Nertz Rules

Nertz (also spelled Nerts) is a fast card game in which everyone plays their own game of solitaire at the same time, racing to empty a 13-card Nerts pile while building shared piles in the middle of the table. Nobody takes turns, so it is loud, quick and often chaotic. The game began in England in the 1890s as Racing Demon, the name still used in the UK, and it appears in American books as Pounce from 1934. It is also called Peanuts, Squeal and Scrooge. This guide covers the Nertz rules: the set-up, how to play, scoring, the partnership game, variations, how it compares with Dutch Blitz, strategy and odds.

Nertz Rules at a Glance

How to Set Up

1. Give everyone a pack. Each player needs a full pack of 52 cards with a back that is different from everyone else’s, so the cards can be sorted out after each hand.
2. Deal your Nerts pile. Count 13 cards into a pile, 12 face down and the 13th face up on top.
3. Deal four work piles. Lay four cards face up in a row next to the Nerts pile.
4. Hold the rest as your stock. These are turned over three at a time onto your waste pile during play.
5. Leave room in the middle. Sit around a space that everyone can reach. That is where the foundations go.

How to Play Nertz

1. Start together. On a signal, everyone plays as fast as they can. Use one hand to move cards; the other may hold your stock.
2. Start foundations with Aces. Any Ace you can reach goes in the middle to start a foundation. Anyone can add the next card of the same suit to any foundation, from Ace up to King. A finished pile is turned over and set aside.
3. Build your work piles down. Put cards on your work piles in descending order and alternating colour, such as a red 6 on a black 7. You can move a card, together with the cards on top of it, from one work pile to another.
4. Empty your Nerts pile. Its top card can go to a foundation, onto a work pile it fits, or into an empty work pile space. Then turn up the next card.
5. Turn your stock. Turn cards three at a time onto your waste pile, keeping their order. Only the top waste card can be played. When the stock runs out, turn the waste pile over and start again.
6. Call “Nerts!” When your Nerts pile is empty, call “Nerts!” and play stops at once. You don’t have to call straight away; you can keep playing to add to your score.

If two players reach a foundation at the same moment, the card that landed first stays and the other goes back. If every player is stuck, everyone turns their waste pile back into a stock, moves the top card to the bottom and play carries on. Only play cards from your own layout, and never take cards back from the middle.

Nertz Scoring

When someone calls “Nerts!”, the foundations are sorted by the backs of the cards. Each player scores 1 point for every one of their own cards on the foundations and loses 2 points for every card left in their Nerts pile. The caller has none left, so loses nothing. Hands are played until someone reaches an agreed total, usually 100, and the highest score wins.

Example: you have played 14 cards to the foundations but still have 4 cards in your Nerts pile when someone else calls. You score 14 − 8 = 6 for the hand.

Playing Nertz in Partnerships

With six or more players, play in pairs. Partners sit next to each other and share one pack and one layout, so one can turn the stock while the other watches the Nerts pile. Scoring is the same as for a single player.

Nertz Variations

Nertz vs Dutch Blitz

Dutch Blitz is a boxed game sold as a Pennsylvania Dutch card game, and it plays like Nertz with its own cards. Ligretto, from Germany, is almost the same as Dutch Blitz.

Nertz Strategy

• Calling usually wins the hand. In simulated games, the player who called “Nerts!” had the top score in 93% of two-player hands, 90% with three players and 89% with four. The others still held 5.7 Nerts cards on average with four players, a penalty of about 11 points each.
• Keep a work-pile space free. An empty space lets you take the top card off your Nerts pile even when it fits nowhere else.
• Play to the foundations first. Every card you put in the middle is a point, and a card someone else could have played there is one they can’t.
• Turn your stock fast. The quicker you go through it, the more chances you get at the top waste card.
• Watch the middle. Keep an eye on which foundations are close to your cards, so you can play before someone else does.

Nertz Odds

• Getting stuck: every player got stuck at least once in 40% of two-player hands, 7% of three-player hands and 0.4% of four-player hands. More players means more foundations to play on.
• Hand scores: with four players, the caller scored 17 points a hand on average, against 3 for everyone else.
• Aces: 34% of deals show an Ace among your five face-up cards, and 0.9 Aces on average are buried face down in your Nerts pile.

The hand figures come from 40,000 simulated hands for each number of players, with every player making one move at a time and playing the same simple way. The deal odds are exact.

More Card Games

For a two-player race played the same way, try Spit. If you’d rather build in turns, see Spite and Malice, and for another fast game for a crowd, Egyptian Rat Screw.

Nertz: frequently asked questions