Spoons strategy

Choose a rank early

With four cards and four ranks to aim for, you cannot collect everything. Pick the rank you already have two of and pass everything else. Changing your mind every time a new card arrives is the slowest way to four of a kind.

If you are dealt four different cards, keep the first pair that turns up and commit to it.

Pass fast

The cards come to you only as fast as the player before you passes them, and they reach you only if you keep yours moving. Holding a fifth card while you think slows the whole line, and slows the cards on their way to you too.

Decide what you are collecting before the card arrives, so the only question is whether it is that rank.

Watch the spoons, not your cards

Most players lose because they are looking at their hand when somebody else grabs. The moment the number of spoons in the middle drops, take one, whatever you are holding.

On screen there is no hand to see sneaking towards the middle: watch the counter of spoons left, and the moment it changes, go.

Read the line

Notice what is passed to you. If the player before you keeps passing kings, nobody behind them is collecting kings, and you can. If they never pass a seven, someone upstream is collecting sevens.

At the end of the line, you see every card that nobody wanted. That is the best information at the table and the worst seat for speed.

Grab the moment you can

When you hit four of a kind, take a spoon straight away. There is no bonus for waiting, and any delay gives someone else time to reach their own four.

If you have one letter left, play for safety: watch the counter even more and give up chasing a rank, because staying in matters more than winning a round.