Spoons
Spoons is a very competitive card game, and requires players to snatch a spoon before their competitors manage to do so.
For a game of spoons, all you need is a deck of cards, and a number of spoons equal to the number of players, minus one. If there are no spoons available, then you can simply replace the spoon grabbing, with a simple action, like placing your finger on your nose. However, having an item to grab makes judging the winner easier.
Warning: Do NOT replace spoons with other cutlery like knives and forks. This would obviously cause harm to players.
Split the deck into sets of the same number, so you will end up with 13 sets of 4.
Remove a number of sets so that the remaining number is equal to the number of players. E.g., if there are 9 players, then remove 4 sets from the deck, leaving 9 sets remaining.
Shuffle the remaining sets of cards, and deal 4 cards to each player.
Place the spoons in the centre of the playing area, ensuring they can be reached by all players.
Each player may look at their cards once they have been dealt. The aim is to make a set of 4 cards of the same number. To do this, they may choose 1 card to pass to the player on their left. All players must pass a card at the same time, and cannot look at the card they are receiving until all cards have been received.
Once a player makes a set of 4, then they must grab a spoon. Once a person grabs a spoon, all other players must also grab a spoon, even if they haven't made a set. The player who doesn't manage to grab a spoon is out of the game.
The cards of the player who made a set of 4 are removed, to ensure there are an equal number of sets to players, now there is 1 less player. 1 spoon is also removed from the game.
The game continues, repeating all the steps of play, until a winner is declared.
Note: For a more adventurous game, hide the spoons around the room on each round, meaning players must search for a spoon to remain in the game.
There is an alternate version of spoons, where the whole deck is in play. Each person is dealt 5 cards. Each player will then chose to discard a card and pass it on. The dealer would draw from the deck, rather than taking another player's cards, and the last player would create a discard pile, rather than passing their cards on. Players are able to pass on cards as fast as they are able.
This version however, is particularly unfair to players. With players being allowed to work at their own speed, the dealer has the chance to work through the entire deck to search for their desired cards, before other players have had the chance to see but a few cards. Therefore, the version and rules described initially is the recommended version to play.
