Spit (card game)

Spit is a fast-paced, real-time shedding card game for exactly two players, classified among competitive patience games and documented under this name since before 1973. Rather than proceeding in strict alternating turns, both players play simultaneously and continuously from their own face-up tableau of cards onto a pair of shared central spit piles, placing any card that is one rank higher or one rank lower than the top card currently showing on either pile. Because both players may move at any moment as soon as a legal play becomes available, the pace is dictated entirely by speed and reaction time rather than by turn order, and a player who spots an opening first can play several cards in quick succession before an opponent reacts. When neither player can make a legal move, both simultaneously flip a new card onto the piles to restart play. A hand ends when one player empties their tableau first, and the overall match is typically decided across several such hands until one player has fully exhausted their entire stock of cards. The game is often recommended as a good way to help a child develop quick visual recognition and fast manual responses.