Speed is a game played with a standard fifty-two card deck that relies on quick thinking and reflexes. The goal of the game is to get rid of all your cards first as quickly as possible — this makes it part of the "shedding" family of card games. If you really like this game, you can also play "Spit," which is a similar shedding card game with more complicated rules. If you think you have what it takes to yell "Speed!" before your opponent, then see Step 1 to get started.
Deal two players a hand of five cards each. These are the cards that will be in each player's hand when the game starts. For now, deal the cards face down. When the game begins, each player will quickly flip the cards over and will look at his hand. The players should not look at each other's cards.
Speed is traditionally played between two opponents. Three- and four-way speed are popular, but require additional decks of cards.
Place four piles of cards face down in between the two players. The piles on either edge should have five cards in them, and the inside two piles should have one card each.
The piles on the outer edges are the side piles, and will be the reserve piles that each player will use to replace the two inside piles if both players run out of moves.
The inside two piles are the active piles will be flipped over when the game begins. The players will then try to place appropriate cards from their hand of five cards onto this pile.
Divide the deck in half and create a draw pile of 15 cards for each player. This is the pile that players will draw from after their hand of 5 cards has less than 5 cards in it. As soon as they are able to play one of the cards in their hand, they can draw for more cards from this pile. Each player has to draw from his own draw pile.
Start the game by flipping over the two middle cards. Each player can look at his hand of five cards to see if any of them can be placed on the middle cards in ascending or descending order. Note that each player should keep his hands hidden from the other player -- the open hand is displayed for your convenience.