Nurtz rules

[Ellie]

This is for Justbcos (and anyone else who is interested in knowing how to play Nurtz).

Nurtz is a speedy card game. I will do my best to explain the rules.

You can play with 2 or more people. (Funnest, in my opinion, is 4 people. 3 people is fun, 2 people is plain ol' boring.)
Each player gets his own deck of cards.

The object of the game is to get rid of all of the cards in your Nurtz Pile. Or, if you are playing a series of rounds, to get the most points.

Before the game begins, each person counts out twelve cards and lays them in a pile, faces downward, in front of them and slightly to the right or left. This pile is called your Nurtz Pile. The cards in your hand (should be forty cards), for the sake of clarity, I will call your Flip Cards

When 'Go' is called, from your Flip Cards, flip one card ONTO your Nurtz Pile face up and then flip four more cards face up BESIDE your Nurtz Pile So now you should see five card faces before you, one is on your Nurtz Pile, the others are beside it, in a horizontal row.

Now it gets tough to explain. Bear with me, and if anything doesn't make sense, post and say so, and I'll try to explain.

The way you get cards out of your Nurtz Pile is to either play in to the center of the table, or to move those cards onto the four cards arranged beside the Nurtz Pile. The way you play onto those cards is like playing Solitaire - if one of those four cards is a black 10, a red 9 can be played on it, and after that, a black 8, etc. If another of the four cards is a red Jack, the black 10 (along with the 9 and 8 and etc. on it) can be moved onto the red Jack. In the empty place that the black 10 has just left, take the top card off of you Nurtz Pile, place it into the empty space, and turn over the next card on your Nurtz Pile.

In the center (which is the area between you and your opponent) can be played Aces. You can play on any ace that is out in the center, including those put out by your opponent. You play on an ace by putting a 2 of the same suit onto it, and so forth, until that pile reaches the King of that suit, and then that pile MUST be removed from the table. Whoever plays the King must pick up the pile and put it to the side.

The Flip Cards in your hands may be flipped three cards at a time. You may play the exposed card either into the center of the table, or onto the four cards arranged before you. You MAY NOT play it onto the card on the top of your Nurtz Pile.

Scoring: The end of a round is when one of the players exhausts his Nurtz Pile (at which point, that player cries "Nurtz!" and all other playing stops). If you have not run out of your Nurtz Pile DO NOT put the remaining cards back into your Flip Cards. You MAY put the cards arranged on the four cards in front of you back into your Flip Cards. Now, gather all the cards played into the center. Sort the decks and give players their cards. Count played cards. Now, count remaining cards from Nurtz Pile. SUBTRACT remaining Nurtz Pile cards FROM played cards. This number is your score. Player who runs out of Nurtz Pile cards gets points for all of his played cards.
If you have more Nurtz Pile cards than you have played cards, I'm afraid you do get negative points.

Good luck! And have fun.

[justbcos]

Awesome, Ellie, thanks! As I recall, this game gets kindof crazy and loud, just what my kids like!!! I'll have to go get some cheapy decks of cards so we can play.

[MaryS]

Question:

Is everyone playing at once or do they take turns?

If taking turns, how do you do that?

[Ellie]

You're welcome, Justbcos. It is very crazy and loud - I'm sure your kids will love it. And, yes, you definitely want some cheap cards - the cards WILL get torn up.

Maryb, in Nurtz, there is no such thing as turns. As soon as 'go' (or whatever your word is) is called, its every man for himself, against every other man. If you have the same card to be played out in the center as your opponent, then the two of you must race to get it there. The loser must remove their card. This point is the point that will raise most arguments within a game: "I got there first!" "No, you shoved my hand out of the way!" "You slid your card under mine!" "Well, that's skill for you!"

By the way, if someone is playing a card and you slde your card under theirs before theirs leaves their hand, its your card that stays, and they must take their card back.

[Appy Trails]

My family has been playing this for as long as I can remember. Only we call it Peanuts! Only difference is that we have 11 cards in the Peanut (Nurtz) pile instead of 12.

Just two can be fun, I usually play with my mother and she always wins However, I agree, the more people playing, the crazier and more fun it gets. The most I ever played with was 5!

[Cowgirlwannabe]

Holy Cow! I used to play that game all the time. Thanks for the memories!

Maryb - you play it with two people sitting opposite each other

[Cowgirlwannabe]

Oh I just saw the beginning of the post, I have never played it with more than 2 people. That sounds fun!

[Ellie]

Maybe 2 people isn't very boring, but I'm used to playing it with at LEAST 4 people (not often, but occasionally there are only three of us) and up to 7 people. I think 7 is the most we've ever played with...it might've been 8 or 9. Talk about a crazy game.