Spoons

Objective

Collect four of a kind and take a spoon. The moment anyone does, everyone else grabs too — and whoever is left empty-handed picks up a letter.

Setup

1. Sit in a circle with a table everyone can reach.
2. Put out one spoon fewer than there are players, in the middle, within reach of everybody. Five players, four spoons.
3. Deal four cards to each player from a full 52-card deck. The dealer keeps the rest face down as the stock.

Passing the cards

Everyone plays at once. There are no turns to wait for.

You are always trying to hold four of the same rank. Cards flow around the circle continuously:

1. The dealer takes a card from the stock, looks at their five, and passes one face down to the player on their left.
2. That player picks it up — they now hold five — decides which card they least want, and passes one to their left.
3. This continues round the circle. Everybody is picking up and passing at the same time.
4. The last player in the circle discards to a pile beside them instead of passing back to the dealer.

You may only ever hold five cards at once, and only momentarily. You cannot stockpile a hand while you wait — pass one on as soon as you take one.

Grabbing a spoon

The moment you hold four of a kind, take a spoon. You do not have to announce it, show your hand, or wait.

As soon as one spoon is gone, everybody may grab — with four of a kind or without. There is one spoon fewer than there are players, so somebody ends up with nothing.

The player left without a spoon takes a letter: S, then P, then O, then O, then N. Spell SPOON and you are out. Remove one spoon each time a player is eliminated, so there is always exactly one fewer than the number still playing.

Winning

Gather all the cards, reshuffle, and deal the next round. Play continues until one player is left, and they win.

A full game with five letters takes a while. Many groups shorten it to three letters — P-I-G — or simply play single rounds where whoever misses the spoon loses that round outright.

Short drills on the rules people get wrong. Nothing is saved anywhere but this browser.

House rules & variations

Every table plays a little differently. These are the common variants — agree on them before you deal.

Strategy hints

1. Watch hands, not cards. The tell is almost never someone's face — it is a person who has stopped passing, or whose arm has drifted towards the middle of the table.

2. Pass fast. The quicker cards move, the sooner you see new ones, and speed is worth more than any decision you make about which card to keep.

3. Sit where you can reach. Seat position genuinely matters in this game, and the person furthest from the spoons loses more often than anyone else.

4. Do not stare at the spoons. Everyone else is watching for exactly that, and it triggers a false grab that costs you nothing but tells them everything.

5. If you are dealt two pairs, hold both. Committing early to one rank halves the number of cards that can help you.

6. Take the spoon before you finish counting. If you think you have four of a kind, grab first and verify after — a wrong grab costs nothing, and hesitating costs the round.

Frequently asked