How To Play the Card Game Dutch Blitz

When I was a kid, growing up in Amish country in Indiana, there was a packaged card game called Dutch Blitz that had colored and numbered cards with pictures of little Amish buggies on them.  We played it a lot at what our town called Summer Fun.

Summer Fun was where the town has older kids and adults monitor kids playing games while on summer break.  I seem to recall the kids came and went freely.  The adults appeared to pretty much just be there to get games out, organize groups, and keep the peace.  I think there were also some crafts and stuff the adults did with the kids.

I didn't want to buy a special deck of cards and I had tons of face cards around, so I just used them.  You could use any deck of cards that has multiple suits and has at least 10 cards in each suit.  I will explain the game using face cards.

The Premise of the Game
The game is kind of like Skip Bo and multi-player Solitaire rolled into one game.  The object is to play as many of your cards as possible and get rid of your Dutch Blitz pile as fast as possible by playing them ace through ten of the same suit on common piles in the middle that everyone plays on.  Once one person has gotten rid of their Dutch Blitz pile, then everyone counts up the number of cards they have played to get their score.

Set Up

• Get a deck of face cards for each player and remove all cards except the cards ace through ten.
• Each person shuffles their deck and then deals a pile of ten cards face down, with the top card facing up.  This is their Dutch Blitz pile.
• Next to the Dutch Blitz pile deal three single cards face up.

Playing

• Players play any aces they find during play into the middle of the table.  If they find a two and there is an ace of that same suit they can play it.  It does not matter who placed the ace.  Do the same for cards three through ten.
• Once a pile has been completed in the middle the person that played the ten is responsible for taking it out.  Game play does not stop to wait for them.
• Cycle through the cards that were not dealt three at a time.  Placing the three cards in front of them in a pile.
• The top card of the three is the only one that can be played and once you put another three down on top of them, you can't go back.
• Once you have cycled through all the cards in your stack, pick them up and turn them over and go through them again.
• When you play the top card of the cards you are cycling through you may then play the one under it.
• When you play one of the three face up cards that are next to your Dutch Blitz pile, you may move your top card from the Dutch Blitz pile into that spot.
• When you play your last card from the Dutch Blitz pile call "Dutch Blitz" or "Blitz" or "Done" or whatever you all agree on.  Even if the last card you played was moving a card over from the Dutch Blitz pile to the three face up cards, you are still done.

Scoring

• Once someone has called Dutch Blitz then collect all the cards from the middle and give them back to each player.
• Each player counts the cards they played.
• Each player deducts the number of cards left in their Dutch Blitz pile.  The difference is your score for that round.
• One player will keep a sheet of paper with each players name and their score each round.
• Before you play, you should agree on what score you are playing to in order to declare a winner.  Once someone's cumulative score from the rounds reaches that amount they win.