Rules of the Peanuts Card Game

Peanuts is a card game that relies on a combination of speed and patience. (It also has other names, such as Pounce, Nerts and Squeal). It involves players using their own personal deck of cards to create different piles of cards while trying to get rid of all cards in one specific pile. It can be played by any number of multiple players but is best with two to four.

Each player uses his own personal card deck, and each deck must differentiate from the others (they must have different backs). Players deal 13 cards from their deck in front of them, with the top card face up; this is the peanuts pile. They then deal four cards side by side next to the peanuts pile to form the work piles. The remaining deck is the stock; it can be placed face down on the table or held in one hand.

All players play their cards at the same time, with the intent of removing all cards from the peanuts pile. Any face-up Ace on their side of the table is placed in the middle of the table to start a foundation. Players build foundations by playing the next highest card of the same suit—a Two of Clubs goes on top of an Ace of Clubs—until the king of that suit ends the foundation. They can also play any of their face-up cards onto one of their work piles. but the work piles are built in descending value and alternating colors (a Seven of Hearts goes on an Eight of Spades). When a peanuts card is played, the top card of that pile is flipped face-up. When one work pile's cards are all played, the top card from the peanuts pile forms a new work pile.

When players cannot play any cards, they draw three cards from their stock and lay them face up on their end of the table. This is called the waste pile, and its top card can be played just like all the other piles. Any time players can't play a card, they draw three from the stock and add them to the waste pile. When the stock runs out, a player picks up the waste pile and turns it face down to reform the stock.

Play ends when one player runs out of peanuts cards and calls out "Peanuts," and then points are tallied. Players get a point for every card from their deck within the foundations (this is why you need different-looking decks). They then lose two points for every card still within their peanuts piles. They then reclaim all their cards and shuffle the decks, and play begins again. This continues until at least one player reaches a pre-determined score (usually 100 points), and then the one with the most points wins.