Snap (card game)

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Snap
Players	2-8
Age range	2 and up
Setup time	< 1 minute
Playing time	< 5 minutes
Random chance	None
Skills required	Quick Reactions

Snap is a popular card game in which the object is to lose all the cards.

In the game the entire 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 central pile. If two cards placed consecutively on the pile are identical (or, if a conventional pack of cards is used, are of the same number) then the first player to shout "Snap!" and places his/her hand on the top of the central pile does not need to take the cards. But the person that "snaps" the card last takes in all the cards. The player with the most card loses.

Alternate versions of the game include the person with most cards as the winner, and instead claiming cards by shouting snap.

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. For older children more complex packs exist, where the differences between cards are more subtle and penalties exist for falsely calling Snap.

Gameplay is related to Egyptian Ratscrew.

In China, snap usually refers to the game Slapjack.

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, Harry and his friends sometimes play a game called "Exploding Snap", in which (from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) some of the cards will explode at random during the game.

[edit] Alternate Rule

Upon two cards being placed consecutively on the pile that are identical, players have to touch or slightly slap their head before placing their hand on the top of the pile. Players who do not touch their head cannot claim the pile. If both players fail to touch their head then play continues. Players who touch their head pre-emptively lose the pile to the other player. Applying this rule often adds humor for both players and on-lookers.