Snatch Solitaire Rules: How to Play

A phone, tablet or computer with a browser. Each player uses their own device.

One player is enough. Play alone, against bots, or with friends. The host can add up to three bots.

Every player gets a full deck of 52 cards of their own, with backs in their own color. There are no jokers.

There are no turns. When the countdown ends, everyone plays at once, as fast as they like.

You have a snatch pile of thirteen cards to get rid of. Cards leave it one at a time, onto your own work piles or onto the piles in the middle.

The piles in the middle belong to nobody. An ace starts one, and anyone can add the next card of that suit.

The moment one player’s snatch pile is empty, the hand is over. Every card still in your snatch pile is a point against you. The lowest total wins.

Your own cards sit at the bottom of your screen. Other players see how many cards are left in your snatch pile, not the cards themselves.

• Snatch pile: thirteen cards, with the top one face up. A number on it shows how many are left. You can play the top card and nothing under it.
• Work piles: four piles, each dealt one face-up card. Build them down in alternating colors, such as a red six on a black seven. Any card can start an empty one.
• Runs: cards built in order on a work pile can move together onto another work pile, as long as the first card of the run fits there. You can move a whole run or the lower part of one.
• Stock: the other 35 cards, face down. Tap it to turn one card face up beside it. The top turned card can be played. When the stock runs out, tap its empty spot to turn the pile back over, in the same order, as many times as you like.

The middle is the shared space above your cards. It is on every player’s screen. Each pile shows its top three cards, and every card has a ring in the color of the player who played it.

An ace starts a new pile there. Each pile then builds up in one suit, in order: two, three, and so on up to the king. Anyone can play the next card, from any deck.

Every player has a deck, so there can be several piles of the same suit, each started by its own ace. A pile that reaches the king is finished and leaves the middle.

Three kinds of card can go to the middle: the top of your snatch pile, the top turned card from your stock, and the top card of each work pile. They go one at a time, and a card in the middle stays there.

The host picks how long the game runs on the setup screen, before the first deal. If there are bots in the room, the host also picks Easy, Medium or Hard for all of them there.

• One hand: a single hand decides it.
• To 25: play hands until anyone’s total reaches 25.
• To 50: the same, for a longer game.

1. Host a room and share the room code or invite link, or play on your own.
2. Add bots in the lobby if you want them.
3. Start the game. Everyone gathers on the game screen.
4. The host picks the game length, and the level of the bots if there are any, and taps Deal.
5. Everyone on the game screen at that moment gets a seat, bots included. Each seat is dealt its own shuffled deck: thirteen cards to the snatch pile, one to each of the four work piles, and the rest to the stock.
6. A 3, 2, 1 countdown plays. On “Snatch!” the cards can be touched.

Everyone plays at once. A strip on your screen shows every player with the number of cards left in their snatch pile, so you can see how close everyone is.

At any moment you can do any of these:

• Send a card that fits to a pile in the middle.
• Move the top of your snatch pile onto a work pile it fits, or onto an empty work pile.
• Move the top turned card from your stock onto a work pile.
• Move a card or a run from one work pile to another.
• Tap the stock to turn the next card.

When two players send a card for the same spot, the first card to arrive wins the spot. The other card comes back to its owner, and their screen says “Snatched!”. The pile flashes in the color of the player who got there first.

A card sent to the middle goes on the pile you dropped it on, if it fits there. If not, it goes on any pile it fits. If it fits nowhere, it comes back and the screen says “No pile for that”. A card that comes back costs you nothing.

The undo button in the title bar takes back your last move on your own cards: a turn of the stock, or a move onto a work pile. You get one undo, and your next move earns it again.

A card that was accepted into the middle cannot be taken back. Once a card of yours lands there, or the snatch piles turn, there is nothing to undo until your next move. The undo also waits while a card of yours is on its way to the middle.

Every deal is checked before it goes out, so that it can be played out. A hand can still be played into a corner.

If your own cards have no useful move left, your screen says “No moves for now: watch the middle”. A card someone else plays can free you.

If every player is stuck for a few seconds, the snatch piles turn: the top card of every snatch pile goes to the bottom, and the next card shows. The table says “Everyone’s stuck” and “Snatch piles turn”. It costs nobody anything.

If the snatch piles have turned thirteen times in one hand and nobody can move again, the host gets a button to end the hand. It is then scored as the snatch piles stand.

The hand ends at once when any player’s snatch pile is empty. It does not matter where the last card went: onto a pile in the middle or onto one of that player’s own work piles.

Play stops for everyone. The screen says “Snatch!” and shows who emptied their pile, then each player’s cards left, fewest first. In a game to 25 or 50 it shows each running total too.

The host taps “Deal the next hand”. Everyone keeps their seat and gets a freshly shuffled deck.

You score one point for every card left in your snatch pile when the hand ends. The player who emptied their pile scores nothing. The most a hand can cost you is thirteen.

Nothing else counts. Cards left in your work piles and your stock cost nothing, and cards you played to the middle earn nothing.

In a game to 25 or 50, points add up from hand to hand. The game ends after the hand in which anyone’s total reaches the target, and the player with the lowest total wins. In a one-hand game, the player with the fewest cards left wins.

This is not the usual Nertz count, which gives points for cards played to the middle and takes points away for cards left in the pile. Here the cards left are all that count, and low is good.

• Ties: players with the same total share the same place. If two or more share the lowest total, they share the win.
• There is no clock and no turn order. One card at a time goes to the middle, so a run cannot be sent there together.
• Cards move onto work piles and into the middle. They never go back onto your snatch pile or your stock.
• The end of the game: once a total has reached the target, the final standings come up a few seconds after the hand’s scores. The host can tap “Final standings” to go there right away, and can then start a new game.
• Someone leaves during a hand: the hand goes on. Their seat and their count stay, and they are scored on the cards left in their snatch pile. They do not hold up a turn of the snatch piles. A player who misses a whole hand scores the full thirteen for it.
• A late joiner: seats are set when the host deals the first hand. Anyone who arrives after that watches, and gets a seat when the host deals a new game.
• Pausing: any player can pause a hand with the pause button, and anyone can resume it. Nothing moves while it is paused, bots included.
• The host leaves the game: everyone goes back to the room.
• The host’s device drops out and the room passes to someone else: the game cannot go on, and everyone sees that the host left. Deal again to play a new game.

The host can add up to three bots in the lobby. Each bot takes a seat, gets its own deck in its own color, and plays by the same rules as everyone else.

Each bot is Easy, Medium or Hard. The host can set them one by one in the lobby, or all at once on the setup screen.

The level changes two things: how fast the bot plays, and how often it notices a move it could make. Harder bots play faster and miss less. An Easy bot can look past a card that fits for several of its moves.

A bot leaves a pile in the middle alone for a moment after it changes, and harder bots wait less, so a quick player can beat a bot to a pile. A bot’s card is treated like anyone’s: the first card to arrive wins the spot.

Host a room on your own, add one to three bots in the lobby, and deal. You race the bots to empty your snatch pile, and pick how hard they play.

You can also deal with no bots at all. The middle is then yours alone, and one deck on its own often runs out of moves. When it does, your snatch pile turns and you carry on.

Host a room and send the room code or invite link. Friends open it on their own phones, wherever they are. Everyone sees the same middle on their own screen, and everyone’s cards left along the strip. Your own cards stay on your own screen.

Open joinme.games/watch on a TV or laptop and enter the room code. The big screen shows the middle, large, with each card ringed in the color of the player who played it, and every player’s name and cards left along the top.

It also shows the flash when a pile is snatched, each hand’s scores and the final standings. Players still play on their own phones, where the middle shows too. The TV only watches.

• Drag a card up into the middle and let go anywhere in it. The card goes on a pile it fits. You do not have to aim. The middle lights up while you drag.
• Drop the card on one pile to choose that pile, if the card fits there. A quick flick up toward the middle works too.
• Tap a card that fits the middle and it goes there. Tap a card that does not, and it moves to a work pile it fits, choosing a pile with cards on it before an empty one.
• Drag a card or a run onto a work pile to move it there. Tap a card partway up a work pile to move the run from that card down.
• Tap the stock to turn a card. Tap the empty stock to turn the pile back over.
• In the title bar, the arrow is the undo and the pause button pauses for everyone, as does P on a keyboard. The question mark shows the instructions, and the × leaves the game.

How do you play Snatch Solitaire?

Everyone plays their own deck at the same time. Aces start piles in the middle, and anyone builds them up by suit to the king. Build your four work piles down in alternating colors, and get rid of the thirteen cards in your snatch pile. The first empty snatch pile ends the hand.

Is Snatch Solitaire the same as Nertz?

It plays like Nertz, Dutch Blitz and Pounce: your own deck, a pile of thirteen to empty, and shared piles in the middle that everyone races to build. The scoring is our own. You score a point for each card left in your snatch pile, and the lowest total wins.

How do you score Snatch Solitaire?

One point for every card left in your snatch pile when the hand ends. The player who emptied their pile scores nothing. Cards played to the middle earn nothing. In a game to 25 or 50, the game ends when anyone reaches that total, and the lowest total wins.

Can you play Nertz online with two players?

Yes. Snatch Solitaire plays like Nertz and works with two. Host a room and send the invite link, and you each play on your own phone. You can also add up to three bots, or play one on one against a bot.

Can you play Snatch Solitaire alone?

Yes. Host a room on your own and add one to three bots, set to Easy, Medium or Hard. Each bot plays its own deck, and a quick player can beat it to a pile.

What happens when nobody can move in Snatch Solitaire?

When every player is stuck for a few seconds, the snatch piles turn: the top card of each goes to the bottom and the next card shows. If the piles have turned thirteen times and everyone is still stuck, the host can end the hand.