What Makes Snakes and Hawks Unique

Snakes and Hawks is a custom 60 card trick taking game. In all trick taking games the highest card wins the trick. A trick is defined by who plays the highest valued card of the leading suit. There is no "trump" suit in Snakes and Hawks. The rules, scoring and strategies in all card games are different. This is what makes each one unique and fun to play. Although you may draw some similarities to other games, no other card game will have the same combinations as Snakes and Hawks such as sitting position of the teammate, partners changing during the game, winning the game in multiple ways. These are just a few examples and more are shown in the chart below. Of course it's impossible to know every card game in the world. We will take a look at some of the more popular trick taking card games: Spades, Euchre, Whist, Hearts, Bridge and Snakes and Hawks. If you have ever played 2 or more of these games, you will understand that even though they might star some of the same boxes, the games are very unique and bring a different level of fun and strategy. Snakes and Hawks is a patented game so it is definitely a one of a kind card game. If you enjoy trick taking card games, you will love Snakes and Hawks.

Number of players
	2	3	4	5	6	*notes
Spades			*			There are a lot of variations but usually played with 4 players
Whist			*			There are variations but usually played with 4 players
Euchre	*		*			There are variations but usually played with 4 players
Hearts			*			There are a lot of variations but usually played with 4 players
Bridge			*			There are a lot of variations but usually played with 4 players
Snakes and Hawks	*	*	*	*	*

Snakes and Hawks is the only trick taking game with 2-6 players with teams that can be grouped in their combinations

Partners
	Solo(no teams)	2 teams of 2	2 Teams of 3	3 teams of 2	1 vs 2 or 1 vs 2 teams
Spades		*
Whist		*
Euchre	*	*				The 2 teams of 2 is a variation and isn't usually played this way
Hearts	*	*				The 2 teams of 2 is a variation and isn't usually played this way
Bridge		*
Snakes and Hawks	*	*	*	*	* / *

Although it's impossible to know every card game in the world, none of the popular trick taking games have the same partner formats as Snakes and Hawks

Sitting position of teamate
	Across/Fixed	Varies
Spades	*
Whist	*
Euchre	*
Hearts	*
Bridge	*
Snakes and Hawks		*

Partners can change during game
	No	Yes
Spades	*
Whist	*
Euchre	*
Hearts	*
Bridge	*
Snakes and Hawks		*

Number of Cards in Deck
	32	48	52/54	60
Spades			*
Whist			*
Euchre	*
Hearts			*
Bridge			*
Snakes and Hawks	*	*		*		Deck is modified depending on the number of players

Lowest score wins
	Lowest	Highest
Spades		*
Whist		*
Euchre		*
Hearts	*
Bridge		*
Snakes and Hawks	*

Declaring color/suit to play

Spades	It's always Spades
Whist	bidding
Euchre	bidding
Hearts	It's always hearts
Bridge	bidding
Snakes and Hawks	Dealer declares

Strategy on Winning Tricks

Spades	You want to win whatever you bid
Whist	You want to win all tricks
Euchre	You want to win all tricks
Hearts	You don't want any hearts unless trying to "shoot the moon". This requires you to get all of the hearts and the Queen of Spade in popular variation.
Bridge	You want to win whatever you bid
Snakes and Hawks	You don't want any number cards of the snake color. To win a bonus you only need to win any hawks (-3 each) or to win all 4 snakes (-50).


Type of Deck
	Standard 52	Custom
Spades	*
Whist	*
Euchre	*
Hearts	*
Bridge	*
Snakes and Hawks		*

Trump
	Yes	No
Spades	*
Whist	*	*				You can bid a no trump
Euchre	*
Hearts		*
Bridge	*
Snakes and Hawks		*

Strategy in choosing a partner

Spades	Fixed partner, depends where you sit
Whist	Fixed partner, depends where you sit
Euchre	Fixed partner, depends where you sit
Hearts	usually no partners
Bridge	Fixed partner, depends where you sit
Snakes and Hawks	Partner can be chosen based on skill of capturing all snakes to lower score, or one who doesn't want to capture snakes
	Choose a partner who is close to losing so you can keep them from losing. example: you are in 2nd place and don't want to pick a partner in 1st place
	If you are far enough in the lead you may choose the highest scoring player and sabotage the game by getting points to force them out so you can win
	Choose the person who is last so if they lose, at least you weren't the one with the lowest score

You can win the game without winning tricks
	Yes	No
Spades		*
Whist		*
Euchre		*
Hearts	*
Bridge		*
Snakes and Hawks	*


Scoreboard Could Impact your Strategy

Spades	You don't want to go over the number of points you bid (If you are playing sandbags variation); You can also choose to play blind
Whist	None
Euchre	You may choose to go alone to get more points
Hearts	After shooting the moon you can choose to lower your score or bump everyone else's scores up.
Bridge	Lots but different from all games. I'm not going to list them all
Snakes and Hawks	If my score is very close to another's for winning, I may not choose to try for all the snakes and risk getting stuck with points.
	In a partner game, see the list above.

Level of strategy or just chance by the hand you are dealt: 1 little strategy, 6 lots of strategy

Spades	1	Bidding but you can't really improve a bad hand
Whist	5	This still has a lot of chance with the cards you are dealt but the ability to call a trump or playing with a kitty makes for strategy
Euchre	2	Bidding but you can't really improve a bad hand; only playing with a 5 cards in hand
Hearts	3	You have 3 cards that you might be able to improve your hand with (passing variations) to avoid hearts
Bridge	4	This still has a lot of chance with the cards you are dealt but the ability to call a trump or playing with a kitty makes for strategy
Snakes and Hawks	6	There is no bad hand. It's all in how the player chooses to play thier hand. There is a passing of cards or kiddy to improve your hand

Number of Winners in a Game
	One	Win as Team
Spades		*
Whist		*
Euchre		*
Hearts	*
Bridge		*
Snakes and Hawks	*

Trying to win every trick
	Yes	No
Spades	*
Whist	*
Euchre	*
Hearts	*					If you want to shoot the moon
Bridge	*
Snakes and Hawks		*				You never want the snake color, just all four snakes for the bonus.

*This list is the way we have interpreted the gameplay of other games. There could be a variation that we missed. These aren't official rules for the other games. If you feel we have an error
please email us at [email protected]

What Makes It Unique