I don’t remember it that way. Each person got half the deck. Each person made their solitaire hand with only five piles in front of them. Then with the remaining cards, on the count of three, each would say spit and put a card down into the middle. Just like solitaire you would set up your hand and put cards up on those center piles until you each had nothing else to put up and then you would say spit and put out another card. There were a variety of variable rules. Should you use two hands to move cards? Use alternating black and red color scheme? and more … I don’t see what a blank pile would be?