How to play Snip Snap Snorum
The rules of Snip Snap Snorum, and a game played out one move at a time.
The rules are below, and there are not many of them. If you would rather see it than read it, press play: we deal a short game on the real table and stop on every move to say what happened, what you could do, and which rule just did the work.
Press play and we deal a short game of Snip Snap Snorum on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
The deal
One standard pack, no jokers, two to four of you. Every card is dealt, one at a time, so at two you hold twenty six, at three it splits eighteen, seventeen, seventeen, and at four it is thirteen each. Nothing is left over and nothing is ever drawn.
Your hand is sorted by suit and rank for you. Nobody sees anyone else’s cards, only how many they have left. At the table you make, you lead first. The computer table always deals four hands.
A run, and who plays next
The leader puts down any card and calls Snip. After that there is exactly one card that can be played: the next one up in the same suit. Whoever holds it plays it, and that is how the turn moves. It is not your turn because you sit next; it is your turn because you have the card.
The calls go Snip, Snap, Snorum, High cockalorum, Jingo, one per card. Often the next card is in your own hand, and then you just keep going.
Three ways a run stops
A run stops at its fifth card, the Jingo. It stops at a king, because ace is low and nothing comes after the king. And it stops when the card it needs was already played in an earlier run.
However it stops, the person who played its last card leads the next run, with anything they like. A run that stops early still ends on Jingo, called over whatever card killed it.
That makes the lead the one real choice in the game. Lead from a suit where you hold the next few cards and you shed three, four, five at once. A king makes a fine lead too: it stops on the spot and the lead comes back to you.
How it ends
The first one to play their last card wins, right there, even halfway up a run. Every card still held by anyone else is a point to the winner and a point against whoever is holding it.
That is the game. One hand, no running total, nothing carried over. Want another? Open a new table and send the link again.