Speed

How to play

1. Pick an opponent and a speed, then tap Start: Choose vs computer or 2 players on one phone. Against the computer, pick one of ten speed tiles: speed 1 plays a card about every 2.8 seconds, speed 10 about every 0.65 seconds, and speeds 1 to 3 are open from the start. Two switches set whether K and A wrap around and whether the same rank can stack (wrap on, stacking off by default).
2. Watch the deal and the 3·2·1 — both center piles flip together: Each player gets 20 cards: five face up in front of you and fifteen in your draw pile, with a spare pile on each side of the table. When the countdown ends, each spare pile flips one card into the middle to start piles A and B. Tap anywhere to skip the show.
3. Tap any card one higher or one lower than a center card: Playable cards wear a small arrow chip pointing at the pile they will land on; one tap plays it and the gap refills from your draw pile at once. When both piles fit, the game sends it where you keep the most follow-up plays. Want a specific pile? Drag the card there.
4. Watch your opponent: a lifted card means it's about to play: About a quarter of a second before the computer plays, that card back lifts and glows magenta. If your opponent changed the pile within 0.7 seconds before your tap, you were beaten to it — the card snaps back and the status line tells you how many seconds late you were. When nobody can play, a banner flips fresh cards from the spare piles.
5. Shed all 20 first to win and unlock the next speed: The first player to empty both their five cards and their draw pile wins. The result card shows your time, cards played, times beaten and how many cards your opponent had left; beating a speed unlocks the next one on the spot, Play again deals a fresh deck, and Copy game link lets a friend play the exact same deal.

Rules & variants

Speed is a two-player shedding game with no turns: both players play at the same time and the faster hand wins. It uses one standard 52-card deck without jokers. Each player gets 20 cards — five face up as a hand and fifteen as a draw pile — and the other twelve are split into two spare piles of six, which each flip one card into the middle to start piles A and B.

Only rank matters, never suit: a card can go on A or B if it is exactly one rank above or below that pile's top card, so 6 and 8 both go on a 7. This page wraps K and A by default (an Ace can go on a King and vice versa); turn the switch off and A and K become dead ends. The common house rule that lets the same rank stack (a 7 on a 7) is off by default and one tap away.

The refill is what makes Speed frantic: every time you play, that slot is refilled straight from your own draw pile, so you always have five cards until the draw pile runs out and gaps start to stay empty. Whoever sheds all five cards plus the fifteen in their draw pile first wins — there are no ties. When two cards hit the same pile at the same instant, the first one stays and the later one bounces back.

When neither player can move, a banner says so and both spare piles flip a card onto A and B. Once the spare piles run dry, everything under the two top cards is shuffled and split into new spare piles. If a full round of flips still produces no play, both players tuck their hands under their draw piles and draw five fresh cards; 20,000 simulated computer-vs-computer games on this page all reached a winner.

The computer has a single dial, its speed: speed 1 plays about every 2.8 seconds and each step is 15% faster, down to about 0.65 seconds at speed 10, with a little random jitter so it never feels like a metronome. It only sees its own cards and the two center cards, never yours, and it lifts the card it is about to play a moment early so you can try to steal the pile.

Two players on one phone works just like the tabletop game: lay the phone flat between you, the top half is drawn upside down for the player across the table, and both of you tap your own cards at once. Every deal has a game code (for example A03KX-1K9Z4Q: computer at speed 3, K–A wrap, no stacking); Copy game link in the menu sends a friend the very same deal. Speed is often confused with Spit, its cousin where each player also keeps their own spit pile.

FAQ