Nertz
Nertz Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Equipment
To play Nertz you need:
- One 52-card deck of standard playing cards per team
- A large table or open floor space
- Something to write with, and enough paper to score multiple rounds for multiple players
Every deck in use must be clearly distinguishable from every other deck in the game — a deck must look different from any other deck being used. This is what makes it possible to tally the cards played into the Lake correctly and return them to the right player or team after each hand.
Nertz supports 2-8 teams of 1-2 players.
Object
The object of the game is to be the first player or team to reach 150 points over a series of hands.
The object of a single hand is to be the first player or team to get rid of a 13-card Nertz pile and shout "Nertz". Calling "Nertz" earns a 10-point bonus on top of the cards that player or team played into the Lake during that hand. Once "Nertz" is called the hand ends, and each hand's score is added to the running total until a player or team reaches 150 or more points.
Overview
Nertz is multiplayer solitaire. Play is simultaneous, not turn-based — there are no turns to wait for. It can be played by individuals or in teams of two, and it gets faster the more players are added.
During a hand your goal is to be first to empty your 13-card Nertz pile and call "Nertz". Four areas support that goal: the Lake (the shared community area), your River, your Stream, and your Nertz pile.
Game Preparation
- Make sure you have enough decks for the number of people playing. Depending on whether you play in teams there may be an odd player out — in recreational games it is common for one solo player to face a table of two-player teams.
- Designate a score keeper, who writes down all the teams on paper or a scoring pad.
- Before dealing, make sure everyone knows how you will be playing. Agree on the score you are playing to, what will and will not be allowed, and any other rules this rulebook does not cover. This rulebook describes the standard version of Nertz; when playing other variations, some of these rules may not apply.
- Be ready to count both your remaining Nertz cards and your Lake cards after every hand, before the cards are grouped back together.
Note that negative scores are frequent in Nertz. It happens to everyone, so don't be discouraged.
Preparing a Hand
Shuffling
Properly shuffling — and then preserving the order the shuffle produced — matters a great deal in Nertz. Before dealing, each team shuffles its deck at least five times and cuts it at least once.
To limit the possibility of cheating, teams may use round-robin shuffling: each team's deck is passed to a neighbouring team, shuffled thoroughly by them, and handed back ready for use. After that, decks must not be tampered with until the deal begins.
Dealing
Deal cards individually, from the top of the deck, in this order:
- The River — 4 cards dealt face up, side by side, directly in front of you or your team. The order in which the four are laid out does not matter, as long as there are four.
- The Nertz pile — 13 cards dealt face down, one on top of the last. The thirteenth (top) card is dealt face up.
- The Stream — the remaining 35 cards, left face down.
Rules for the period between the deal and the start of play:
- Teams may not look at face-down cards, either before or during a hand.
- Teams may use the time before the start to spot plays among their face-up cards, and to look over their opponents' starting layouts.
- Teams may rearrange their starting River cards before the hand begins.
- A player or team may hold both the Nertz pile and the Stream pile in their hands to start. All other cards stay on the table.
- Teams may not shield any pile from their opponents' view, before or during play. Every team must be able to see all of their opponents' available cards, just as opponents can see theirs.
- In team play, decide before the hand which teammate controls the Nertz pile and which controls the Stream pile. A team of two generally alternates control of the piles after every hand to keep games balanced, though this is not mandatory. A solo player controls both piles.
Once every team has finished dealing, check that all teams are ready before beginning.
Play
When the table is ready, one person gives the command to start. A "Ready, Set, Go!" or a "1, 2, 3, Go" is best, so that teams have proper warning to prepare.
Once the hand has begun there are four areas you may use: the Lake, your River, your Stream, and your Nertz pile.
Nertz Pile
Emptying this pile is your goal. You may play cards from the Nertz pile into your River and into the Lake.
- When the top Nertz card is played, turn over the next card so you can see and play it.
- You may only ever see the top Nertz card. The rest of the pile stays face down.
- If the top Nertz card cannot be played, you may not dig for the ones beneath it — looking at or playing blocked Nertz cards is illegal.
- Holding the Nertz pile in your hand is allowed, but it must stay in view of all players.
River
The River is the four-card area in front of a player or team at the start of a hand.
- River piles build downward in rank and in alternating colour. For example, on a red jack the only card that can be played is a black 10; on that, a red 9. As in Solitaire, a River pile can run from a king all the way down to a 2, so long as the colours alternate.
- You may play cards onto your River columns from both your Nertz pile and your Stream pile.
- Stagger the River piles into a visible column so everyone can see what is in each of your four columns. This is not mandatory, but not doing so is unwise and can look shady.
- You may play a River card into the Lake, and you may move a River column onto another River column.
- Playing cards or columns out of your River creates open River slots. There are only four slots, so there can never be more than four River columns at once. An open slot can be filled with a Nertz card — the usual way to work through the Nertz pile — or with an available Stream card for strategic reasons. Filling an open slot is never mandatory.
- You may only play on and from your own team's River. You may not play cards on or from any other team's River, and you may not touch another team's cards during a hand except to return a misplaced card.
Stream Pile
The Stream both scores points and keeps your River flowing.
- Play from the Stream by flipping through it in three-card groups, as in Solitaire.
- Only the top card of each three-card group is playable — to the Lake or to the River. Cards under the top card of a group may not be played.
- You may not add cards to your Stream.
- Each three-card group is placed on top of the group before it, so the pile keeps its original order (less the cards played out of it).
- When the whole Stream has been flipped through, it lies face up on the playing surface — the reverse of its face-down starting state. Pick it up keeping the same order, turn it over, and flip through it again. Repeat as needed.
- At the end of the pile you may be left with a group of only one or two cards instead of three. Turn that group over and play its top available card, then cycle the Stream again.
- You may not retract a three-card group to reach the card under it. To get at that card you must cycle through the entire pile again — and by then it may no longer be playable.
Lake
The Lake is the community area every player or team plays into, and it is where points are scored.
- Every Lake pile must start with an ace.
- Lake piles build upward in ascending rank and in the same suit (again as in Solitaire). If you start a pile with the ace of clubs, the only card that can go on it is the 2 of clubs, then only the 3 of clubs, and so on.
- A pile can be built all the way to a king. When the king is played the pile becomes a "dead pile"; turn the king over on top of the pile to show that it is closed to further play.
- A complete Lake pile therefore runs, suited and with no duplicates: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K.
- Teams may play available Nertz cards, available Stream cards, and available River cards into the Lake.
- Once a card is played into the Lake it cannot be retracted during the hand — with two exceptions: a card that has been beaten and can no longer play there, and a card you mistakenly placed on a pile it does not belong on.
Real-Time
Once "Go" is called, any plays you or your teammate spotted before the hand may be made immediately. The player controlling the Stream can start cycling it at once, while the player controlling the Nertz pile looks for places to play the available Nertz cards. Both teammates can make plays into the Lake and the River, and partners may hand available cards to each other and take available cards from each other to make plays.
Expect the Lake to change constantly, since everybody plays at once — a team may be on the way to a Lake play and find in a split second that another team got there first. All players may use both hands to make plays.
Timeouts
Given how fast and erratic the movements are, there will occasionally be collisions in the Lake, fumbled piles and dropped cards.
- A timeout may be called when an accident involves two or more teams.
- A team that drops a card on the floor or fumbles a pile without affecting another team may not call a timeout.
- Timeouts are for true emergencies, or an accident that stops two or more teams from playing.
- Strategic use of timeouts is prohibited, as is fumbling piles on purpose to change one's card order.
- When a timeout is called, players stop playing immediately.
Timeouts should very rarely be needed.
In-Game Circumstances
- A team that fumbles a pile must do its best to reorganise it without cheating.
- A player returning a card for improper placement must do their best to put it back where it came from.
- If "Nertz" is called by two teams at about the same time, the table decides who called first. If the table decides they were exactly simultaneous, the two teams split the ten points — five each. If more than two teams called "Nertz", divide the points by table vote.
Idled Game
With fewer than four teams, the game can reach a stand-still. This is an Idled Game.
- To confirm the game is truly idled, every team cycles through its Stream pile twice looking for any possible play.
- If no play has been made, all teams agree to simultaneously burn a Stream card. A burn is only legal when all teams are idled — if other teams are still playing, you cannot burn individually.
- To burn, the players controlling the Stream piles take the top card of the pile and place it on the bottom, changing the order so other plays open up. Before a burn, every team's Stream must be gathered into a single face-down pile, as at the start of a hand. Play resumes immediately after a burn.
- In the rare case that burning the Stream produces no new plays, you may consider burning a Nertz card. Before the table may do this, they must have burned the Stream at least three times with no plays at all. If any play whatsoever is made, the whole table must cycle again to confirm the game really is idled.
- To burn a Nertz card, take the top available Nertz card and put it on the bottom of the pile, just as with a Stream burn. Flip over the next Nertz card and resume play immediately.
After a Hand / Scoring
Scoring after each hand is an important part of the game.
Immediately after the hand:
- The teams that did not call "Nertz" count the cards left in their Nertz piles.
- At the same time, one player gathers all the Lake cards and distributes them back to each team. Teams then count their Lake cards.
The scoring values:
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Each card a team played into the Lake | +1 point |
| Each card left in a team's Nertz pile | -2 points (2 points subtracted) |
| Calling "Nertz" | +10 bonus points |
| Two teams calling "Nertz" simultaneously | 5 bonus points each |
A team's score for the hand is its Lake points minus its Nertz points. So the more cards you play into the Lake — and the more cards you clear off your Nertz pile — the higher your score. The team that called "Nertz" adds the ten bonus points to its Lake total for its hand score.
The arithmetic can be done in your head, so the score keeper only has to write down each team's hand total. A negative score for a hand is possible.
Record every hand's score and add it to the previous hands' scores until a team reaches 150 points.
In-Depth Rules
Nertz can be a complex game. Without a board marking where cards go, boundaries can be hard to judge at the speed the game is played, and it is hard to police other players while concentrating on your own cards. The rules below are for those moments, and can be used to settle most Nertz disputes.
Available Cards
Available cards are the cards you can play, or play onto. At any moment there are only six available cards you can play into the River:
- The current available Nertz card
- The current available Stream card 3-6. The top card of each of your four River columns
Every card underneath an available card is blocked.
Withholding Cards
- All available aces must go into the Lake immediately.
- A Nertz card that can be played into the Lake must be played there, unless at that very moment you have an available River slot for it. You cannot withhold Nertz cards from the Lake.
- The only cards you may withhold from the Lake are Stream and River cards, held back strategically to open up more plays for your Nertz cards.
The reason Nertz cards may not be withheld the same way is that the "Flow of the Game" trumps individual strategy.
Stacking
Stacking is the controversial practice of placing more than one card into the Lake at a time: you take the card you are about to play, stack the next available card or cards on top of it, and place the whole group onto an appropriate Lake pile. It can deny other teams the plays they would have had off the single lower card.
- It is up to your table whether to allow stacking. It is legal in NNA events.
- You may only stack available cards. You cannot include cards that sit underneath the cards you are stacking.
- Since only six cards are available at any moment, a stack can be at most six cards.
River Issues
- Method River Transfer (legal) — a time-saving move in which a card is slid under a River card or group of River cards instead of moving the whole column across to an open slot. It resembles an illegal slide-under, but is validated by the existence of the available open River slot.
- Slide-under (illegal) — sliding a card behind a River column when all River slots are filled.
- Strategic River Play (legal) — moving whole columns or partial columns back and forth between River positions to free a slot or a card you want now or soon. As in Solitaire, you may move columns or partial columns freely so long as they stay in sequence and alternating colour.
- You may not play a single River card out of the back or middle of a column into the Lake. The only way to use a blocked River card is to move it together with the cards on top of it to another legal destination within the River.
- Filling a River slot is not mandatory — you may leave one open on purpose.
End of a Hand Issues
- Last Card In Hand Rule — if "Nertz" is called while you are already in route with a card to an available destination, that play is allowed.
- If you are holding a card when "Nertz" is called and only then notice it can be played, it is too late — you may not play it.
- When "Nertz" is called, all play must stop.
Hand Rules
If a card or group of cards you are about to play has not fully left your hand, you may retract it, provided you have not let go.
Handling a Misplaced Card
If a card is found to have been placed improperly, the player must try to return it to where they found it, along with every card its misplacement affected.
Ties
- If two teams pass 150 points, the team with the most points wins.
- If you have been tracking who called "Nertz" each hand, you may instead break the tie on who called "Nertz" most often.
- If you weren't tracking that, the tied teams play a tie-breaker hand — noting that both could drop back below 150, which lets the other teams keep playing and even win.
Cheating
- Premature Nertz (illegal) — calling "Nertz" before playing your final Nertz card.
- False Nertz (illegal) — calling "Nertz" off an illegal play, or after miscounting how many Nertz cards you had left. Any "Nertz" call made without a true Nertz is a False Nertz.
Blatantly breaking the rules to win is cheating. The most common methods to watch for:
- Dealing fewer than the required number of cards into your Nertz pile
- Slipping Nertz cards into the Stream pile
- Sliding cards under River cards with no available slot open
- Throwing cards into the Lake at random after the hand is over
- Tampering with the order of cards in the Stream
- Not shuffling or cutting the deck the required number of times
- Grabbing blocked cards from any pile to make a play
- Intentionally giving or recording an incorrect score
- Hiding cards from the playing area, or hiding them in other piles
Enforcing Penalties
Penalties are enforced as point deductions. How many points to deduct should depend on whether the violation was a common mistake or blatant cheating.
Table votes are a good way to decide guilt or innocence and the size of the deduction. As a rule, the accused player or team does not vote.
For reference, the NNA uses:
- A 5-point limit on players who broke a rule through a common mistake
- A 10-point minimum on players who blatantly cheated
Recommendations
- Decks should not be badly worn, bent, sticky or torn, so that play stays stable.
- Prefer decks with standard faces. Decks with pictures and bright colours on the face side make suits and ranks harder to read, especially once different card faces are mixed together in the Lake.
- Play on a surface that gives everyone an equal amount of space and an equal distance to the Lake. If you can't, rotate positions between hands so everyone gets a turn in the better and worse spots.
- Use a surface cards are easy to pick up from.
- Keep your piles organised. Disorganised piles lead to unintentional illegal plays, which can cost you penalty points.
- Good communication between teammates goes a long way. It is perfectly legal to tell your partner what cards need to be played, so take full advantage. Standing at the table is also legal in the NNA, especially at an oblong table.
- For issues this rulebook does not cover, remember that the NNA puts heavy emphasis on the "Flow of the Game" and the "Order of Cards". Strategy is encouraged, so that victory comes from a combination of speed, skill, strategy and luck of the cards rather than any one of them alone.
- Blatant cheating is not condoned even in groups not playing by these rules — Nertz is not worth playing with someone who cheats.
- House Rules are encouraged: when playing at someone else's house, play by their rules. Talk through the rules you want to use before playing, and agree on "house rules" and "table votes" in case something comes up that you didn't discuss.
- Try other variations of Nertz — there are many — and look at the Nertz terminology list, which may explain why the NNA allows stacking.