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How to play Spite and Malice
Two players race to get rid of a pile of 20 cards. You can only get rid of them by building shared stacks in order, ace up to queen, and your opponent is trying to do the same thing on the same stacks. Kings are wild.
What you need
Two ordinary 52-card decks, shuffled together, and two players. Jokers aren't used. Cards rank from low to high: ace, 2, 3 and on up through 10, jack and queen. Kings are wild.
The deal
- Each player gets a pay-off pile of 20 cards, face down. The top card of each is turned face up.
- Each player gets a hand of 5 cards.
- The rest of the cards go face down in the middle as the stock.
Whoever shows the higher pay-off card goes first. If the two cards match, both pay-off piles are shuffled and new top cards are turned up.
The table
| Pile | Whose | What happens there |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-off pile | Each player has one | Only the top card can be played, and only to a centre stack. Empty it to win. |
| Hand | Each player, hidden | Topped back up to 5 at the start of your turn. |
| Side stacks | Up to 4 each, face up | Where you discard to end a turn. Any card can go on any of your side stacks. Only the top card is playable. |
| Centre stacks | Shared, up to 3 | Each starts with an ace and climbs one rank at a time to the queen. |
| Stock | Shared, face down | Where you draw from. |
Your turn, step by step
- Draw from the stock until you hold 5 cards.
- Play to the centre as many cards as you like and can. A card can come from your hand, the top of your pay-off pile, or the top of one of your side stacks. It has to be the next rank the stack needs, so a stack showing 6 takes a 7. An ace starts a new stack, as long as there are fewer than three.
- If you play all five cards from your hand this way, draw five more and keep going.
- End your turn by putting one card from your hand onto one of your side stacks. You can start a new side stack if you have fewer than four.
Some moves are never allowed: a pay-off card can't go to a side stack, a card can't move from one side stack to another, and nothing comes back off a centre stack.
Kings
A king can be played on any centre stack as whatever card that stack needs next. Put a king on a stack showing 9 and it counts as the 10. A king can also start a new stack, standing in for the ace. In our game, a king in the centre shows a small label such as "as 10" so you never have to remember.
Finished stacks
When a centre stack reaches the queen (or a king playing the queen), it's done. The whole stack is shuffled back into the stock, and that space is free for a new stack.
Winning
The first player to play the last card of their pay-off pile wins. If the stock runs out when someone needs to draw, the game ends in a draw. In our testing that's rare: 29 of 1,000 computer-versus-computer games ended that way.
Common house rules
Families have played this game for generations, and the rules drift. Pagat lists several variations. The ones you'll meet most often:
- Longer or shorter pay-off piles. Some play with 25 cards for a longer game. Our Settings offer a short game with 10.
- No limit on centre stacks instead of three.
- Aces must be played as soon as you can.
- Scoring across games: the winner gets 5 points plus 1 for each card left in the other player's pay-off pile.
Ready? Deal a game, or read our Spite and Malice strategy tips first.
Sources
- John McLeod, "Spite and Malice", pagat.com (rules and variations).
- Draw rate measured on 1,000 games between two copies of our computer player, October 2026.