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Nertz: Game Play
Each player must have his or her own (clearly differentiated)
standard deck of fifty-two
playing cards, withoutjokers. Any number of players can
(theoretically) play, thoughmost games have two to eight players.
The game requires a large center area, such as a
table. There are two types of playing areas: the central area
and personal areas for eachplayer or team. The personal area can
only be played on by the individual; the center areaanyone can play
on.
Starting out, players count out thirteen cards face down, and
turn the topmost card up.
This is referred to as the Bone Pile (aka Nertz Pile or Pounce
Pile depending on
preference). Then each player puts four cards face up next to
the Bone Pile. These cardsare referred to as starting cards,
because they begin the four separate, playable card
stacks. In Nertz, there can never be more than four starter
cards per each individuals
personal area.
Play begins with one player calling "Go." For the first hand, it
is customary for the playerwith the best five card starting poker
hand showing to say "go." After the first hand, the
last place player, as a consolation, is said to be in the
"Driver's Seat" and is permitted to
say "Go."
Players then move the cards in numeric sequence, according to
alternating color. Forexample, a player has these five cards to
begin with: KingRed,Queen Black, JackRed, 5
Black, 6 Red. These five piles can be reduced to two, with the
jack placed on the queen
and then the queen placed on the king. The five can be played on
the six.
Once that is accomplished, a player can then move three cards
off his/her Bone Pile to
replace the three missing starter cards. Unlike Solitaire, any
card can begin a new pilewithin a players personal playing area,
not just a king. Any card that is playable on the
Bone Pile can (and should) be played in any way possible.
Players with aces available to play put these aces out in the
center playing area. Anyone
can play on card piles in the center area. Aces always begin the
center piles. From there,
depending on whether you are playing Standard Nertz or a
variation, either a 2 or a king
of the same suit goes on. In Standard Nertz, if an ace of hearts
is played, a 2 of hearts canbe played thereon, and then a 3 of
hearts, and so on. In the center area, all cards must
follow what has been previously played both in suit and in
numeric sequence. In Pounce
when a pile is finished off with its king the player who lays
the king yells "Stop!" and the
pile is removed from play. Once the pile is out of the way "Go!"
is yelled and playresumes. In a variant, instead of "Stop" the
player who lays the king announces "I am
now invoking Lyn's Rule!" or just "Lyn's Rule," for short, to
alert players that play will bedisrupted while a pile is removed.
Nonetheless, under the Lyn's Rule variant, the other
players may continue play while the completed pile is removed
from the center playing
area.
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Like Max-cards, each player flips over a predetermined set of
cards from their remaining
deck (generally one card or three cards) in search of playable
cards. This is known as the
turn deck. If the amount flipped is 3, then that means the
player can only play the topmostof three cards within the personal
playing area or the central playing area. If the third
topmost card cannot be played, the next three cards are flipped,
with the topmost again
being the only playable card, and so on until the deck is gone
through. At the very end ofthe deck, the bottommost card can be
played regardless of whether it is the third card or
not. Then the deck is turned over and the flipping begins
again.
While playing on ones own five card row (which no one else can
play on) can aid
eliminating the bone pile, in Nertz no points are gained in this
manner. To gain points,you must play on the center piles. This
naturally results in a very fast-paced game, as
players naturally try to play on the center piles as much as
possible. Whatever player lays
his/her card down first on a sequence is awarded the play. When
making a play, a personmay only lift one card at a time and place
it on the ongoing sequence. If there are two
valid plays that the person has, the person must lay the two
cards down one at a time.
Only one hand may be used to play to the common area, i.e. the
player may not have onecard in one hand waiting to play it while
playing another with the other hand.
The point of the game is to get rid of the Bone Pile as quickly
as you can. One must
either get rid of the Bone Pile or all players must run out of
moves for a gaming round to
end. In a variant, if all players run out of moves, each player
simultaneously moves thetop card of such player's turn pile to the
bottome of such player's turn pile and play
continues. Who ever eliminates the Bone Pile yells Nertz!,
"Pounce!," etc. depending
on personal preference, and all game play must cease
immediately. If a player is in the
middle of making a play in the center area when Nertz is called,
the player only getspoints provided the card has left the players
hand before the call. If the player still holds
the card and Nertz is called, the play is void and the player
gets no points. Naturally, thisonly applies to plays made in the
center game area. Immediately after a player eliminateshis Bone
Pile he should call "Nertz!" as play doesn't end until it is
called.
If Nertz is called in error (which has a large scoring
ramification; for more info see
below), the player who falsely called Nertz takes back the
original card from its Bone
Pile, as well as taking three more cards from its deck. These
cards are taken from the topof its turn deck, regardless whether it
has flipped numerous cards over. The three
additional cards added to the Bone Pile are not taken from cards
already turned over. If
the turn deck only has one or two non-turned cards, the
remaining cards are flipped overand the top one or two cards fill
the remaining quota.
Some critics of the game Nertz contend that it is incredibly
easy to cheat if the person
against whom you are playing is paying too much attention to
their own cards.
[edit] Scoring
Once Nertz is called and verified, the cards in the center area
are returned to theirrespective decks. This is why it is important
to play with highly distinguishable decks, so
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the points are awarded accurately and each decks playing
integrity is maintained. Each
player is awarded a predetermined number of points for each card
they have played in the
central area (often one point per card). Each player is then
penalized a (possibly different)number of points for each card left
in their bone pile (often two points per card). So,
using the one/two point system, if a player has fifteen cards
played in the central area,
and ten cards left in their Bone Pile, they are awarded fifteen
points, but penalized twentypoints, for a total of negative five
points. In some Nertz games, Aces are given the point
value of twenty, while all other cards are worth ten. In this
version of the game, Aces are
double the predetermined value assigned other cards. Some
scoring variations includeawarding a preset point value to the
person who calls Nertz.
If Nertz is called incorrectly, all other players are awarded
ten points, and the total
amount of players times ten is taken away from the player who
called it incorrectly. For
example, if four people are playing, and one calls Nertz
incorrectly, that player is charged30 points, 10 points being
awarded to each of the other players. In the variation where
Aces are worth 20 and one of the three cards added to the
players Bone Pile is an Ace,
the points awarded to the other players is upped to 20. In this
instance, the three playersare each up 20 points, and the incorrect
player is automatically penalized 60. Who evercalls Nertz correctly
once it has been called incorrectly gets an additional 25 points.
If the
player who incorrectly called Nertz actually gets rid of his
Bone Pile legitimately, he
suffers no penalties.
Players decide on an ending total (generally 500), so whoever
reaches that total first wins
the game. It is highly possible to never call Nertz in an entire
game and still win.
[edit] Lottery Scoring
Some Nertz variations includeLotto Scoring. In Lotto Scoring, if
points are taken awaydue to penalties, the next hand these are in
lotto, and whoever scores the most gets the
additional points. For example, if one player is minus 60 on
Round 1, Round 2 has a lottoof 60 points. Whoever scores the
highest on Round 2 gets the additional 60 points. You
can also score it whoever calls Nertz gets some of the lotto
points as well. However, if a
player is 60 in the hole and he gets 70 points, he comes out 10
ahead, and nothing goesinto lotto.
[edit] Face Cards or Low Cards Worth More
It is generally not recommended, unless in variation games such
as Swinging Door Nertz,
to give face cards a higher value, because other than Aces face
cards are not played oftenin the central playing area, and if face
cards are in the Bone Pile their full value is
subtracted from points won. If full value is not assigned for
face cards in the Bone Pile,then giving face cards higher levels
result in more interestinggaming strategies. Some
play that Ace through 5 is worth more.
[edit] Cards Represent Face Value
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For scoring, cards can be assigned face value. 2 is 2 points, 3
is 3 points, etc. The face
cards (10 through Ace) can either be 15 each with Aces 20, or
Jack 11, Queen 12, King
13, and Ace either 1 or 15.
