Nines gives every card in the pack exactly one way out, and that is what makes it satisfying. Nine cards are dealt face-up as nine piles of one in a three-by-three square, with a talon of forty-three behind them. Two exposed cards leave together when their values add up to nine — ace with eight, two with seven, three with six, four with five. A nine is worth nine on its own and leaves alone. The ten, jack, queen and king go to four slots below the board, one of each rank, and a full set leaves together. While any slot is occupied the talon waits. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.
Goal: remove all 52 cards in pairs that total nine, nines on their own, and reserve sets of ten, jack, queen and king.
Nines is the most orderly game in the Elevens line, and the reason is a small piece of arithmetic. Because the target sum is nine, the ranks divide cleanly into three groups that do not overlap at all: ace through eight pair with each other, the nine matches the target on its own, and the ten, jack, queen and king are exactly the four ranks that cannot reach it. The reserve is built to take one of each, so every card in the deck has one route out and no rank is ever stranded by the rules themselves. The open-source PySolFC collection, whose rules this version follows, arrives at this by an interesting route: its Nines class inherits from Tens but overrides the reserve condition back to Elevens' — one of each rank rather than four of a kind — so reading the family by inheritance alone would get the game exactly backwards. What it does keep from Tens is the held-back talon, which is what stops the tidy structure from making the game easy.
This Nines runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day.
Ace with eight, two with seven, three with six, and four with five. The nine itself goes alone, and the ten, jack, queen and king go to the reserve slots.
Because it already equals the target. The same idea gives Thirteens its solo king and Pyramid its solo king — the card that matches the sum needs no partner.
One ten, one jack, one queen and one king. A second card of a rank already parked is refused, so a set is always four different ranks.
No, it is the opposite. Tens wants four cards of one rank; Nines wants one of each of four ranks. The two games look alike and play very differently.
A card is sitting in a slot. Nines holds the talon back while any slot is occupied, so nothing refills until the set of four is complete.
No. The talon order can leave the board with no pair to take. Taking nines promptly and waiting for several high cards before opening a set gives you the best chance.