Spite & Malice

I grew up playing Spite and Malice with my Grandma Corky and my family, but it was Grandma that taught me how to play. Recently there was a "rule" question when we were playing with my folks. I googled Spite and Malice and found it is also known as Cat and Mouse, but the "rules" that I found online were not the same that we played with Grandma. I decided to write her version down, because I like it best and it is a very fun family game.

This game can be played with 2 or more players...you just need a deck of standard playing cards (with jokers) for each player. The game we played had four players, so we had 4 decks.

Shuffle the cards, then have the person to the right of the dealer cut the deck.

Start with the person to the left of the dealer...they pick up a stack of cards that they estimate is 27 cards. If the players pick up more or less that's okay...

just make sure there is 27 cards in your "squeak" pile. I always wondered why Grandma called it a "squeak" pile, but it must be what they call it in the "Cat and Mouse" version. All the cards in your "squeak pile" are to remain face down and the players are not to look at them. Turn over the top card on your squeak pile.

Stella loves it when we play card games :)

Picture below shows the "draw pile" in the center and everyone's "squeak pile" with the top card face up.

Dealer then deals each player 5 cards for their hand. Only the player sees the 5 cards in their hand.

Person to the left of the dealer plays first.
The object of the game is to be the first person to get rid of all the cards in your squeak pile. To do this all the players contribute to 1 to 4 piles around the draw pile. These piles all start with an Ace and go in order up to King...then the pile is set aside. The finished piles are shuffled and used to replenish the draw pile.
All players MUST play any Aces or Deuces (2's) that they have in their hand if they can (i.e. if there is an open space around the draw pile, etc...) In the picture below Reeve did not have any Aces, so he had to lay down one card in his discard pile. There can be up to four cards in your discard pile. At the end of each player's turn they must discard one card into their discard pile. The cards in the discard pile may be used during the player's turn, but only the TOP card in each of the discard piles can be played.

Above: Reeve discarded a King...a wise move because then this discard pile can then either be a collection of Kings or he can then lay down a lower card.
Below: Kyle's turn...He had an Ace in his hand. There were four open play piles around the draw pile, so he HAD to play his Ace. He has a 3 on his squeak pile, so he chose to discard a 3. He did not have a deuce, if he had he would have played it and then played the 3 from his squeak pile. Once you play a card from  your squeak pile you immediately turn the next card over. Play it if you can. You can play as many cards from your squeak pile as you can. Jokers are WILD, so if Kyle had a joker he could have used it as a deuce and then played his 3 from his squeak pile. If a player is able to play all 5 cards in their hand before they discard, then they can pick up 5 more cards from the draw pile. Player's turn ends when they discard one card onto their discard pile.

Players 3 and 4 can't play so they each put a card in their discard pile. Reeve's turn again. At the start of each player's turn they draw from the draw pile until they have 5 cards in their hand. Reeve picks up and plays a deuce and then he is able to play the top card (a 3 like Kyle's...which was just pure coincidence that they both had a 3 as the first top card).

In the picture below you can see in the upper left Reeve's 2 discard piles (he can have up to 4) and his squeak pile which looks like it has a 10 on top. Then in the upper right you can see that Kyle still has a 3 on his squeak pile and he has 3 discard piles started. I should mention that each player's discard piles are not community piles, but the four play piles around the draw pile are community piles (everyone uses and plays on the play piles).
In the pic below there are 3 play piles started.
In the lower left corner you can see that I have a King on my squeak pile and I have started 3 discard piles. My first discard pile has 2 kings, my 2nd has 2 queen's, and my 3rd has an 8. Now I can discard ANY card that I want to on my discard piles. I can only have 4 discard piles AND if I want to use cards from my discard piles I can only use the top cards. For example if there was a Jack on one of the play piles and it was my turn I could only play the queen from my discard pile ONLY if it was the top card.
Generally you will want to play as many cards from your "hand cards" (the cards you hold in your hand) as you can vs. playing cards from your discard piles. You will always want to play your squeak pile cards vs. your hand cards or you discard cards.

Reeve has completed a play pile with a King and is shown below removing that pile to be set aside and shuffled with other completed play piles to be used to replenish the draw pile when it runs out of cards.

Below I have reached my allowed discard pile limit. The next card that I discard at the end of my turn must go on one of the 4 piles that I have.

In the picture below we have 4 play piles, so if a player has an Ace they cannot play it. However if they have an Ace and there is an open play pile they MUST play it even if the next player has a deuce on their squeak pile. If there is an Ace on a play pile (as shown below) any player that has a deuce (a 2) MUST play it even if another player has a 3 on their squeak pile. Aces and Deuces are the only cards that MUST be played, if they CAN be played.

In the demo game that we played Kyle won!! The other 3 players continued to play to see who would come in 2nd (me!) and 3rd (Nana), then Reeve :)

Anyone ever play Spite and Malice? Do my instructions make sense? Please let me know if it's confusing or if you think I left out something.
Cheers!