Spite and Malice: Instructions
Spite and Malice is a card game for two players. The game is played with two decks, each with 52 cards. The order of the cards is as follows: A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q. Kings are Jokers in the game.
The objective is to clear your own pay-off pile of cards before your opponent.
Each player receives five hand cards at the start of the game (2c). Depending on what is agreed before the game, 5 – 20 cards are in each of the pay-off piles (2b + 1b). Only the top card faces upwards. The remaining cards are placed in the stock in the middle of the table (4a).
 | 1a. Opponent’s help stacks 1b. Opponent’s pay-off pile 2a. Own help stacks 2b. Own pay-off pile 2c. Own hand cards 3a. Centre stacks for both players 4a. Stock |
The player with the highest card in the pay-off pile begins the game. To discard, the cards must be placed on the centre stacks (3a) in ascending order (from Ace to Queen). The players may use their own hand cards (2c), cards from the help stacks (2a) and cards from their own pay-off pile (2b) to achieve this. Kings are Jokers and may be laid on top of any other card. Once a centre stack is full (when the Queen is laid), the cards are shuffled into the deck.
A round ends once a card has been placed on one of the four help stacks. Cards can be placed here in any order. The next player to take his/her turn then receives as many cards as required from the stock (4a) to again have 5 cards in the hand. If a player lays all five hand cards during a round, then five new cards are taken from the deck.
The aim of the game is to discard all of the cards from the pay-off pile given at the beginning. If neither of the players manage to do this before the stock is used up, the player with the fewest cards in his/her pile wins. If both players have the same number of cards remaining, the game ends in a draw.
