Snap Call Poker Definition

admin 4/10/2022

Snap
Related games
Snap played with a single pile: two eights in a row is a 'snap'
Type	Matching
Players	2–8
Skills required	Quick reactions
Cards	52
Deck	French-suited
Play	Clockwise
Card rank (highest first)	A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Playing time	5 minutes
Random chance	Low-Moderate
Beggar-My-Neighbour, Slapjack

Snap is a popular card game in which players deal cards and react quickly to spot pairs of cards of the same rank. Cards are either dealt into separate piles around the table, one per player, or (particularly when played with young children) into a single shared pile.

Gameplay is related to Egyptian Ratscrew. In China, Snap usually refers to the game Slapjack.

The game[edit]

Cold Call A cold call is calling a raise after there was a bet and one or more raises. A player cold calls when he calls more than one bet at once. A cold call occurs in Texas Hold'em when a player raises in a pre-flop round and another player calls it. The donkey has long been a symbol of stubbornness and ignorance or limited intelligence. In the world of poker, these traits can easily play out at the poker table. Typical plays that can attract the label as donkey moves are calling every hand, continuing to call while holding poor cards, and going all-in on a poor hand.

The pack of cards is dealt out among the players in face-down stacks as equally as possible. Play proceeds with the players taking it in turns to remove a card from the top of their stack and place it face-up on a pile alongside it.^[1] If two cards on the tops of any of these piles are ever identical (or, if a conventional pack of cards is used, are of the same number), the first player to shout 'Snap!' takes both face-up piles and adds them to the bottom of their own stack. The player who accumulates all the cards wins.

A 'snap pool' is created from matching stacks if two players shout 'Snap!' at the exact same time, or from a player's own stack if they shout 'Snap!' in error.^[1] Players can shout 'Snap pool!' instead of 'Snap!' if the matching cards also match the pool, and may take the pool for doing so. (If multiple players call 'snap pool', the newly matching cards are also added to the pool.)^[2]

A card game of bluff and skill in which bets are made on the hands dealt, the highest-ranking hand (containing the most valuable combinations of sequences and sets of cards) winning the pool. Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. Literally, to press the tip of one's thumb and middle finger together and then forcefully slide them apart, producing a snapping sound, often used to attract someone's attention. Tommy, please don't snap your fingers like that at me.

Variations[edit]

Cards can be played onto a single shared stack, and players call 'snap!' if two consecutive cards on this pile are identical.^[1] This makes the game easier for younger children. In this version, players may race to call 'snap' while slapping the central pile, making the game similar to Slapjack.^[1]

The game is often one of the first card games to be taught to children and is often played with special packs of cards featuring popular children's characters from television programmes or recent films.

In popular culture[edit]

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry and his friends sometimes play a game called 'Exploding Snap', in which some of the cards will explode at random during the game.

In the Goon Show, Eccles will yell 'snap', sometimes during a poker game or while on the telephone.

In other cultures[edit]

In Germany and Austria, the game is known as Schnipp-Schnapp or Spitz, pass auf!^[3]

References[edit]

^ ^a^b^c^d'Rules of Card Games: Snap'. www.pagat.com.
^Baierl, Jesse. 'Snap Card Game Rules & Instructions'. Classic Games and Puzzles. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
^Gööck 1967, p. 29. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGööck1967 (help)

Literature[edit]