Ligretto / Nertz / Racing Demon
A very fast game
Players and cards: 3+, each with their own pack of playing cards, each with easily distinguishable, different backs.
Deal: Each player shuffles the pack, then places 4 cards face-up in a “row” in front of them, then 13 in a “stack” face-down except for the top one which is turned over. The remaining cards are kept in the player’s hand as the draw pile.
Play: Players can discard piles from their row or from the top of their stack. Aces are discarded in the centre of the table, and can then have a 2 of the same suit placed on top of them, then a 3, etc. New piles can be started any time an Ace becomes available to a player.
If players are unable to discard a card from the 4 row cards or from their stack, they can look at every 3rd card from their draw pile and play a card from the top of that pile if it goes on a pile in the middle of the table. Once a player’s hand has been completely passed through in this manner, it can be reshuffled by the player and the cycle begun again.
When one of the row cards is placed in the middle, the space gets filled up with the top card from the stack.
Once a player has discarded all cards from the stack pile, s/he calls out “Ligretto stop!” and ends the round.
Scoring: At the end of each round, all the cards on the table are turned over. Players get one point for each card discarded in the middle during play, and minus two points for each card remaining in their stack. The person who calls “Ligretto stop!” gets 10 bonus points. It is common to score a negative value. After the score is calculated, each player reshuffles his/her cards, and a new round begins. This can continue until a player scores a certain number (eg 75) points, or for a set number of rounds.
