Nerts
A real-time racing solitaire for 2–4 players. Everyone plays at once on shared foundations. Empty your Nerts pile first, shout Nerts!, and score points from the cards left in everyone else's Nerts piles. First to 100 wins the match.
Objective
Empty your personal Nerts pile before the others, call Nerts, and accumulate the most points across rounds.
Setup (Each Round)
Each player races with their own full standard 52-card deck (backs are color-coded by seat). Every deck is shuffled before each deal.
For every player, dealt from their own deck:
1.
Nerts pile — 13 cards, face up. Only the top card is playable.
2.
Tableau — four piles, one face-up card each. Build down by alternating color. Empty tableau piles accept a King only.
3.
Stock — the remaining 35 cards, face down. Flip one at a time to a waste pile.
Foundations start empty in the shared center. There are 16 foundation piles (enough for four decks). An empty foundation accepts any Ace; then build up by suit (A→K). An Ace is always placed on the first empty foundation.
When a new round is dealt, every card goes back to the deck it came from — including the cards played onto the shared foundations — so each player starts every round with their own complete deck again. In a game of fewer than four, the unused decks are set aside.
How to Play
This is real-time — there are no turns. Any player may act at any moment.
At any time you may:
•
Flip the top card of your stock onto your waste (or recycle waste back to stock when the stock is empty).
•
Play the top card of your Nerts pile, waste, or any of your tableau piles:
•
onto a shared foundation (next higher card of the same suit; Ace starts an empty pile), or
•
onto your own tableau (one rank lower, opposite color).
•
Only the top card of a pile moves, one card at a time.
•
You may not play onto another player's tableau, or play another player's cards.
Race carefully: if two players try the same foundation slot, the first valid move wins.
Calling Nerts
When your Nerts pile is empty, press Nerts! immediately. Play stops and the round is scored.
If you call Nerts while you still have cards in your Nerts pile, that is a false call: you take a penalty and the round still ends.
Scoring
•
Correct call: +2 points for each card remaining in opponents' Nerts piles.
•
False call: −2 points for each card still in your Nerts pile.
Match scores carry across rounds. When any player reaches 100 (or more), the player with the highest score wins the match. Otherwise a new round is dealt.
Only the caller's score changes when Nerts is called, so the player who reaches 100 is always the one who just made a correct call, and nobody else can be level with them.
Tips
•
Clearing Nerts is the only way to end the round on your terms — don't ignore foundations that unblock your Nerts top.
•
Keep tableau space open for Kings and for maneuvering buried Nerts cards.
•
Speed matters, but a false call hurts.