How to Play

A fast party card game for 3 to 13 players in which everyone passes cards simultaneously until someone collects four of a kind and silently touches their nose; the last player to notice is dubbed the Pig.

Pig is a raucous party game for 3 to 13 players in which everyone passes cards simultaneously around the circle, racing to collect four cards of the same rank. The moment you complete your quartet you quietly touch your nose; every other player must do the same the instant they notice, and the last player still passing cards is the Pig for that round. Simple, fast, and almost entirely about watching faces rather than cards, Pig is first recorded in 1911 (described then as 'a rather noisy game') and remains one of the easiest card games for mixed-age groups to pick up.

Players

3 to 13 players, best with 4 to 7. All players play simultaneously; there is no dealer turn order because cards move in continuous rotation. Play lasts about 2 to 5 minutes per round.

Card Deck

One standard 52-card French-suited pack with jokers removed. Before dealing, pull exactly one complete rank (all four cards of one value) per player: 3 players use 3 ranks (12 cards), 4 players use 4 ranks (16 cards), and so on up to 13 players using the full pack. Any ranks may be chosen; Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks are traditional.

Objective

Be the first player to collect four cards of the same rank (a 'book') and touch your nose without being the last person to do so. Across multiple rounds, avoid becoming the Pig until only one player remains.

Setup and Deal

1. Select one complete rank per player from the deck (for 5 players, take all four Aces, all four Kings, all four Queens, all four Jacks, and all four 10s for a 20-card pack).
2. Shuffle these cards thoroughly together.
3. Deal 4 cards face down to each player. No draw pile or discard pile is used in the classic version.
4. Players arrange their 4 cards as a concealed hand.

Gameplay

1. Simultaneous passing. On a shared count (or continuously), every player picks one unwanted card from their hand and places it face down in front of the player on their left, at the same time picking up whatever card has been placed in front of them by the player on their right. Your hand always contains exactly 4 cards.
2. Keep passing steadily. There are no turns; the whole circle moves at roughly the same speed. Aim to pass and pick up about once every two or three seconds.
3. Completing a book. The instant you hold four cards of the same rank, stop passing and silently touch your nose with one finger.
4. The nose-touch chain. As soon as any other player notices someone touching their nose, they must stop passing and touch their own nose too, without comment.
5. The Pig. The last player still passing cards (the one who was last to notice the nose-touch chain) is the Pig for this round. Some groups require every other player to announce 'Pig!' in unison when the loser is identified.
6. Round end. Gather all cards. For the next round remove one complete rank from the deck (so the pack shrinks in step with player count) and redeal; otherwise shuffle and redeal with the same cards if you are scoring across multiple rounds instead of eliminating.

Scoring

1. Elimination format (classic). The player who becomes the Pig sits out the next round. Remove one set of four cards from the deck so the remaining players each still start with 4 cards. Continue until only one player has not been eliminated; that player wins.
2. Letter format (P-I-G). Play without elimination. Each time you become the Pig you earn one letter: first P, then I, then G. Once you have spelled PIG, you are out. Last player still in (or first to three letters in reverse for survivor scoring) wins.
3. Round-tally format. Play a fixed number of rounds (5, 7, or 10). The player who was Pig the fewest times wins; ties share the win.

Winning

In the elimination format, the last player who has not been dubbed Pig is the winner. In the P-I-G letter format, the last player who has not spelled out PIG wins. In a fixed-round tally, the player with the fewest Pig rounds across the session wins.

Common Variations

• Spoons: Place one fewer spoon in the centre of the table than there are players. When someone completes a book they grab a spoon; everyone else must then also grab a spoon. The player left without one is the round loser (same letter format, typically S-P-O-O-N-S).
• Donkey: Identical to Spoons but uses the letters D-O-N-K-E-Y and spoons can be any shared object (coins, sugar packets, ice cubes).
• Silent P-I-G: Forbid any speech at all. Players must rely purely on peripheral vision; making noise earns an extra letter.
• Bluff nose-touch: A player may feint a nose touch to trick others into touching early; wrongly accusing earns the accuser a letter. Adds bluffing layer.
• Full Deck Stockpile: Use the complete 52-card deck. Deal 4 cards to each player; the dealer holds the rest as a stockpile, passes one card left and draws a replacement from the top of the stock instead of receiving from the right. When the stock is exhausted, the discard pile (cards dropped by the player to the dealer's right) is shuffled to refresh it. Introduces more rank variety and slows down repeated draws.

Tips and Strategy

• Decide fast which rank to collect and commit to it early; constantly switching targets costs you tempo against decisive players.
• Pass cards smoothly and rhythmically even when you have a completed book, for a half-second, so your pause is not instantly telegraphed. Many players betray themselves by freezing the moment they lock the quartet.
• Watch peripheral vision of hands, not faces. Players signal with shoulders and elbows before they signal with noses.
• Against very large groups (8 or more), consider collecting a middle rank rather than a showpiece like Aces; others are more likely to pass away their middling cards quickly.
• In Spoons or Donkey, reach for a spoon decisively the moment you see any tension; hesitation is the main cause of losing.

Glossary

• Book (or Set, or Quartet): Four cards of the same rank held by one player. Completing a book is the trigger to touch your nose.
• Nose-touch: The silent signal that you have completed a book; others must copy it as soon as they notice.
• Pig: The player who is last to notice a nose-touch and the round's loser.
• P-I-G: The letter-scoring variant in which each lost round earns you one letter of the word PIG; spelling it out eliminates you.
• Passing rotation: The continuous simultaneous pass of one card to the left (and pickup from the right) that every player performs throughout the round.
• Spoons / Donkey: Object-grabbing variants in which the physical scramble for a central object replaces the silent nose-touch.