Patience (solitaire) Cards portal

Pyramid - solitaire

Pyramid
A Patience game
Family Adding and pairing
Deck Single 48 or 52-card
The initial layout of the game of Pyramid.

Pyramid is a solitaire game where the object is to get all the cards from the pyramid to the foundation.

Rules

The object of the game is to remove pairs of cards that add up to the total of the highest card in the deck from a pyramid arrangement of 28 cards.

When using the standard 52-card deck, Jacks value at 11, Queens 12, and Kings 13. So the highest value is 13. Playing with a 48-card Spanish deck the highest numbers are also the Kings at 12, so the pairs must add up to 12.

To set up the pyramid, one card is dealt face up at the top of the playing area, then two cards beneath and partially covering it, then three beneath them, and so on completing with a row of seven cards for a total of 28 cards dealt. The remaining cards are placed to the side face down. This is the Stock.

To play, pairs of exposed cards can be removed to the Foundation if their values total 13 (12 if using the Spanish deck). Thus, kings can be removed immediately to the Foundation. Cards must not be covered. Thus when an Ace rests on a Queen, that Queen can not be removed.

You may draw cards from the Stock one at a time and match it with any exposed card. If no match is made the drawn Stock card is still discarded into the Foundation.

Once the Stock is exhausted and/or no more pairs can be made, the game ends.

To score, count the number of remaining face up cards in the pyramid. A perfect score is therefore zero, where all cards have been matched into the Foundation..

Conditions for winning

To be considered won, all cards (cards from the pyramid and cards from the stock) must be moved to the foundation; the game cannot be won if at least two cards cannot be moved from the stock.

Variations

Computer implementations

A variation of the game was released on the Microsoft Entertainment Pack in 1990, under the name Tut's Tomb. It has also been added to Microsoft Solitaire Collection for Windows 8.

COMMENTS