Bicycle Rider Back box and playing card decks on white — how to play Spite and Malice

How to Play Spite and Malice (2026): Rules for the Classic Skip-Bo Ancestor

October 12, 2026

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How to play Spite and Malice (2026): Spite and Malice is a competitive solitaire for two, also called Cat and Mouse. You race to empty a pile of pay-off cards by building shared center stacks from ace up to queen, with kings wild. It is the standard-deck ancestor of Skip-Bo, and it is a perfect game for two people at a kitchen table. These are the most widely played rules, as described on pagat.

Decks you need: Bicycle Rider Back Playing Cards (12-pack)

Spite and Malice uses two standard 52-card decks shuffled together. A 12-pack covers this and many more nights.

Price band: $20–$30 (about $25) · Check today’s price on Amazon

Spite and Malice setup

Players: two (variants exist for more).
Cards: two 52-card decks shuffled together, no jokers. Suits do not matter.
Pay-off piles: deal 20 cards face down to each player, then turn the top card of each pile face up.
Hands: deal five cards to each player.
Stock: the rest of the cards go face down between you.

Whoever has the higher pay-off card showing goes first. If they tie, both shuffle their piles and turn up a new card.

The parts of the layout

Center stacks: shared piles built up from an ace to a queen, in order, ignoring suit. There may be at most three at one time.
Side stacks: each player may have up to four personal discard piles, in any order.
Kings: wild. A king can stand for any card on a center stack.

Taking a turn in Spite and Malice

Draw from the stock until you hold five cards.
Play as many cards as you like to the center stacks: from your hand, from the top of your side stacks, or from the top of your pay-off pile. Start a new center stack with an ace; otherwise play the next number up.
End your turn by discarding one card from your hand onto one of your side stacks.

If you empty your hand without discarding, draw five more and keep going. When a center stack reaches a queen (or a king used as a queen), your opponent shuffles it into the stock and that space opens for a new stack.

A sample turn

Your pay-off card shows a 4. The center has one stack topped by a 2, and you hold an ace, a 3, a 7, a 9 and a king. Draw nothing, since you already hold five. Play the 3 on the 2, and your pay-off 4 goes on top of the 3. Turn up the next pay-off card: a 6. Play the king as a 5 and your 6 follows. Start a second center stack with your ace. Then discard the 9 to a side stack to end the turn, keeping the 7 in hand for later.

What you may not do

You may never play a pay-off card to a side stack.
You may not move cards from one side stack to another.
You may not take cards back from a center stack.
If all four of your side stacks are in use, you must discard on top of one, burying the card below.

Winning Spite and Malice

The first player to play the last card of their pay-off pile to the center wins. If the stock runs out before that happens, the game is a draw.

Strategy that wins races

Watch your opponent’s pay-off card. Avoid building a center stack to one below it.
Save kings. A wild king can unblock your pay-off pile at the perfect moment.
Organize side stacks. Discarding in descending runs, such as 9 then 8 then 7, lets you play them off in order later.
Park high cards on side stacks. Jacks and queens are hard to play until a stack is nearly done, so keep them where they will not block lower cards.
Prefer a boxed version? Skip-Bo is built on the same idea; see our Skip-Bo guide. For more head-to-head card games, see our 2-player card games list.

Variations to try

Some tables allow more than three center stacks, often one more than the number of players. With three or more players, add an extra deck and play clockwise. Four players can team up in partnerships, playing from a partner’s pay-off pile or side stacks to the center but discarding only to their own side stacks.