How to play Spoons

Spoons is the fast, noisy family card game where everybody passes cards at once, hunting for four of a kind, while a few spoons wait in the middle of the table. There is always one spoon fewer than players. When somebody quietly takes one, the race is on. Play against two to five computer players (Skip, Babs, Ozzie, Lulu and Chet), or with family over a link, each on their own phone, with the spoons on the TV.

The deal

• One standard deck of 52 cards, three to six players. Everyone gets four cards, plus one new card to start, so all of you pass together from the first turn.
• The rest of the deck stays with the dealer. The dealer changes every round, moving to the left.

Passing

• You always hold four cards and one new card. Tap the card you want to give away; it goes face down to the player on your left. On a phone, tap it once to lift it and again to pass it.
• Everyone passes at the same moment. Your new card is the one the player on your right just passed (the dealer's comes from the deck).
• The dealer takes a new card from the deck. The player on the dealer's right has nobody left to pass to, so their cards go on the discard pile. When the deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled into a new deck.

The spoons

• As soon as you have four cards of one number, tap a spoon. You keep your four, and your fifth card passes on.
• Only a player with four of a kind may take the first spoon. If you tap one without them, the game tells you to keep passing.
• Once a spoon is gone, everyone else grabs one as fast as they can, with or without four of a kind. Passing is over.
• The player left without a spoon gets a letter: S, then P, then O, O, N. Spell S-P-O-O-N and you are out, and the next round has one spoon fewer.
• The last player still in wins.

Who is fastest?

Your phone or computer measures how quickly you grab, from the moment you could see the spoon was gone. After every round you see everyone's grab time. The computer players have their own speed: Easy is slow and sometimes misses its own four of a kind, Sharp is quick and never does.

Tips

1. Collect what you hold most of. Two 9s are a better start than one of everything.
2. Pass the loner. The card that matches nothing in your hand should go first.
3. Switch if you are stuck. If the fourth card never comes, someone else may be holding it. Collect something else.
4. Watch the middle. A spoon disappears quietly. Glance at the spoons after every pass.
5. Grab, then look. Once you have four of a kind, take the spoon before you think about anything else.

Questions

How long is a game? About ten minutes with S-P-O-O-N. In Settings you can pick P-I-G for a shorter game, or One miss, where the first player left without a spoon is out right away.

Is there a daily game? No. Spoons depends on how fast your hand is, and that depends on your phone, your mouse and your internet, so a daily ranking would not be fair. Play a quick game anytime instead.

Why does everyone get a fifth card at the start? At a real table, cards trickle around one player at a time. Here everyone passes together, so everyone starts with a card to pass.

How strong are the computers? Easy is slow to grab, often passes the wrong card and sometimes misses its own four of a kind. Normal collects well and usually grabs within a second or two. Sharp is quicker and tracks which numbers have already gone around. Against three Normal players, Normal wins about one game in four and Sharp about two in three.

Can I play with family? Yes. Choose "Play with friends", pick three to six players and send the link, or read out the four-letter table code. Everyone sees only their own cards, the computer fills open seats, and you can put the spoons on a TV.

Do I need an account? No. Your game is saved in this browser, so you can close the page and come back.