Spit Card Game Rules

Spit is a fast two-player card game in which nobody takes turns. Both players play at once, as fast as they can, putting cards one higher or one lower onto two piles in the middle, and the first to get rid of all their cards wins. In the United States it is usually called Speed (some call it Slam), although strictly Speed is a close cousin played from a five-card hand. This guide covers the Spit card game rules, the Speed version, the common variations and what the odds say about your opening position.

Spit Rules at a Glance

How to Set Up Spit

1. Split the pack. Shuffle and give each player 26 cards.
2. Deal your stock piles. In a row in front of you, deal five piles face down: one card, two cards, three, four and five – 15 cards in all. Turn the top card of each pile face up.
3. Keep your spit cards. The 11 cards left over are your spit cards. Hold them face down (or keep them in a pile by your hand) and don’t look at them.

How to Play Spit

1. Spit! When you are both ready, shout “Spit!” together and each turn your top spit card face up into the middle, side by side. These are the two spit piles.
2. Play fast. Using one hand and moving one card at a time, play any face-up card from your stock piles onto either spit pile if it is one higher or one lower. On a 7 you can play a 6 or an 8; on an Ace, a King or a 2.
3. Turn up the next card. When you play the top card of a stock pile, turn the card under it face up.
4. Fill a gap. If one of your five piles is empty, you may move a face-up card from another pile into the space, then turn up the card beneath it. You can never have more than five piles.
5. First touch wins. A card counts as played as soon as it touches the pile. If you both go for the same pile, whoever gets there first keeps the play and the other takes their card back.
6. Stuck? Spit again. When neither of you can play, shout “Spit!” again and each turn a new spit card onto your spit pile.
7. Slap the smaller pile. As soon as one player has played every card from their stock piles, both players slap the spit pile they think is smaller. The quicker hand gets that pile; the other player takes the other pile plus any cards left in their own layout.
8. Deal again. Each player shuffles their cards with any spit cards they still hold and deals a new layout. The player who won the slap usually has fewer cards to get rid of.
9. Win. With fewer than 15 cards you can’t build a full layout: deal what you can into your five piles and stop spitting, so play goes on with a single spit pile. If you clear your layout first while you have no spit cards left, you have no cards at all and win the game.

Speed: the Five-Card-Hand Version

In Speed, you play from a hidden hand instead of a row of piles. Deal two face-down piles of ten spit cards at the ends of the middle row, with two single cards between them, and give each player a face-down stock of 15 cards. Each player picks up five cards from their stock. Turn the two middle cards face up at the same moment, then race to play one-higher or one-lower cards from your hand, drawing back up to five as you go. When neither player can move, turn a new card from each end pile onto the middle piles. When your stock and hand are both empty you win the deal and score one point for every card your opponent still holds; first to an agreed total, such as 25, wins.

Spit Variations

Spit Odds: Your Opening Position

Spit is a game of speed, but the deal still decides how fast you can start. Your five face-up cards and the two spit cards are a random seven cards from the pack:

• You usually have a move straight away: 83% of the time at least one of your five face-up cards fits a spit pile, and 46% of the time two or more do.
• Each card has a 29% chance of fitting one of the two piles, so on average 1.5 of your five can go at once. Against a single pile, any card fits only 15.7% of the time – which is why play speeds up so much when there are two piles to aim at.
• A dead start is rare. Neither player can move after the first spit in 2.7% of deals.
• The Ace matters. Because the Ace links the King and the 2, you have an opening move 83% of the time; without that rule it would be 80%.

Tips for winning at Spit

• Don’t feed your opponent. Before playing a card, check whether it lets them play next. In the layout above, Player A’s 3 on the 2 would hand Player B a home for their 4.
• Watch both piles at once. Most lost plays come from staring at one pile while the other changes.
• Turn up face-down cards early. Every new face-up card is another chance to play, and the face-down cards in your bigger piles are the slowest to clear.
• Use your spaces. Moving a face-up card into an empty space uncovers a new card. Do it as soon as a space appears.
• Look before you slap. The smaller spit pile is your next round’s cards. A quick glance at both is worth more than slapping first and taking the bigger one.
• Play on the floor. Cards fly in Spit. An old pack and plenty of space save arguments.

Where Spit Comes From

Spit is a children’s game passed from player to player rather than written down, and no one knows who invented it. One of the first written descriptions is in Margie Golick’s 1973 book Deal Me In!, which called it a game that seems more familiar to children than to adults and a good one for learning quick responses. It belongs to the family of competitive patience games – solitaire played as a race.

More Card Games

For more card games for two or more, try Spoons, another game of quick reactions, Go Fish, Switch, Cheat or gin rummy.

Another game of fast hands: Snap, where the first to spot two matching cards and shout wins the piles.

Like building down in alternating colours? Try Kings Corner, the slower, take-turns cousin of solitaire.

Like racing to empty a pile? Try Skip-Bo, built on the same idea for two to six players.

Rather take turns than race? Try Spite and Malice, a two-player game of building from Ace to Queen.

Spit for more than two players: Nertz, where everyone races to empty their own pile onto shared foundations.

Spit card game: frequently asked questions