⚡ How to play Speed

Easy rules, to read aloud 🔊

1. Each player gets a pile of fifteen cards and picks up the top five.
2. Turn over the two cards in the middle at the same time.
3. Put a card on a middle pile if it is one higher or one lower.
4. A seven can go on a six or an eight.
5. Do not wait for a turn. Play as fast as you can, with one hand.
6. Take more cards from your pile so you hold five.
7. The first player with no cards left wins.

The full rules

1. Deal each player a face-down pile of 15 cards. In the middle, make two face-down piles of 10, with two single face-down cards side by side between them.
2. Each player picks up the top five cards of their own pile as a hand and keeps it hidden.
3. When you are both ready, flip the two single cards face up at the same moment. These are the two play piles.
4. Now both play at once, using only one hand and one card at a time. A card can go on either play pile if it is one higher or one lower. Suits and colors do not matter, and an ace fits next to a king or a two.
5. When you hold fewer than five cards, take cards from your pile to get back to five.
6. When neither player can play, each of you flips the top card of a side pile onto a play pile, both at once, and you race again.
7. If the side piles run out, leave the top card of each play pile, shuffle the rest of each pile, and put them face down as new side piles.
8. When your own pile runs out, keep playing from your hand without drawing.

How to win: The first player to play every card from their hand and their pile wins the deal and scores a point for each card the other player still has. The first to reach 25 wins the game.

Tips

• Look at both play piles all the time: the other player keeps changing them.
• If you hold a five and a six, play them in a row on a four: you get two cards down at once.

What it practises

counting up and down by one, quick looking, fast thinking.

Other ways to play

• Same number too. A card may also go on a pile showing the same number, as well as one higher or one lower.
• Red and black. Colors must swap: on a black five, only a red four or a red six.
• Bigger hands. Each player starts with 20 cards, and the two side piles hold just 5 each.