The goal
Be the first to get rid of all 20 of your cards.
Setup
Two players, one 52-card deck without jokers.
The deal
20 cards each: a hand of five and a face-down draw pile of 15. In the middle: two side piles of five at the ends and two single cards face down between them.
A turn
- Both flip a centre card at the same time. There are no turns.
- Play a card one rank higher or lower than either centre card; suits don’t matter.
- Refill your hand from your draw pile, never more than five cards.
- Play with one hand only, one card at a time.
Special cards
- Aces go both ways: on a king or on a 2.
- Both stuck: each turns a side-pile card onto a centre pile at the same time.
- Side piles empty: shuffle the centre piles, except their top cards, into new side piles.
Scoring
- One round: no score needed.
- Match: the winner scores 1 per card the loser has left; play to 25.
Winning
The first player to play their last card wins the round.
House rules
- Spit. A close relative: each player gets 26 cards, lays 15 of them out as a row of five piles (1 to 5 cards, top cards face up) and plays from those instead of a hand.
- Bigger side piles. Each player gets a pile of 15 cards, including the hand of five, and the side piles hold ten cards each.
- Match to 25. The winner of each round scores 1 point for every card the loser has left. First to 25 wins the match.
