Smack Talk
Objective: To win all the cards by being the first to slap each sound in a predetermined word as the cards are played to the center.
For two or more players.
Select a word (e.g., “dog”)
Shuffle the cards (no wild cards needed) and deal all the cards face down among all players. (The hands may not come out evenly.)
The players do not look at the cards but place them face down in a pile in front of them.
Beginning on the dealer’s left, each player quickly lifts a from their pile and places it face up in the center of play. This orderly process continues until the card played is a sound that is part of the pronunciation of the predetermined word (e.g., /d/ in “dog”). The first player to slap their hand down on that card takes not only that card but also all cards underneath it. The player who wins these cards turns them face down, adds them to their pile of cards, and shuffles them to form a new pile that includes the conquered cards. If a player (or players) slap at any card in the center that is not a sound in the designated word, they must give one card, face down, to all other players.
If more than one player slaps at a correct sound, the player whose hand is directly on top of the card wins the pile.
If a player has no more cards left, they can remain in the game by waiting until the next sound is turned. The player can try to slap at the sound to get a new pile. If the player fails to win that next pile or slaps at a sound that is not part of the chosen word, they are out of the game.
Play continues until one player has won all of the cards.
Note: As words can be pronounced differently depending on accent and dialect, there can be more than one way to transcribe a word phonetically. Thus, players should agree in advance on how to resolve questions about acceptable respellings. For example, they might chose to consult Dictionary.com or another dictionary of their choice for standard phonetic transcriptions of any predetermined words.