Speed card game: Spit, Slam and the five-card race

Speed, Spit and Slam are two-player shedding games played at the same time. You do not wait for a turn. You play when you see a legal card, and the slower hand loses even with better cards. Children play it. Adults play it when they want a hand that lasts two minutes.

This page teaches all three names. Speed is the layout with a five-card hand and a draw pile. Spit and Slam are the same idea on a personal row of piles instead of a hand. If someone at the table learned a different one of those names, they are not looking for a different game. They are looking for a different setup of this one.

You need one 52-card deck, a table both players can reach, and an agreement about Ace before the first card moves. Shuffle so the two halves are actually mixed. A dealer who deals an unshuffled deck hands one player a long run and the other a clump of court cards. Use a real mix from the how to shuffle steps, then deal.

Suits are ignored in every version on this page. A 7 of hearts plays on a 6 of clubs or an 8 of spades. You may play on either center stack. You may not play a card that matches the center rank. A 7 on a 7 is illegal unless you have agreed a same-rank house rule, which most tables do not use.

The games sit in the games of chance hub next to other short two-player card games. Speed is almost entirely alertness. The only decision is which center stack to feed when both are open.

This is the layout to use when someone says "let's play Speed" and means the five-card hand.

Deal the 52 cards like this:

1. Two face-down piles of 10 in the center. These are the replacement piles for the center stacks. Put them on the outer side of the play area.
2. Two single cards face up between those piles. These are the two center stacks. Play happens on these face-up cards.
3. A face-down stock of 15 in front of each player.

Each player draws 5 cards from their own stock into a hand. The hand can be fanned so only you see the faces, or held in a small packet. Ten cards remain in each stock. Check the count: 10 + 10 + 2 + 15 + 15 = 52.

A simpler kitchen deal skips the two piles of 10 and splits the leftover cards after the hands and the two starter cards. Five plus five plus two is 12, so 40 cards remain, 20 in each draw pile. That version is common and it is still Speed. The piles-of-10 version has a separate supply for refreshing the center. The 20-card version refreshes the center from each player's own draw pile. Say which one you dealt.

What you may play

A card in your hand plays on a center stack when its rank is one higher or one lower than the top card.

• Center shows 9. You may play 8 or 10.
• Center shows 2. You may play Ace or 3, if Ace wraps.
• Center shows King. You may play Queen, and you may play Ace if you are wrapping.

Wrapping is the usual family rule: Ace sits next to both King and 2, so the ranks form a loop. Some tables treat Ace as high only, next to King and not next to 2, or as low only. Agree before the deal. A mid-hand argument about Ace is how this game stops being fast.

You choose either center stack. You do not have to play a card just because it fits. In practice you play the instant you see it, because your opponent will.

There is no starter call beyond "go," once both hands are up and both center cards are visible. Then both players play at the same time.

When you play a card from your hand onto a center stack, you immediately draw the top card of your stock into the gap. The hand stays at 5 for as long as the stock has cards. That draw is the replacement. Players slap it down into the hand so the next play is not delayed by hunting. If you play two cards in a row, you draw two replacements, in order.

You may play only from the hand, not from the stock, until the stock is gone. After the stock is empty, you play out whatever remains in the hand. You do not refill from the center and you do not take cards back from a stack you already played on.

When both players are stuck

If neither hand has a card one away from either center top, the deal is jammed. Do not sit there. Break it:

• In the piles-of-10 layout, each player flips the top card of one face-down pile of 10 onto one center stack. That is the slap replacement. The new tops reopen the race.
• In the 20-card layout, each player flips the next card of their own draw pile onto one center stack at the same moment.

If you both reach for the same stack, the card that landed first stays. The other card returns to the hand that played it. Calling "mine" does not count. The card on the pile counts.

When the face-down piles of 10 run out, shuffle the cards buried under the two current tops and deal them back into two face-down piles. Leave the two tops in place. Some tables skip that reshuffle and only refresh from the personal stocks. Agree the jam-break before you start.

Keep the hand hidden. A face-up hand on the table is a different, easier game.

The player who empties both the stock and the hand first wins the deal. That is the rule to use when you want one race and a winner. Announce it as soon as the last card hits a center stack. Cards left in the other player's hand and stock are simply lost.

A written scoring version, used when you want a longer match, gives the winner of the deal 1 point for each card the opponent still holds in hand and stock. First player to an agreed total, often 25, wins the match. A player who sheds while the opponent still holds 12 cards banks 12. Play another deal from a fresh shuffle.

Do not mix the two win conditions. Either the shed wins the game, or the shed wins points.

If both last cards land together and you cannot agree who was first, redeal. A foul is a card that is not one rank away, or a replacement drawn before the play. Put the illegal card back. A second foul can cost the deal if you agreed that penalty. There is no bid and no score during the race except the race itself.

Compared with a turn-based shed such as casino war, Speed asks for hands. War compares one card and waits. Speed never waits.

Spit and Slam use the same one-up, one-down rule and the same two center stacks. The personal cards are a tableau instead of a hand of 5.

Deal 26 cards to each player. Each player makes five piles in a row:

That is 15 cards. The other 11 are your stock, face down. Both players flip the top stock card at the same moment. Those two cards are the center stacks. Then you race.

You play the face-up top of any of your five piles onto either center stack, again one rank higher or lower. When you play a top card, flip the face-down card under it, if there is one. You have no hand to refill. The five tops are your only plays.

When neither player can move, both call "Spit" or "Slam" and flip another stock card onto a center stack. If the stock is empty and you are still stuck, shuffle one center stack into a new stock and flip a fresh center card. Some Slam tables instead race to slap the smaller center pile and take it as the next stock. That slap is a house rule. It is not required for Speed, and it is not required for this tableau. The player who slaps the wrong pile takes the larger one, or you redeal, depending on what you agreed.

The first player to clear all five piles wins the deal. In a multi-deal match, the other player picks up both center stacks, you each deal a new tableau from the cards you still hold, and the player left with every card loses. The player who runs out of cards wins the match.

Same family. Different shape. One rank up or down, no turns, first clear layout or first empty hand wins the deal.

Speed arguments are layout arguments. Settle this list in one pass:

• Hand of 5, or five tableau piles. Both are on this page. They are not played at the same time.
• Center refresh. Side piles of 10, or a flip from each personal stock.
• Ace. Wraps to both King and 2, or it does not.
• Win condition. First shed takes the game, or first to 25 points, at 1 point per card the loser still holds.
• Same-rank plays. Off, unless you both want 7 on 7.
• Slap-the-smaller-pile. Only if you are playing that Slam variant. Otherwise a jam is a simultaneous flip, not a race to touch a pile.

None of these versions has a house percentage. If you stake the match, keep it small and play only if both people are 18 or older, or the legal age where you live. Limits are on the responsible gambling page.

For a two-player game with turns and a trump suit, euchre is the opposite pace. Count the deck back to 52 before you box it. A card under a sleeve makes the next race 51 cards.

See also Egyptian Ratscrew, slapjack and palace.