In Dutch Blitz, each player has her own deck of forty cards, with cards 1-10 in four colors; red and blue cards show a Pennsylvania Dutch boy, while yellow and green cards show a Pennsylvania Dutch girl. Each deck has a different symbol on the back to aid with card sorting between rounds.

At the start of each round, each player lays out three cards face up in front of her to create her post piles; places a face-up stack of ten cards, seeing only the top card, next to her post piles to create her blitz pile ; and holds the remaining cards in hand face down.