Pyramid Solitaire

01Discover the game

In this success, the cards are released when you remove the ones that cover them. You are looking for couples whose sum is 13. We use the variant to a single passage of the reserve: winning means emptying the pyramid, without having to empty the remaining cards.

02Equipment

Take 52 cards, without joker. It takes enough room for seven rows in triangle, a reserve and a waste. As is 1, the Valet 11, the Lady 12 and King 13; the other cards keep their value written.

03The goal

Remove the 28 cards from the pyramid. To remove two cards together, their total must be exactly 13. The King, which is already worth 13, withdraws himself. Colors and signs do not matter.

04Preparing the game

Mix cards. Place one card visible at the top, then two cards on the next row, then three, up to seven cards on the last. Each new row partially covers the previous one: one card located between two others blocks the two cards above it. You use 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28 cards.

Place the remaining 24 cards in a reserve face down. Leave a place for the waste, where you will return the cards of the reserve one by one. Initially, only the seven cards of the bottom row are free.

05Making it work

A map of the pyramid is free if no card covers it, even partially. At each step, choose a possible action: to remove a free King, to remove two free cards of which the sum is 13, or to return the card from the top of the reserve on the waste.

You can associate two free maps of the pyramid, or the map visible at the top of the waste with a free map of the pyramid. The hidden reserve is never directly usable. You can't search under the map of the top of the waste. When you use this one, the card that was below becomes accessible again.

The couples to know are : As-Dame ; 2-Valet ; 3-10 ; 4-9 ; 5-8 ; 6-7. Put the cards taken apart : they no longer come back in the game. You can remove several couples before returning a new card.

Do not recycle the waste when the reserve is empty: this version provides for a single passage. However, keep playing the couples still possible on the table. A King must be free before being removed, like any other card.

06An example to understand

A free 8 and a free 5 can be withdrawn: 8 + 5 = 13 If the 5 still covers the 8th, the couple is forbidden. You can't say "they free each other": both must be free before the action.

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Suppose that a Free Lady is blocking for the whole left side. The waste shows an Ace: use them together. This sometimes opens two new cards and creates a chain reaction. Conversely, immediately returning a 9 of the reserve would have hidden this Ace.

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07Win and lose

You win as soon as the last card of the pyramid is removed. Cards of the reserve or of the defeat do not need to be used all. You lose if the pyramid still contains cards, if the reserve is exhausted and if no legal withdrawal is possible. This version does not have points and does not require a chronometer.

08Frequent errors

Don't give the King or the Ace the value 14: here they are worth 13 and 1 respectively. Do not remove a card yet covered. Do not take back the cards eliminated to make a new pair. Finally, do not recycle the waste: other variants allow it, but not the one presented here.

09Start well

When several pairs are available, prefer the one that frees an important card or clears both sides of a blockage. Watch which cards have already been removed. If all four 7s are gone and a 6 remains in the pyramid, it cannot be removed. Even good choices cannot win every deal.