Dutch Blitz

Ever played a card game called speed?  Imagine playing that game with up to 8 players at once.  That is what it's like to play Dutch Blitz.  You can play a version of the game with 4 decks of regular cards but to get the full enjoyment you really need to pick up an official set.  Each set comes with 4 decks, each deck has a different symbol and color on the back to differentiate from each other.

Each player has their own deck, if there are more than 4 players then players can team up in pairs until you have 8 total but each team is to have one deck. The point of Dutch Blitz is to be the first player/team to 75 points.  A player gets points by playing cards from their deck onto the dutch piles that will accumulate in the middle of the table.

Before each round, the players must setup their deck as fallows.  Three Post Piles, one Blitz pile, and a Wood pile.  There are no turns, and the round begins when the last rounds winner say go.  As the round begins any player/team can place a card in the middle by either starting a new dutch pile or playing onto an existing one.  Dutch piles must all fallow the same color and stack in order, so the bottom card must be a 1 and the next card that can be played on it is 2, then 3, and so on.  Players then flip 3 cards from the top of their wood pile and place them face up in a new pile.  Any card that is on the top of the post, blitz, or wood piles can be played into the middle on a dutch pile. But only 1 card at a time and 1 hand at a time.

Players can also stack on their own post piles to move cards off their blitz pile but must be done in a descending boy/girl order.  But be very careful here, if you try to get too cute by moving cards off your blitz pile in an attempt to blitz early then you may end up blocking a lot of valuable cards. During the round players can continue to flip 3 cards off their wood deck until it is gone.  once it is gone they must pick the deck up and start over.  They cannot shuffle the deck.

 When a player runs out of cards in their blitz pile then they yell "Blitz!!" and the round ends. all players then gather their cards from the middle dutch piles, and any cards found in these dutch piles count for 1 point while every card left in a players blitz pile will count as 2 points against them.

This point system has an interesting effect.  You can try to get as many cards onto dutch piles as you can or you can try to blitz early and end up with only a few points but giving your opponents all negative scores.

The game is played at a frantic pace and can often lead to accusations of cheating and arguments over who played a particular card first.

Once you master the card game you can try the Dutch Blitz sport.  It is the same game but played with giant sized cards that force players to run around while playing full contact Blitz!