Surrey recovered from Friday's heavy defeat by Yorkshire to beat Kent by three wickets at The Oval in their first Friends Provident Trophy game.
Kent won the toss and batted, but slumped to 52-7 before they were rescued by a stand of 174 by Rob Key (108) and James Tredwell (88).
Aussie paceman Steve Magoffin took 4-58 in Kent's eventual total of 271.
Scott Newman, Jonathan Batty and Azhar Mahmood hit fifties as Surrey reached 274-7 with seven balls to spare.
Opener Newman, who hit 89 in their 346-run Championship rout by Yorkshire the previous day, again top-scored with 73.
Mahmood hit three sixes in his 63 before edging Yasir Arafat to keeper Geraint Jones, leaving Batty (52 not out), who also took five catches, to see Surrey home.
Mohammad Akram, who took an economical 3-21 from his 10 overs, and Mahmood (2-52) had looked set to run through the visitors until Key and Tredwell, who hit his highest one-day score, stabilised the innings by hitting out against Surrey's spinners.
With Surrey fielding just three seamers on a responsive pitch, Chris Schofield and Nayan Doshi conceded 113 runs in their combined 17 overs.