Snap

2–8 players (2 is the classic game).

A standard 52-card deck is shuffled and dealt out face-down, one card at a time, into a personal deck per player. With 5–8 players the split is uneven; earlier seats simply get the extra cards.

The center pile starts empty.

One seat at a time is due to flip. That player turns the top card of their deck face-up onto the center pile.

The flip then passes to the next seat clockwise that still has cards.

At any moment that the top two cards of the center pile share a rank, a Snap window opens and every player still holding cards may call Snap.

Play — flip your top card onto the center pile. Only the seat due to flip may do this, and only while no Snap window is open.

Snap — claim the center pile. Available to every card-holding player while a window is open, and also to the seat due to flip (which is how a mistaken Snap remains possible).

Correct Snap — the top two cards match. You take the entire center pile face-down under your own deck, and you flip the next card.

False Snap — you called Snap with no match showing. You hand one card face-down to the next player clockwise, and you are frozen for 1.5 seconds so everyone else still gets a fair shot at the next race.

The very first card flipped can never be a Snap — there is nothing beneath it to match.

If a match lands and nobody else is holding cards, the player who flipped takes the pile.

Running out of cards puts you out of the game. Giving away your last card on a false Snap eliminates you.