Playcard games

Spoons: questions and answers

Short answers to the questions people ask most about Spoons. Everything else is in the full rules.

How many spoons do you need?
One fewer than the number of players. With five players you put four spoons in the middle, and when a player is knocked out one spoon is taken away, so there is always exactly one player left without.
How many cards do you need for Spoons?
One standard 52-card deck. Everyone gets four cards, and the dealer keeps the rest face down as the stock to draw from. The aim is to collect four cards of the same rank.
How do you pass cards in Spoons?
There are no turns. The dealer draws a card from the stock and passes one card face down to the left; everyone does the same with the card passed to them, always keeping four. The last player in the line puts their card on a discard pile, which becomes the stock again when it runs out.
When can you take a spoon?
When you hold four of a kind. And the moment anyone takes a spoon, everyone else may take one too, with or without four of a kind. The last player to notice is left without.
What happens to the player without a spoon?
They take a letter: S, then P, then O, and so on through SPOONS. A player who spells the whole word is out, and the last player left wins.
How many players can play Spoons?
Three or more, and the more the better. The game here seats three to eight; at a real table it is often played with ten or more, using two decks.
Can you take a spoon sneakily?
Yes, at a real table that is half the game: slide one off quietly and see how long the others take to notice. On screen the number of spoons left is always visible, so the trick is to watch that number rather than your cards.
Is Spoons the same as Pig?
Nearly. Pig is played the same way, but instead of grabbing spoons the player with four of a kind quietly touches their nose, and the last to copy them loses. Tongue is the same again with tongues.