How to play Spit

Learn the rules to the playing card game Spit quickly and concisely – This video has no distractions, just the rules. While there are many variations to Spit, this video covers the original base rules.

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RULES:
The objective of this 2-player card game is to be the first player to get rid of all of your cards. Pick a dealer who shuffles a standard 52 card deck of playing cards and then deals out all the cards to the players, one at a time. Each player takes their cards and deals them out into 5 stock piles with the first stock pike containing 1 card, the 2nd stock pile containing 2 cards, the 3rd three, the 4th four, and the 5th five. Flip over the top card of each stock pile face up. Each player places their remaining cards face down next to them to form their spit cards, which they may not look at. Once both players are ready, they each say “spit” and simultaneously flip the top card of their spit cards, face up to the center of the table between them, forming 2 separate spit piles.

There are no turns, all play happens simultaneously. Using only one hand, and moving only one card at a time, you can play your face up cards from the top of your stock piles onto either spit pile. To do so, the card’s rank must be either 1 higher or 1 lower than the top visible card. Suite and color do not matter. An ace is higher than a king and lower than a 2, so either a king or 2 may be played on an ace. When a stock pile’s top card is face-down, flip that card face up. If you have an empty stock pile, you may move any face up card into that empty space. You can never have more than five stock piles.

Once you completely place a card in a move, you may not undo that play and you must play if possible. If no player can make a play, then both players say “spit” and simultaneously flip 1 card from their spit cards face up onto their originally played spit pile and play continues. Once one player has played all their stock cards, they slap either spit pile with their hand and the round ends. That slapping player collects the cards they slapped, regardless of how few cards there might be, and add them to their spit cards while their opponent adds the other spit pile and their remaining stock piles to their spit cards.

Both players shuffle their cards and deal out another round the same as before. Once one player has fewer than 15 cards, that player will not be able to deal a complete set of stock piles. In this case, that player deals the cards into five stock piles as far as they will go, and turns over the top card of each. However, that player can no longer spit, so there will only be one spit pile, started by the other player. Then, when that single spit pile is slapped, the other player will collect those cards. The first player to completely run out of cards is the winner.