Spite and malice is a fun-to-play card game. It is also known as Cat and Mouse. It is a patience-style card game just like Solitaire. Here is the complete guide on How to Play Spite and Malice.
Important Information to Know before Starting Spite and Malice
The requirements to play Spite and Malice
Two 52 cards standard decks are needed to play this game. Also, two players are required to play Spite and Malice.
The Ranking Order of cards in Spite and Malice
The ranks of the cards from the lowest to highest are Ace (A), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack (J), Queen (Q). Kings are wild cards in this game. Also, Suits do not matter in Spite and Malice.
The Object in Spite and Malice
The main objective in Spite and Malice is to get rid of all the cards from the Pay-off pile. The player who gets rid of all cards from his Pay-off pile first, wins the game.
How to Determine Dealer and the Manner in which the dealer deals the Card
One of the players is selected as the dealer randomly. The dealer mixes and shuffles both the decks and takes out 4 Aces from that big stack. After that, he places those Aces in the center. These are the starting of the 4 building piles.
After that, the dealer deals 20 cards to each player, face-down. The player places these cards in a pile on the table. These piles are known as Player’s Pay-off Piles. The remaining cards are placed in a stack between both the player’s pay-off piles. This pile is known as the Stockpile.
How to Play Spite and Malice
Both the players start the game by turning up the first card from their pay-off piles. The player with the highest-ranking turned-up card takes the first turn. The first turn of both the players begins by drawing five cards from the stockpile.
After drawing five cards from the stockpile, the player starts moving cards from the five cards in his/her hand and from his/her Pay-off pile to the building piles by following some rules.
Rules of Spite and Malice:
- The building piles must be in a sequence starting with Ace (A) and ending with Queen (Q). So, a player can only move a card to the building pile which is one rank higher than the top card of that building pile.
- Kings (K) are wild cards, so a player can move a King (K) on the top of any other card of the building pile without breaking the sequence.
- As soon as a player completes a building pile by moving a Queen or King(Wild Card) to that pile, the opposing player takes that completed pile and shuffles that pile in the stockpile, and the space of that building pile becomes empty.
- In that blank space, a player can move an Ace and start a new building pile but remember, there should not be more than four building piles at any point of time during the game.
A player completes his turn by discarding a card from his hand to one of his discard pile face-up. A player can have four discard piles maximum. In the following turns the player can move cards from his discard piles to the building piles. The complete set-up of the Spite and Malice game should look like this:
The discard piles of the players are empty at the beginning.
After playing the first turn, the players have to draw enough cards from the stockpile to have five cards in their hands at the starting of each following turn. If during a turn, the player moves all five cards from his/her hand to building piles then he has to immediately draw five cards from the stockpile.
Who wins the Game
The player who gets rid of all the cards from his Pay-off pile first wins the game. If the stockpile runs out of cards before a player wins the game then the game comes to the end and the result is a draw.
Here is a Video Tutorial on How to Play Spite and Malice
These are the Rules for the game Spite and Malice. Play and Enjoy.
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Thank you.