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A variation of Spite and Malice called Flinch was released in 1905. Originally from Europe, its popularity in the United States rose after the First World War. With its origins dating back until the mid-1800s, people have been playing Spite and Malice for a very long time.

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Hopefully, you can use some of these tips on how to win at Spite and Malice in your next game. Fill all discard piles before putting cards on top of each other, but reserve some piles for high cards only so you avoid burying low rank cards. If you cannot play a matching card, play low cards on top of high cards instead of high cards on low cards. Ideally you make piles with cards of the same rank because this prevents burying any card.

Play cards to the discard piles wisely: Prefer playing high cards to the discard piles over low cards.

Use Kings wisely: Kings are wild in Spite and Malice and hence are very helpful to reach your goal card, but remember they can also be used to prevent your opponent from playing his goal card.

Clear your hand: Playing all five cards in your hand so you get five new cards is a good move, as long as it doesn't help your opponent.

For example, if you have a 10 as goal card, keep cards like 7-8-9 in your hand.

Use your hand to reach your goal card: Cards in your hand are always playable, so the most helpful hand cards are the cards right before your goal card.

Keep an eye on the opponent's goal pile: Avoid playing cards that might help your opponent play the top card of his goal pile, except if it serves you as well.

Avoid playing cards just because you can play them.

Focus on your goal pile: Always focus on playing the top card of your goal pile.

The turn finishes when a card is played from the hand to one of the discard piles.

Kings are wild and can be played on the playing piles to substitute any other value.

Cards that can be moved to the playing piles are the top card of the goal pile, the top cards of the four discard piles, and any card in your hand.

Suits of the cards don’t matter in Spite and Malice.

Playing piles must start with an Ace and are built in ascending order up to a Queen (A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q).

Then, the player plays cards from his goal pile, hand or discard piles to the playing piles.

At the start of each turn, cards from the common draw pile are dealt until the player has five cards in his hand.

The rest of the cards go into the common draw pile, face-down. The top card of the goal piles is turned face-up.

There are four common playing piles and a common draw pile.Īt the start, a certain amount of cards are dealt to each player's goal pile, face-down. Spite and Malice is played with three decks of 52 cards each, hence 156 cards in total.Įach player has their own goal pile, four discard piles and a hand with maximum five cards. In most computer versions, such as the one we feature here, the game is played with two players. Spite and Malice can be played with two to four players. The first player to empty their goal pile wins. The object of Spite and Malice is to get rid of all your cards in your goal pile by placing them on the playing piles. How to play Spite and Malice Table of contents