Spite and malice
| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Alternative names | Cat and Mouse |
| Players | 2 or more (originally 2) |
| Deck | Single 52-card |
| Rank (high→low) | K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A |
Spite and malice, also known as cat and mouse, is a relatively modern American card game for two or more players. It is a reworking of the late 19th-century Continental game crapette, also known as Russian bank, and is a form of competitive solitaire, with a number of variations that can be played with two or three regular decks of cards.
It had a "well-deserved following" during the 1970s when bridge expert Easley Blackwood saw it being played on a cruise ship and subsequently published its rules. According to David Parlett, the game is a reworking of an old 19th-century patience called crapette or Russian bank, but he also identifies three early English patiences by Mary Whitmore Jones – carbouche, obstruction, and dowager's patience – which bear a "remarkable similarity" to spite and malice.
A commercial variation sold by Hasbro is called Spite and Malice; a variation sold by Mattel is called Skip-Bo.