Spoons – short and active card game

Object:  To collect 4 cards of one kind, such as kings, tens, or fours and to end up with a spoon.  Results in one loser every game.

Setup:  Place spoons in the center of the table, one fewer than the number of players.  Dealer deals 4 cards to each player, then sets deck face down on his right.

Play:  Dealer picks up next card from the deck and then discards one card from his hand, sliding it facedown to the player on his left.  That player looks at it then passes one card to the player on his left, also sliding it facedown.  Each player will have 4 cards in his hand at all times.  The play continues around the table.  Soon everyone is moving cards back and forth continuously.  The player to the right of the dealer stacks his unwanted cards in a discard pile, to become the playing deck when the original deck is used up.

When a player has 4 cards of one kind, she grabs a spoon either quietly or noisily so that everyone else tries to grab a spoon at once.

With this game you can keep track of the loser – player without a spoon.  You record one letter for each loss to spell out SPOONS to keep score.  Players drop out when they complete the six letters (lose 6 times), and the last one in is the winner.