Today I want to introduce a game I learned last weekend courtesy of my second cousins, Hanna and her father Paul (this family loves playing card and board games together and it's admirable), and I wanted to share it with you.
If you get creative you can even use this as a drinking game.
So this is a very fast paced game, and the more players you can fit at the table, the faster and more fun it is. You may or may not have an upper hand at this if you are good at multitasking. It's basically a multiplayer solitaire.
The picture above shows how this game is laid out and played, and really helps in explaining it as it gives a visual. As you read, refer to this as much as possible.
Each player needs their own full deck of cards with a different back/design; if the back is the same use a black marker to mark a large dot or something on one of the identical decks. You do this because many of each players cards end up in what is shown as the common area.
So you set up your hand has shown above like in player A,B, & C's tableau.
Count out 10 cards from the top of your deck and put those face up in your nerts pile. Each card in this pile counts as -2 pts. The object of the game is to get rid of this pile, and once a player has done so, they call POUNCE and it stops the game (If the first player who finishes does not wish to call Pounce right away, and wants to keep playing to earn more points they can and call Pounce when they feel.
Then flip 1 by 1, 4 cards over to form the work pile. This is where you can move cards around to help better your play. These piles work very similar as solitaire. View above, you can put the next card lower of a different color on top of the card that is there in order to move cards quicker, and also this helps move cards from the nerts pile. The left over cards become your stock pile.
Next there is the Common area. This is where the game play happens and where you rack up points. Every card that you have counts as +1 point for you. The common area starts with no cards in it, but quickly fills up as players first throw their showing Aces in, and built on top of those by placing the 2, 3, 4, etc of the same suit. You can throw your building card on top of another players in the common area (for example you can put your 2 of hearts on their Ace of hearts, or your 5 of clubs on their 4 of clubs). You can also put them on top of your own card in the common area as well (your 2 of spades on your Ace of spades for example. Be quick though, because if two of you are going to the same pile at the same time, whoevers card is placed first (underneath) is who gets the point. Like I said, more players, more fun, faster game; there are more potential Aces and piles and opportunities to get your cards into the common area. Card that go in the common area can come from the top(showing) cards from your work pile (cannot take the 7 of diamond because the 6 of spades is on top of it, much like solitaire, have to work your way to that card), directly from the top card of your nerts pile, or from your waste pile.
As you play, you are emptying your work piles, but should always have 4, so as one is empty you move a card over from your nerts pile to fill that slot and continue playing. When you have no potential moves left, you count out 3 from your stock pile and flip them, and those 3 cards turn into your waste pile. You can only use the top card from your waste pile. If you still have no move you repeat this process (count out 3 and flip) until the stock pile is gone, and shuffle the waste pile and it becomes your stock pile again, and continue play.
You do this until someone calls Pounce. At which point everyone else counts how many cards they have in their nerts pile, and takes that number x2 (again, because each of those cards is worth -2 points) Then you flip over and separate by deck all cards in the common area and return them to the players to count out how many they had, and this is your + score for the game. Add that number to the number (x2) from your remaining nerts pile cards and you have your score for the round, and yes, often times it can start out as negative.
For example, if I have 10 cards in the common area, but 6 cards in my nerts pile it goes 10 + (-12) = -2, and I have -2 points for the round, but say I had 14 cards in the common area instead it would be 14 + (-12) = +2. (I know we can all do math but just making it clear here).
If you play as a drinking game + points can be give drinks, and - points can be take.
You can play till a player hits what ever number you choose, we like to play to 50 or 100, because the rounds go pretty fast and scores can go up rather quickly.
It's a great game, give it a try.
Have fun!!
