Spite and Malice - Play

Play

The first person to get a turn is the dealer. In play, each turn will start with a player drawing from the common draw pile to give themselves a five card hand. Then they make whatever plays they are able until they have no more plays and then a card is played from a player's hand into that person's personal discard area which ends their turn. Play starts with the dealer and goes around the table in a clockwise fashion.

The best move would be to be able to play the goal card directly on a playing pile (it would have to be an ace or a king at this point since all four playing piles are empty at this point). If this is not possible, the player may use the cards in his hand in to put cards into the playing piles and "play up" to the value of the goal card. If the player cannot do either of these things, the turn might simply consist of making a discard to one of his/her four discard piles.

However, if all five cards in the hand can be played in the playing piles, (For example if a player drew A, 2, 3, A, 2, he/she could play ace, two three on one playing pile and ace and then 2 on a second pile) resulting in running out of cards before making a discard, that player may draw five more playing cards to replenish his hand. It is possible, if not probable, for this to happen more than once, or even a few times in a row before someone is forced to make a discard because they cannot make any further plays.

Once a discard is made the turn moves to the next player. That person starts their turn by drawing cards from the draw pile to make their five card hand. On someone's first turn, they will always draw five cards but on subsequent turns they will draw however many cards are required.

For example, suppose they were able to play three cards and then ended their first turn with their discard. On the next turn, they would have one card left in their hand and they would then draw four more to reconstitute themselves back to a five card hand. Or possibly, a player's only possible move on their first play was to discard because they had no playable card on the playing piles. So they discard one card leaving him or her with four, in which case on their subsequent turn they would simply draw one card to end up with the standard five card hand. No matter how many cards are able to be played, a turn ends with the player placing a card from their hand into one of their discard piles, unless they play the winning move of putting their last goal card into play in which case they have won and no discard is required.

If everyone has a high goal card at the start of play, many turns may end up being just drawing one card, then deciding which card to add to the discard piles until someone gets a sufficient number of cards saved up in the discard piles of cards enough to reach their high number.

Or, one person may end up with a low goal card and in reaching that one and then ending their turn, they will have unavoidably helped someone else to reach a higher number that was their goal card.

As play continues many cards can accumulate in the discard piles. In order to make your goal card or prevent your opponent from reaching theirs, you can use both cards from your hand, and cards from your discard piles during your turn.