1: Two players sit face to face with one regular 52-card deck.Leave room between you for a row of four piles.
2: Deal each player five cards as a hand and fifteen face down as a draw pile.That is twenty cards each to get rid of.
3: Between you, deal four face-down piles in a row: five cards, one, one, five.The two single cards start the center piles. The fives are the side piles.
4: Pick up your hand. When both are ready, each player flips one center card face up.Flip at the same moment.
5: There are no turns. Both players play at once, as fast as they can.Nobody waits for the other.
6: Play a card from your hand onto either center pile: one rank higher or one lower.On a 7, play a 6 or an 8. Suits and colors do not count.
7: The ranks run in a circle: an ace goes on a king or a 2, and either goes on an ace.Queen, king, ace, 2, 3 is a legal run.
8: Use one hand, and play one card at a time.The other hand holds your cards.
9: Fewer than five cards in your hand? Draw from your own pile, back up to five.You never hold more than five.
1: Two players sit face to face with one regular 52-card deck.Leave room between you for a row of four piles.
2: Deal each player five cards as a hand and fifteen face down as a draw pile.That is twenty cards each to get rid of.
3: Between you, deal four face-down piles in a row: five cards, one, one, five.The two single cards start the center piles. The fives are the side piles.
4: Pick up your hand. When both are ready, each player flips one center card face up.Flip at the same moment.
5: There are no turns. Both players play at once, as fast as they can.Nobody waits for the other.
6: Play a card from your hand onto either center pile: one rank higher or one lower.On a 7, play a 6 or an 8. Suits and colors do not count.
7: The ranks run in a circle: an ace goes on a king or a 2, and either goes on an ace.Queen, king, ace, 2, 3 is a legal run.
8: Use one hand, and play one card at a time.The other hand holds your cards.
9: Fewer than five cards in your hand? Draw from your own pile, back up to five.You never hold more than five.
Show all 33 rows (24 more)
When both players are stuck 8
1: Stuck means neither player can play, and both have drawn back up to five.A player with an empty draw pile holds what they have.
2: Each player flips the top card of one side pile onto the center pile beside it.Flip together. Play starts again the moment the cards land.
3: Still stuck? Flip again, and keep flipping until someone can play.Each flip uses one card from each side pile.
4: One player stuck is not enough. Wait, and watch the piles change.A flip needs both players to be stuck.
5: You may not ask for a flip while you hold a card that plays.With jokers in the deck, a joker counts as a card that plays.
6: Side piles used up: keep the top card of each center pile and shuffle the rest.Lay the two shuffled stacks as new side piles, face down.
7: A card counts as played the moment it touches a pile.It cannot be taken back, and the other player may play on it at once.
8: Two cards land on one pile together (ours): the lower card stays.The other goes back to its hand.
How the game ends, and scoring 8
1: Draw pile used up: keep playing from your hand without drawing.Your hand shrinks from five toward none.
2: The first player with no cards left, in hand or in the draw pile, wins.The side piles and center piles do not count.
3: Table rule: the winner must say "Speed!" and slap the table to make it official.Forget, and you take a center pile as a new draw pile and play on.
4: One deal can be the whole game. To play several, keep score on paper.Shuffle the whole deck between deals.
5: The winner scores 1 point for each card the other player still holds.Count the hand and the draw pile together.
6: The first player to reach an agreed total, such as 25, wins the game.Set the total before the first deal.
7: A worked deal (ours): the loser holds 3 cards with 4 in the draw pile. Winner scores 7.3 and 4.
8: Another layout: ten cards in each side pile, and a draw pile of fifteen for each player.Draw your first five from that pile, so you have fifteen cards to shed, not twenty.
Three or four players, two decks, jokers 8
1: Speed takes two players. One deck is all two players need.A second deck is for a table of four.
2: Four players: shuffle two decks together.With new or young players, one deck keeps the game slower.
3: Three players can share one deck, with three center cards flipped in place of two.Deal the draw piles evenly.
4: More than four can play, but the table gets crowded and confusing.Ours: split into tables of two.
5: Jokers are optional wild cards: a joker plays as the rank above or below the center card.The next card played on it follows the rank it stood for.
6: Your last card played cannot be a joker.Use it earlier, to bridge a gap in your hand.
7: House rule, doubles: a card may also go on a card of its own rank, a 7 on a 7.One source allows it and the other does not. Agree before the flip.
8: Not the same game as Spit. In Spit each player lays out five piles in place of a hand.Both games use two center piles and the same up-or-down rule.
How this list was compiled: Written for this site on 2026-10-09, in our own words. Speed is a traditional card game with no governing body. The standard sheet was checked on 2026-10-09 against English Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, Speed (card game): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(card_game), and against the Spit and Speed page of the card game rules site Pagat: https://www.pagat.com/patience/spit.html. Both give two players, a regular 52-card deck, a hand of five cards, a face-down draw pile for each player, two center cards flipped at the same moment, cards played one rank higher or lower with the ace next to both the king and the 2, the hand refilled to five, a new card flipped onto each center pile when neither player can play, and the first player out of cards winning. The layout printed here (five in hand, fifteen in the draw pile, five in each side pile) is the one Wikipedia gives and Pagat notes as an alternative; Pagat's own first layout is on the scoring sheet. One hand and one card at a time are in both; a card counting as played when it touches the pile is from Pagat's rules for Spit on the same page. Shuffling the center piles into new side piles is in both: Pagat leaves each top card in place, Wikipedia shuffles the whole pile. The point for each card the loser holds and the target of 25 are Pagat's. The call of "Speed!", the pile taken for a missed call, jokers, play on a card of the same rank, three players with one deck and four with two decks are Wikipedia's; its account of the three-player deal is brief and the sheet says no more than it does. Rows marked ours are this site's own and are not official. Licence: own work
How it works
Speed is a card game for two players and a regular deck. Nobody takes turns: both players put cards on two center piles at the same time, and the first to run out of cards wins.
Read the full guide
Playing the card game Speed: the layout
Each player gets a hand of five and a face-down draw pile of fifteen. Between them go four piles in a row: five cards, one, one, five. The single cards are flipped to start the game, and the fives wait at the sides for the moment both players are stuck.
What can you play?
Say the center piles show a 7 and a queen, and you hold a 6, an 8, a 9, a king and a 3. The 8 goes on the 7 and the 9 follows it. The king goes on the queen, and an ace could follow that. The 6 and the 3 wait. Draw back up to five as you go. When both players are stuck covers the flip.
Before the flip, put cards of neighboring ranks side by side in your hand. There is no time to sort once play starts.
Questions and answers
How do you play the card game Speed?
Deal each player five cards and a draw pile of fifteen, with four piles between them. Flip the two center cards, then both play at once: any card one rank above or below a center card. Refill to five. First out of cards wins.
How do you play the Speed card game with two decks?
Two decks are for four players: shuffle them together and play the same way. Two players need only one deck. With new or young players at a table of four, one deck keeps the game slower.
What happens when nobody can play in Speed?
Each player flips the top card of a side pile onto a center pile, both at once, and play starts again. When the side piles run out, the center piles are shuffled and laid face down as new side piles.
How do you win Speed?
Get rid of every card in your hand and your draw pile before the other player does. Some tables also make the winner say "Speed" and slap the table.