Playcard games

Spit: questions and answers

Short answers to the questions people ask most about Spit. Everything else is in the full rules.

How many cards do you need for Spit?
One standard 52-card deck, split in half: 26 cards each. Each player lays out five piles of one to five cards, with only the top card of each face up, and the eleven cards left over are their spit pile.
What can you play in Spit?
Any face-up card from your layout onto either of the two piles in the middle, if it is one rank above or below the top card. Suits do not matter, and aces wrap round: an ace goes on a king or a two.
Do you take turns in Spit?
No. Both players play at the same time, as fast as they can, one card at a time. Whoever gets a card onto a pile first wins that spot, and the other player has to look again.
What happens when neither player can play?
Both of you spit again: turn the top card of your spit pile onto one of the middle piles, and carry on. If one player's spit pile is empty, only the other one spits.
What do you do with an empty pile in your layout?
It is a gap, and you may move a face-up card from another pile into it. That uncovers the card underneath, which may be exactly the card you need.
How does a round of Spit end?
When one player empties all five piles of their layout. They choose one of the middle piles, the other player takes the other one, and both shuffle what they hold and lay out again. The smaller pile is nearly always the right choice.
How do you win Spit?
By running out of cards completely. As you win rounds you hold fewer cards, so your layout gets smaller; when you empty it with nothing left in your spit pile, the game is yours.
What is the difference between Spit and Speed?
Both are two-player races onto two middle piles, one rank up or down. In Speed you play from a hand of five that refills itself, and a game takes a minute or two. In Spit you play from a layout of face-down piles, and the game goes over several rounds.