Last updated October 5, 2026
The game
- Nertz (also Pounce, or Nerts): the family card race this game is built on. Everyone plays at once and there are no turns.
- Nertz pile: your own stack of cards, the one you are racing to empty. Play your last card from it and Nertz is called for you.
- The middle (also the foundation piles): the shared piles in the centre of the table. An Ace starts one, and everybody adds the next card up in the same suit until the King finishes it.
- Work piles: your four personal piles. Cards stack downwards in alternating colours, and you can move cards between your own piles to uncover what you need.
- Hand and flipped pile: your hand is dealt face down, and tapping it flips three cards. Only the top flipped card can be played.
- Calling Nertz: emptying your Nertz pile. The call happens for you, ends the round immediately and adds 50 points.
- Capturing a King: playing the King that finishes a middle pile. The pile is captured and you score 10 bonus points.
- A stuck table: nobody has been able to move for 25 seconds, so the round ends and everybody is scored on what is on the table.
Scoring and matches
- Points: 1 for a low card played to the middle, 5 for a ten, Jack, Queen or King, 10 for capturing a King and 50 for Nertz.
- Penalty: minus 1 for every card left in your Nertz pile when the round ends, minus 5 for a face card. It is the only penalty in the game.
- Round: one deal, from the countdown to the moment somebody calls Nertz or the table gets stuck. Each round is scored separately.
- Match: the rounds played at one table, added together.
- Target score: the number that ends a match: 100, 250, 500, or No limit for an endless game. The first player to reach it wins.
- Stall: the 25 second quiet period that ends a round by itself. On solo levels the length follows the level.
Tables and people
- Table code (or room code): the short code that lets people join your table, shared by link or by reading it out.
- Seat: your place at a live table. A refresh keeps it, and other players see "away" while you are disconnected.
- Host: the player who opened the table. Only the host deals, and guests can host too.
- Guest: a player with no account. Guests play everything, but their rounds are not saved to a profile.
- Computer player: one of the up to 31 opponents at a solo table, each with a name and a level.
- Level: how hard the computer plays, from Cozy to Card Shark.
- Hints: the lightbulb that glows the cards you can play. On by default on Cozy and Easy.
Accounts, stats and support
- Display name: the name you type before a game. It is what the leaderboard shows, and it does not have to be your real name.
- Stats page: your profile, the global numbers and the three leaderboards, at nertz.app/stats.
- The Coach: the three AI helpers at nertz.app/coach: strategy coach, table finder and score explainer.
- The bell: the notification list on the home screen for table invites and weekly winners.
- Ticket: a message to support. Each one gets a reference number such as NZ-000123.
- Reference number: the ticket number. Quote it and you never have to explain everything twice.
- Ticket status: Open (with us), Waiting on you (we replied and need something), Resolved (done, reply to reopen) or Closed (tidied away, still reopenable).
- Help assistant: the floating helper in the corner of every page. It answers from the help articles and hands you to a person when it cannot help.