Nertz
| Players | Ideally 2–8 |
|---|---|
| Skills required | Quick reaction, awareness of cards being played simultaneously, counting. |
| Age range | 8+ |
| Cards | 52 per deck, each player or team uses a standard playing card deck. Each team's deck must be a different design or color than the rest of the decks being used, to identify cards after the round ends. |
| Related games | |
| Spit, Dutch Blitz | |
Nertz is a fast-paced, real-time, multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards. It is often described as a combination of the card games Speed and Solitaire.
Nertz is known by a number of different names: Hell, Gnerts, Pounce, Peanuts, Racing Demon and Squinch The name "Nertz" appears to be the most recognized.
According to the National Nertz Association (U.S.), there is not a known inventor or a specific date of creation for the game of Nertz. The NNA also claims that this game has been around since the 1940s.Canfield, a card game similar in set-up to Nertz, was created in the 1890s and seems to be the closest relative in the family tree of cards games. In fact, if one were to attempt to play Nertz alone, one would essentially be playing Canfield, a variant of Klondike Solitaire or Patience.
The National Nertz Association is a U.S.-based organization offering free international membership that claims to be committed to the growth and welfare of the game of Nertz. It also states that its goal is to someday host a major Nertz tournament.
What makes Nertz different from Solitaire (aside from the fact that it is not played alone) or any other card game for that matter is the fact that players have the option to play cards communally, in real-time, using multiple decks of playing cards. The object in a hand of Nertz is to be the first player or team to get rid of the Nertz pile using a solitaire-style method of game-play. Each player or team uses their own deck of playing cards throughout the game. The number of players or teams that can play in a game is only limited to the amount of card decks and/or the amount of space that is available. This means there may be as many players or teams as desired. All the players or teams race to get rid of their Nertz piles creating an exciting and hectic game experience.
A game of Nertz is typically played as a series of hands. Between hands, scores are tallied and the cards are sorted and given back to the players or teams that played them. After the cards are returned, the decks are shuffled and set up for the next hand and this process is repeated until a player wins.
During a hand, every player or team plays simultaneously (real-time) and may play cards on one another's Lake cards. There are four areas that a player or team uses in Nertz which include the Lake, the River, the Stream, and the Nertz pile. The Lake is the central area, used to score points, which any player or team may use by building suited piles in ascending order without doubles. The River is a 4-columned personal area that a player or team uses by cascading and/or playing cards from columns of alternating color and descending order (like the tableau piles in Solitaire). The Stream is a pile that is continually flipped (usually in groups of three cards at a time) in search of cards to play into the Lake or River. Lastly, the Nertz pile is a 13-card pile that players try to get rid of by playing cards from the pile one at a time, from the top of the pile, into available Lake or River destinations. The first player or team to successfully get rid of their Nertz pile calls or shouts "Nertz". Once "Nertz" is called all play for that hand stops. The diagram shown in this article may help to clarify these four areas and how they are utilized. From this diagram one can conclude that basic Solitaire rules govern this game.
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