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.

)[2] Cards can be played onto a single shared stack, and players call "snap!"

In this version, players may race to call "snap" while slapping the central pile, making the game similar to Slapjack.

[3] 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 the Goon Show, Eccles will yell "snap", sometimes during a poker game or while on the telephone.