Guest Author - Lynn Little

What you will need:

Spoons for all players except for one
Three decks of playing cards (although two decks should work just as well)

Object of the game:

To be the first to get four of a kind. Grab a spoon.

Spoons is a fun card game for adults and kids. The rules are simple and game play moves fast. Spoons does not take a special deck or pieces to play. Chances are you already have everything you need to play the game of Spoons.

First, shuffle the two or three playing cards together. The dealer gives each person four cards. Next, the dealer picks up the top card from the deck, decides whether to keep or pass the card. He must discard one card to the player to his left. That player then picks up the card and discards (passes a card to the next player) either that one or a card from his hand. The last person to be handed a card starts a trash pile of his discarded cards.

The dealer chooses another card and so forth. Game play is swift. You have a quick decision to make; keep the card you are handed or pass it. Could this card help you in getting four of a kind? Then there are the spoons as you constantly keep an eye out for someone to grab one. After the first person grabs a spoon, then it is a fight for the rest of them. The one person who does not grab a spoon gets a point. The letters in the word spoons mark points so the first point would be “s.” When a player has spelled the word “spoons,” the player is out of the game. When someone leaves play, reduce the number of spoons by one. The last player left with letters in their scoring wins the game.

Spoons can be a real crowd pleaser because it does not take long to play, the rules are straightforward, and it is fun. Imagine keeping an eye on the spoons and then noticing one has already been swiped. Make your move fast before everyone else catches on. Many folks may try to bluff by reaching for a spoon, which is perfectly okay as long as you do not touch the spoon until you have four of a kind.

There are variations to the rules of Spoons. Some require that for your spoon to count it must touch a body part like the chest or nose. A delay in doing this action could cause you to lose your spoon. If you do not have enough spoons, pencils or other objects can be used instead.