Nertz

How to play Nertz

1. A deck each. Each player has a full deck of 52 cards with its own back: orange for Orange, purple for Purple.
2. The layout. Your deck is dealt into a nertz pile of 13 cards with only the top card face up, and four face-up work piles of one card each. The other 35 cards are your stock.
3. No turns. After "Ready, steady, go!" both players play at the same time, as fast as they like.
4. Aces to the middle. Any ace you can reach starts a foundation in the middle. A foundation builds up in its own suit, ace to king: the 2 of hearts on the ace of hearts, then the 3 of hearts, and so on. Both players can play on every foundation, and each card you put there scores a point for you. If you both go for the same place, the card that gets there first stays.
5. Work piles build down in red and black. A card can go on a work pile if it's one rank lower and the other colour than the card at the end: a red 6 on a black 7, a black jack on a red queen. Hearts and diamonds are red, spades and clubs are black.
6. Moving between work piles. You can move the card at the end of a work pile onto another work pile, or a card from further up together with all the cards on top of it, as long as the first card you move fits. Any card can fill an empty work pile, from your nertz pile, your waste or another work pile.
7. Your nertz pile. Its top card can go onto a foundation, onto one of your work piles or into an empty work pile. Then the next card turns face up. Emptying this pile is the whole point of the game.
8. The stock. Turn your stock over three cards at a time onto your waste pile. Only the top card of the waste can be played. When the stock runs out, turn the waste over to make a new stock, in the same order, and go through it again.
9. When you're both stuck. If neither player has a play that helps, even by going through their stock, each player's waste goes back into their stock and the top card moves to the bottom, so different cards come up the next time through. If nothing in either stock will ever play, the hand ends without a Nertz call.
10. Nertz! As soon as a player plays the last card of their nertz pile, the game calls "Nertz!" for them and the hand stops at once.
11. Win. Hands are played until a player reaches 50 points (or 100, the usual target in the card game) at the end of a hand, and the higher total wins. If both are level at the top, you play one more hand. (Pagat's rules don't cover ties.) Choose One hand for a quick game: the higher score wins it, and the same score is a draw.

Scoring

At the end of each hand, each player scores 1 point for every one of their own cards in the middle and loses 2 points for every card still in their nertz pile. The player who called Nertz has none left, so they lose nothing. The top card of each pile in the middle has a small orange or purple tab under it to show whose card it is, and the box at the end of the hand counts everyone's cards for you.

Calling Nertz doesn't always win the hand: a player with lots of cards in the middle can still outscore the player who went out. Scores can go below zero.

Controls

• Tap a card to send it to its best place: onto a foundation if it fits one, otherwise onto the end of one of your work piles, and, if it fits nowhere else, from the nertz pile or another work pile into an empty one (a waste card goes there only if you drag it). Tap a card in the middle of a work pile to move it with the cards on top of it.
• Drag a card to choose where it goes yourself, for example to put your waste card into an empty work pile.
• Tap your stock to turn three cards over. When it's used up, tap the empty space to turn your waste over.
• Cards that can go onto a foundation right now are lifted and outlined in yellow. If you go six seconds without playing a card while you still have a move, the game outlines one in blue (or your stock, when the card you need is in it). When nothing you can do will help, even from your stock, a Stuck label appears under your points.
• Keyboard: Orange uses 1 2 3 4 for the work piles, Q for the nertz pile, W for the waste and E for the stock; Purple uses 7 8 9 0, U, I and O. Against the computer, either set works. A work pile key plays its end card onto a foundation, or else moves as many cards as fit onto another work pile (or just its end card into an empty one).

With 2 Players on a phone, Purple's cards are at the top, turned round to face them, with the foundations in the middle between you. On a wide screen, Orange plays on the left and Purple on the right.

Computer levels

The computer sees only what a player at the table would see: its own face-up cards, the middle and your face-up cards. It never knows the order of the face-down cards in either stock or nertz pile. It needs time for every card it plays and every turn of its stock.

• Easy takes about 2.3 seconds a card and often overlooks a play for a while. It only moves cards between its work piles when nothing else is left to try.
• Medium takes about 1.6 seconds a card, misses fewer plays and moves cards between work piles to make room for its nertz cards.
• Hard takes about 1.2 seconds a card and checks where each move leaves it before making it.
• Expert takes about 0.9 seconds a card, never overlooks a play and plans three moves ahead: which work pile to clear, and when to dig a card out of its nertz pile.

Tips to win

• Your nertz pile comes first. Every card left in it costs 2 points, and emptying it ends the hand while your rival still has cards to play.
• Keep an empty work pile for your nertz card. When the top nertz card fits nowhere, moving a short work pile onto another one gives it a home.
• Watch the middle. Your rival's cards build the foundations too, so a card you couldn't play a moment ago may fit now.
• Race for the contested places. If you both have the next card for the same foundation, play yours first: it's a point for you, and your rival's card has to wait.

About Nertz

Nertz is a competitive form of patience, or solitaire, for two or more players, each with a deck of their own. Pagat, the card game rules site, lists it under many names: Nerts, Nertz, Pounce, Racing Demon, Peanuts, Squeal and Scrooge, and rates it a very good game for two and a fun one for three or four. Six, eight or more players can play in pairs, two partners to a deck.

This version follows Pagat's rules. Some families deal 11 or 12 cards to the nertz pile, take off only 1 point a card, or turn the stock one card at a time; here it's the usual 13 cards, 2 points and three cards at a time. Two things are done for you: the game calls Nertz the moment a nertz pile is empty, and it turns both stocks round when you're both stuck.

Questions

Updated 12 November 2026