Pyramid Card Game

Pyramid Card Game is a single player game that is difficult to win since it relies more on the luck of the draw than skill.

Age: Adults and older children

No. of Players: One

Equipment: One deck of standard cards (no jokers).

Time: 5+ minutes

Aim: To remove all the cards from the pyramid.

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1. Shuffle the deck and deal the cards (face up) in rows to make a pyramid, beginning with one card, then a row of two cards overlapping the previous row. Continue down to a row of 7 cards. The completed pyramid should be 28 cards.

2. Set the remaining cards face down on the table to make a draw pile. The top card from the draw pile is turned face up next to the draw pile.

3. If two exposed cards add up to 13 they may be discarded. (Note: It is optional at any point in the game to discard. This is where the element of skill enters the game.) The exposed cards can be from the draw pile or the pyramid, with Aces = one, Jacks = 11, Queens = 12 and Kings = 13 and the other cards equal their face value. This means that Kings (13) can be discarded by themselves, while Queens and Aces (12 + 1), Jacks and Twos (11 + 2 ), Tens and Threes (10 + 3), Nines and Fours (9 + 4), Eights and Fives (8 + 5), Sevens and Sixes (7 + 6) form other pairs that can be discarded. Any new pairs (or Kings) that are uncovered can also be discarded.

4. The next card from the draw pile is then placed face up and step 3 is repeated until either the entire pyramid is discarded (win) or all the cards in the draw pile have been turned over (lose).

Alternative 1: To make it easier to win the game, the cards from the draw pile can be turned back over and the game continued until the pyramid is fully discarded (win) or there are no more pairs that can be discarded (lose).

Alternative 2: Another alternative for Pyramid Card Game is to allow any combination of two or more cards that add to thirteen to be discarded. For example, you could discard a 6, 4 and 3 in one turn, since 6 + 4 + 3 = 13.

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