Cards are dealt one at a time, starting with the player to the dealer's left and continuing clockwise until each player has four cards. Each player can then choose to replace any number of cards (zero to four); the appropriate number of replacement cards are dealt to each player in turn, again starting from the dealer's left and proceeding clockwise. The winner of a given hand becomes the dealer for the next hand. In case of a tie, the dealer does not change.

The game is played with a deck of Disney Pooh Snap cards. Since the deck contains only 36 cards and there are no suits, there are some variations from regular poker.

Cards (in order of descending value)

Pooh
Pooh/Tigger
Pooh/Eeyore
Kanga/Roo
Tigger
Piglet
Wol
Rabbit
Eeyore

Hands (in order of decreasing value)

Four of a kind
Three of a kind
Straight
Two pair
Pair-and-a-half
Pair
Half pair

Notes: Four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, and one pair are the same as the regular poker hands. Since there are no suits, there are no flushes, and with only four cards in the hand, there is no full house.

Half pairs occur when you get two cards sharing a common character, thus Pooh with Pooh/Tigger or Pooh/Eeyore, Tigger with Pooh/Tigger, or Eeyore with Pooh/Eeyore. You can only get one half pair; any combination containing two possible half pairs is a higher scoring hand - a pair, two pair, or a straight.

A straight is not a question of having cards in rank order (as in regular poker), but having a chain of common characters across all four cards. There are three such chains:

Tigger-Pooh/Tigger-Pooh-Pooh/Eeyore (highest)
Pooh/Tigger-Pooh-Pooh/Eeyore-Eeyore
Tigger-Pooh/Tigger-Pooh/Eeyore-Eeyore (lowest)

(This ranking is based on the ranking of the hands if straights were not a special scoring hand.)

Variants

Wols Wild: Wols are wild - they can represent any card. Ties are broken by the number of Wols; the fewer Wols, the better the hand.

Lowball: The lowest ranking hand wins. The lowest possible hand is a Piglet-high nothing; the highest hand is four Poohs.

Betting

Betting is optional, as the game is designed for frazzled parents and babysitters. Small candies like M&Ms, or other edibles such as peanuts are ideal. In case of a tie, the pot is held over until the next hand, or someone gets hungry.

Best for three or four players; with five players and a single deck it is possible to run out of cards. Ages 30 and up.

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