Pyramid rules

A short patience built on a single number. Cards are cleared in pairs adding to thirteen, and it takes about three minutes.

The layout

Deal 28 cards face up in a pyramid — one card in the top row, two in the second, down to seven in the bottom row, each card overlapping the two beneath it. The remaining 24 cards are the stock.

Card values

Ace 1, number cards their face value, jack 11, queen 12, king 13.

The goal

Remove the entire pyramid.

The moves

A card is available only when no card overlaps it — so at the start, only the bottom row of seven.

Remove any two available cards totalling thirteen: ace with queen, two with jack, three with ten, and so on. Remove any king on its own, since it is already thirteen. Available cards include the top of the waste pile, so a stock card may be paired with a pyramid card.

The stock

Turn cards from the stock one at a time onto a waste pile. Depending on the version you allow one, two or three passes through it. One pass is the classic and the hardest.

Winning

Clear the pyramid and you have won, whether or not the stock is exhausted.

The deals are far less often winnable than Klondike — perhaps one in twenty with a single pass. The skill is in looking ahead before making an obvious pair: removing a card that was the only partner for something buried higher up loses the game several moves before it becomes obvious.

Pyramid: an example game

One game of Pyramid followed from the deal to the finish, move by move, with the reason for each choice.

The deal

Twenty-eight cards are laid out in seven rows, and each card lies on the two below it. In this deal the bottom row reads 6♣ 7♦ K♥ 9♠ 3♥ 10♦ Q♣, and the row above it A♠ 4♣ 8♥ J♦ 2♠ 5♦. The other twenty-four cards are the stock, and this game allows three passes through it.

Only the bottom row is free at the start. The aim is to take cards away in pairs adding to thirteen, or kings on their own, until the pyramid is gone.

Clearing the bottom two rows

K♥ goes first, on its own. Then 6♣ with 7♦, and 3♥ with 10♦. That frees A♠, 4♣ and 2♠ in the row above. 4♣ pairs with 9♠, and A♠ with Q♣, which frees J♦, 8♥ and 5♦.

J♦ with 2♠ and 8♥ with 5♦ empty the row above as well. Thirteen cards are gone without turning a single card from the stock — a generous start that not every deal gives you.

A queen on its own ace

The fifth row is now free: 3♣ 7♠ K♣ Q♥ 5♣. K♣ goes on its own, and nothing else pairs. The trouble is Q♥: it lies on A♦, and a card can never be paired with the card it is covering. Q♥ needs one of the other aces, and A♠ has already gone.

So it is time for the stock. The first card is 10♥, which takes 3♣. The next, 6♠, takes 7♠, and that frees 8♠, which pairs with 5♣.

The waste as a stack

The next card turned is A♣, the ace Q♥ needed. Taking the pair frees A♦ and 10♣. Then 9♣ comes up and pairs with 4♦, which frees 2♦. The card after that, 7♣, has no partner and stays on the waste, and Q♠ goes on top of it.

Q♠ takes A♦, and 7♣ is the top of the waste again. J♠ is now free and pairs with 2♦. The next card, 3♠, takes 10♣, which frees 6♥ — and 7♣, waiting on the waste all this time, pairs with it.

The top of the pyramid

Only three cards are left: 9♥ and Q♦ in the second row from the top, and 5♠ above them. The stock gives 2♥, which has no partner, and then 4♠, which takes 9♥. A♥ takes Q♦, and 8♦ takes the last card, 5♠.

The pyramid is clear in 31 moves, with thirteen cards still in the stock. The deal is won the moment the last card goes, whatever is left.

What the deal shows

Q♥ on top of A♦ was the only real danger in this deal. Had another ace been used up earlier, Q♥ would have had one partner left somewhere in the stock, and the whole top of the pyramid would have depended on finding it.

The habits that won it are the ones that win most deals: take pairs that free the cards above them, check what each card is lying on before you pair it, and remember that a card left on the waste comes back when the card above it goes.