left of the dealer will go first. To determine who deals, have each player draw one card from the deck and the person who draws the highest card deals (Aces are high).
3: Set up the cards by shuffling, dealing, and stacking the cards
Shuffle the cards and deal out the cards face-down, clockwise, starting to the left of the dealer, one at a time. Don’t worry if some players get one more card than the other players.
Players should not look at their cards. Each player put their cards face down, in a single stack in front of them.
4: Play the first turn by flipping the top card
The player left of the dealer flips over their top card from their draw pile and places it face up into a discard pile next to their draw deck. Players should always flip the card away from them so they don’t get an advantage of seeing it first.
5: Rotate clockwise and flip another card
Play proceeds clockwise to the next player, who flips over their top card from their draw pile into their discard pile.
6: Identify matching cards and declare “SNAP”
If any two face-up cards match rank (e.g. Two Jacks), the first player to yell “SNAP” collects all of the cards in the two discard piles of the two matching cards and adds those stacks to the bottom of their draw deck.
In case of a tie on the declared SNAP, the discard piles of the matched cards are combined and go to the center of play and form a “Snap Pot” with the snap card face-up on top.
The Snap Pot will be collected by the first player to declare “Snap Pot” when there is a match between the top card of the Snap Pot and any other face up card. Declaring only “Snap” does not win the Snap Pot and it is only won once the first player correctly says the entire phrase “Snap Pot.”
7: Continue play and some player gain and other lose cards
Continue play to the left of the person who last flipped a card. Some players will gain cards as they are the first to call snap, and others will lose cards when their discard piles go to the other players.
If you run out of cards in your draw deck, flip the cards over from your discard pile, without shuffling them, and form a new draw deck.
Once a player is out of cards in both their draw deck and discard piles, they are out of the game.
8: Declare the winner, who is the person with all of the cards
The last player remaining wins the game. Note: the player may have all of the cards, but they can also win if there are cards in the Snap Pot, but no other players have any cards (and are therefore all out of the game).
Snap Video Tutorial
Snap Card Game Rules
- When flipping cards, turn them away from you so as not to gain an advantage.
- When players run out of draw cards, they flip over discard pile, without shuffling, and that’s their new draw pile.
- If a winner of a snap call cannot be agreed upon, it’s a tie and both discard piles of the players are combined and moved to the center to form a Snap Pot.
- Snap Pots are only won when a card matches the top card of the Snap Pot, and a player yells “Snap Pot.” If they fail to say “Snap Pot” and instead only say “Snap,” the call is still open for other players to call “Snap Pot.”
- If a player mistakely calls “Snap” and there is no match, the player’s discard stack is moved into the middle to form a Snap Pot.
- Multiple Snap pots are possible (e.g. through multiple ties, miscalls, etc). In subsequent rounds, only one Snap Pot is won at a time (they are not combined).
- Players are out when they have no cards remaining (in either their draw deck or discard pile).
- A player wins when no other players have cards. That means they can still win with cards in the Snap Pot.
Snap Variations
Single pile, Slapping version
The primary Snap game in the UK and Australia uses a single, communal discard pile. If a player flips a card that matches the top card in the discard pile, it’s a “snap” and players race to say “snap” and slap the pile. This variation is often also used with younger children because you’re only having to track the top card of a single discard pile instead of many.
Animal names or sounds
There’s a variation of the Snap game called Menagerie where each player is assigned an animal name and instead of yelling “snap” on a match, players must call out the name of the animal assigned to the player that just flipped the matching pair. We’ve also heard of people assigning an animal and the players must make an animal noise of the matching player (or even the animal sounds of both the matching players).
Math skills version
Instead of matching pairs, you can pull out all of the face cards and have it be a “match 10” where the sum of any two cards must equal 10 for a match.
Other rules variations
Last chance: Some house rules allow for a player to get one last chance to get a snap after they’ve run out of cards. While possible, it does add confusion to the game about when a player is actually out (especially when down to two players). In this version they have one opportunity to get back in by winning a snap. If they don’t get it on the first round after losing their cards, they’re out of the game. If that round has a tie that forms a Snap Pot, they get one extra chance at a snap.
Out of draw deck: Some house rules don’t have you automatically convert your discard pile to a draw deck when your draw deck runs out. In this variation, you only pick up your discard pile if you’re down to last card and play in that turn goes all the way back to you.
