During the school year of 2000-2001, the Most Esteemed Lydia taught me this game. I, in turn, taught my roommate Alexia, also Siren and Spunks, two very good friends. And now I will teach you.
What the word 'Nertz' means, I do not know. What the word 'Sluggy' means, neither do I know.
For this game, you need minimum two people, ideally three to five, and pretty definately no more than eight. (We tried playing it with ten people once... it just wasn't so much fun.) All players need their own decks, and all decks must have different patterns on the backsides. The object of the game is to get rid of your Nertz pile more quickly than your opponents.
Let's go through a 'practice round'. It's the easiest way to explain.
All players, Ami, Brad, Christie, and Dan, sit in a circle, preferrably around a table, and shuffle their decks. All players count out ten (10) cards, and set them face down on the table. This is their Nertz pile. They then place four cards face up next to this pile.
The four cards are the Solitaire stacks. During gameplay, the players can stack cards from either their hand or their Nertz pile onto these cards in the same manner of Solitaire: black on red on black, descending. These cards can also be stacked on each other, if applicable.
The 38 cards left facedown in the hand are the drawing stack; it is from here that the players take cards, three at a time.
The table is set. Someone calls, 'Nertz!' Immediately, the top card of the Nertz pile is flipped over.
Game Play Commences
When the game begins, there are a few things to do.
- If Ami has an Ace of any suit, either on top of her Nertz pile or in her Solitaire stacks, she immediately moves it out into the center. There will be a 'ring' of cards, as the players sit in a circle. If Ami moved the Ace from her Nertz pile, she immediately turns over another Nertz card. If she moved it from her Solitaire stack, she then moves the top Nertz card to a Solitaire stack position, and turns another Nertz card. In this manner, she has removed a card from her Nertz pile. Good!
- If Brad has a black 5 and a red 6 in his Solitaire stacks, he can move the 5 to the 6, and move a Nertz card over (don't forget to turn the next Nertz card over). Good!
- Christie cannot move any cards. She takes the top three cards from her drawing pile in her hand, and turns them face up onto the table. She is only allowed to play with the top card. She realizes that she has a Two of the same whatever suit Ami had moved out into the center. She immediately picks up the Two and places it on the Ace. Then she draws three more cards and tries to make a move.
- Dan has turned over some cards out of his hand, and sees that he has just turned up a red 4. His Nertz pile shows a black 5. He cannot play the 4 on the 5. Nertz piles are for getting rid of, not for stacking cards on top of. However, he sees that the next set of three cards he draws reveals a Three of whatever suit has been started in the middle of the table. He immediately places the Three on the stack. His card beneath the Three that he just placed out is an Ace. He immediately moves that card out, too.
When the drawing pile runs out, simply pick it all up as is, and start drawing from where you left off. For example, if Ami had only one card left in her drawing pile, she would set that one down, pick up the whole deck facedown, and finish by taking the top two. This allows her to draw three cards, and still expose as many of her cards for play as possible.
Play is simultanious. Once 'Nertz' is called the first time, no player really waits for anyone else to do anything. The secondary point is to get as many cards in the middle as possible.
If Brad and Dan both have 8 of spades that they wish to play in the middle, it's just a race to see who gets there first. The loser must take his card back.
These steps continue as fast as possible until someone moves their last Nertz card. NOTE: the card must be removed from the Nertz pile position, not simply turned over. When Christie moves her last card, either placed in the center or on a Solitaire stack, she slaps her hand down and calls, 'NERTZ!!'
Play immediately stops. Immediately. Doesn't matter if Ami can lay one more card out in the middle, or if Dan can move one more Nertz card to his Solitaire stacks. Play, Stops.
Game Play Ceaces
AKA, 'Scoring Commences'
Ami, Brad, and Dan take their drawing piles and their four Solitaire stacks, gather them up, and set them aside. This stack is not worth anything in the Scoring.
All Nertz cards are worth negative two ( -2) points. If Dan has three Nertz cards that he did not play -- INCLUDING the upturned Nertz -- he has a total of -6. The cards from the center are gathered up and distributed to their owners. ( This is why all decks must be different. ) All these returned cards are worth positive one ( +1). If Dan gets fourteen cards back from the middle, he has 14-6 = 8 points. So, for the first round, he has a net total of 8 points.
Since Christie won, she gets +1 for all her cards from the middle, plus an additional 5 points for winning,
plus she will get to call 'Nertz' to start the next round. HOWEVER: her Nertz pile will increase by one. So next round, when the other three players are laying out only ten cards in their Nertz piles, she will set out eleven.
On the contrary, if Brad had just a bad game, and only placed out 8 cards to the middle and ended up with 5 in his Nertz pile, he'll have: 5 times -2 is -10, then plus 8 = only -2. He has a net negative score. Therefore, his Nertz pile goes down by one card. He will set out nine cards next round.
Keep track on a piece of paper what all the players scores were. After the second round, add the scores to the scores from the first round, and keep a running tally. The game is over when one of the following happens.
- If the players agree to a set number of rounds, or the first one to reach a certain score will win. Games of one hundred or two hundred points will occupy perhaps an hour or two. Games of five hundred points will take closer to three or four hours. Don't ask how we found that out. ^_^
- The players get hungry/tired, or other time-related engagements require them to return to the real world.
Okay, that's all I can think of. Questions? Comments? Story of how this page got you hooked, and now you've converted your entire family/friends/campus?
Tell me!! Sanna@SannaSK.com
