(Players receive cards if they shout "Snap!" when two flipped up cards match.)
Card Game Rules
Snap is a popular children’s card game that requires quick wittedness and agility. The game uses a standard 52 playing card deck and is for two to eight players. The objective of snap is to win all of the cards in the game.
For more classic card games, check out our guides for Old Maid and War.
If you are looking for cards to play Snap with, check out a standard deck here or one of our newest arrivals here.
Set Up
Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be selected. To do so, players must choose a random card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with repeated drawings. The dealer shuffles the deck and passes out all of the cards face down to every player one at a time.
How to Play
Gameplay begins starting with the player left of the dealer and proceeding clockwise. On their turn, players will flip up the top card in their pile and build up a new pile face up in front of them. If two top cards in any flipped-up pile form a pair, any player may shout “Snap!” and receive the cards in both piles. If two or more players shout “Snap!” at the same time and it can’t be judged who said it first, the cards go to the middle of the gameplay area and form the Snap Pot. If the top card from the Snap Pot pairs with any of the players’ top cards, someone may shout “Snap Pot!” and receive all of the cards in the middle. The player who wins all of the cards wins.
If a player flips up all of their cards, the flipped-up pile is shuffled to form a new pile.
If a player loses all of their cards, they are given one chance to win cards in the next opportunity to say Snap. If they do not say snap or someone says it before them, they are out of the game. If they form a Snap Pot on their next opportunity, they are given an additional chance.
For more information on Snap and its rules, check out Wikipedia's article here or Pagat's article here.
Looking for more card games to play? Check out this article:
40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions
About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.
