Speed Game Rules

(Above is two people playing the game Speed)

Card Game Rules

Speed is a classic card game for 2 players. The game requires a standard 52 playing card deck and is suitable for ages 6 and up. In Speed, 2s are low and Kings are high. Aces can either be lower than 2 or higher than King. The objective of Speed is to be the first player to get rid of their cards.

For more classic card games, check out our guides for Go Fish and War.

If you are looking for cards to play Speed with, check out a standard deck here or on of our newest arrivals here.

Set Up

Before gameplay can begin, a dealer must be selected. To do so, players must choose a random card from a shuffled deck. The player with the lowest card becomes the dealer. Ties are broken with repeated drawings. The dealer then shuffles the deck.

The dealer then passes out two piles of cards, faced down, to each player. The first pile has 5 cards. The second pile has 15 cards. 

The dealer then makes four piles of cards in the middle of the gameplay area. The first and fourth piles have 5 cards each and the second and third piles have 1 card each.

How to Play

Both players pick up their own 5 card pile. Players then flip over the two 1 card piles in the middle. Players then use these two middle piles to get rid of their cards.  Players can get rid of a card if it follows in increasing or decreasing sequence to the cards in the middle. There are no turns. Players get rid of their cards when they can.

After playing a card, players replace it with the top card in their 15 card pile.

If no player can play onto the middle piles, both players replace the middle piles with the top card of the side piles. If the side piles become exhausted, then the middle cards are shuffled and new middle piles are formed.

The player who gets rid of their cards first wins.

Looking for more card games to play?  Check out this article:

40+ Great Card Games For All Occasions

About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about card games here and his LinkedIn profile here.