How to Play Nertz
Overview
Nertz (also spelled Nerts, and known as Pounce, Racing Demon, Peanuts, Squeal, or Scrooge) is a real-time, multiplayer solitaire race. There are no turns — every player plays at the same time, as fast as they can. Each player uses their own standard 52-card deck with a distinguishable back design so cards can be sorted back to their owners afterward.
Components (per player)
Setup (each player, simultaneously)
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Nertz pile: Count out 13 cards face-down into a stack; turn the top card face-up. This is your Nertz pile — emptying it ends the round.
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Work piles (the River): Deal 4 cards face-up in a row next to the Nertz pile. These are your tableau/work piles.
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Stock (the Stream): The remaining 35 cards form a face-down draw pile in your hand or in front of you.
Playing (all players at once — no turns)
When everyone is ready, someone says "go" and all players play simultaneously:
The Lake (shared center foundations)
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The center is a communal area where foundation piles are started with Aces and built up in suit (A-2-3-...-K).
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Anyone may play to any Lake pile — it is first-come, first-served. There is no ownership of center piles.
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Cards played to the Lake are how you score, so getting cards into the center quickly is the whole game.
Your work piles (the River)
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Build your 4 work piles down in alternating color (e.g. a red 9 on a black 10).
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You may move a card (or an ordered run) from one work pile onto another to free things up.
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When a work pile becomes empty, you may fill it with any single available card (typically your face-up Nertz card or a card from your stream/waste).
Your Nertz pile
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Only the top (face-up) card of your Nertz pile is playable. Play it to the Lake or onto a work pile when legal; then flip the next card face-up.
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The goal is to empty the Nertz pile — the cards in it are a big penalty at scoring.
Your stream (stock)
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Turn cards from your stock 3 at a time into a face-up waste pile (the stream). Only the top waste card is playable.
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Keep cycling through your stock to find cards you can play to the Lake or your work piles.
Ending the Round — calling "Nertz!"
The instant a player empties their entire 13-card Nertz pile, they shout "Nertz!" and all play stops immediately. The hand is over for everyone, even mid-move.
Scoring a Hand
After the call, sort the Lake by deck back so each player can count their own cards:
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+1 point for each card you played into the Lake (the center).
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-2 points for each card remaining in your Nertz pile.
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Some groups add a +10 bonus to whoever called Nertz (an optional house rule; formal tournament play typically uses no call bonus).
A hand's score can be negative if you left many cards in your Nertz pile and played few to the center.
Winning
Deal and play repeated hands, accumulating scores. The first player (or team) to reach the agreed target — most commonly 100 points — wins. If no one reaches the target within an agreed number of hands (tournament play often caps at 20 hands), the highest cumulative score wins.
Variations Worth Knowing
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Team / Partnership Nertz: partners pool their Lake cards and Nertz penalties into a single team score; teammates can play each other's cards to the center.
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Head-to-head: the two-player race is the purest skill test — your only opponent's speed directly limits how many cards you can land in the Lake before the call.
