SNOOZER

OBJECTIVE OF SNOOZER: The objective of Snoozer is to be the first player or team to reach 100 points.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 to 7 Players

MATERIALS: A 52-card deck plus one joker, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game

AUDIENCE: 10+

OVERVIEW OF SNOOZER

Snoozer is a trick-taking card game for 4 to 7 players. If playing with 4 players, they can play as individuals or will split into two partnerships of 2 players. Teammates will sit opposite each other.

The goal of the game is to reach 100 points. Players do this by bidding on how many tricks they think they can win in the round and winning certain point cards.

Snoozer is also known as Dom Pedro.

SETUP

The first dealer is chosen at random and passes to the left after each round. The dealer will shuffle the deck and deal each player a hand of 6 cards, 3 cards at a time. Then the bidding round can begin.

There are some versions of the game that have the entire deck being dealt out as evenly as possible. They will then discard down to 6 after the bid is made and trumps are called.

Card Rankings and Values

For Snoozer, the trump can change each round.

The ranking for the trump suit is Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and joker (low). The other suits follow the same ranking of Ace (high). King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (low).

Snoozer also assigns certain cards with values for scoring. The only cards worth points are of the trump suit. The Ace of trump is worth 1 point, the jack of trump is worth 1 point, the ten of trump is worth 1 point, the 9 of trumps is worth 9 points, the five of trump is worth 5 points, the 3 of trump is worth 3 points, the 2 of trumps is worth 1 point, and the joker is worth 15 points.

BIDDING

The bidding starts with the player to the dealer’s left. They can either bid or pass. If bidding a player will need to bid higher than the previous bid. The bid has no minimum but has a maximum of 36. Players are bidding for the chance to call the trump suit.

The dealer can always call and be the winner of the bid.

The winner of the bid will call the trump suit.

GAMEPLAY

Each team is trying to win the tricks containing the point cards. The team that won the bid will also need to win at least the number of points they bid to score their point cards.

The player who won the bidding round will start the game and from them players clockwise in order. The first trick must be led by a trump, but tricks moving forward may be led by any suit. All following players must follow suit if a trump is lead if they can, if not they may play any card. if a non-trump is led then a player may follow suit or trump. If they can do neither they may play any card to the trick.

The highest trump always wins the trick. if no trumps were played it is won by the highest card of the suit lead. The winner leads to the next trick.

SCORING

Once all tricks have been played out players will score their tricks. The players who did not win the bid will score any points acquired through cards regardless of whether the other team completed their bid.

If the bidding team completes their bid, they will also score all points won during tricks, but if they did not complete their bid, they will lose points equal to those won in tricks.

The point cards are also scored in a certain order to determine the winner when applicable. The order is Ace, 2, jack, 10, 3, 5, 9, joker.

END OF GAME

Teams keep cumulative scores over several rounds and the first team to 100 points wins the game.

If both teams would reach the 100 points needed in the same round, then the team that reaches it first using the scoring order above is the winner.

Amber Crook
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