How to play Spoons

What you need

A standard 52-card deck, and spoons (or anything you can grab) — one fewer than the number of players.

Setup

• Goal: Collect four of a kind, grab a spoon, and avoid spelling S-P-O-O-N-S.
• Put the spoons in the middle of the table, where everyone can reach them: one fewer spoon than there are players.
• Deal 4 cards to each player. The rest of the deck goes face down in front of the dealer.

Passing

• The dealer takes the top card of the deck, keeps it or another card from their hand, and passes one card face down to the player on their left — so everyone always holds 4.
• Everyone else does the same at once: pick up the card passed to you, keep it or swap it into your hand, and pass one card on to your left. There are no turns; play as fast as you like.
• The last player in the circle puts their passed card face down on a discard pile. When the deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled to make a new one.

Grabbing a spoon

• Grab Scramble: Once a player collects four of a kind, they can grab a spoon. This triggers a scramble where ALL other players race to grab any remaining spoon, regardless of their hand!
• Settlement: The player left without a spoon gets the next letter in the word S-P-O-O-N-S. Once you complete the word, you are eliminated. The last remaining player wins.
• Take one spoon away after someone is eliminated, so there is always one fewer than the players still in, and deal again.