Friday, 3 August 2012 - "Pyramid" solitaire

This is a trickier solitaire game than the "Clock" that I taught you last week.  To play, all you need is a deck of cards.
Take out the jokers and shuffle your deck (see 8/2 post to learn how to shuffle).  You will lay out cards in the form of a pyramid, so make sure you have enough space.  This isn't a great game to play on your bed, especially if it is soft, because the cards need to stay in their formation.

Turn the top card face up and place it at the top of your playing surface.  Then turn over the next card and place it so it is covering the bottom left corner of the first card. 

Place the next card from the deck next to it, so you have a row of 2 cards.  Lay out a row of 3 cards next, then 4, then 5, then 6, and then 7.  Stop after your row of 7 and your pyramid should be shaped like this:

Now to play!  Each number card is worth its face value, Aces are worth 1, Jacks are 11, Queens are 12, and Kings are 13.  Your goal is to remove 2 cards that equal 13.  You MAY NOT use a card that has anything on top of it; you may only remove "open" cards. 

Looking at the bottom of my pyramid, first I will remove the King, since it is worth 13.  Cards that are removed get put in a face-up stack near the pyramid that we will call the discard pile.  Then I will take off the 9 and 4 that are right next to each other.  My 3 is on top of a 10, but that 10 is not open.  Since I took off the King and the 9, I have an open 10 in that spot.  I will remove the 3 and that 10.  I can also take off a 6 and 7, but now I have no more cards to remove.  Here's what it looks like now:

Now I will start to work my way through the deck.  Turn over the first card from the deck.  If you can use it to remove something from the pyramid, great.  If not, put it on the discard pile.  I got a 10 in the game I am showing you, so I couldn't use it.  Remember, Queens match up with an Ace to make 13, and Jacks can match up with a 2.  You only get to go through your deck one time, so look carefully for matches.  The goal is to get all the cards off your pyramid, but since it is pretty hard to win, you could also keep track of how many cards were left, and then when you play again, try to have fewer left.  Below is a picture of how my game ended.  I had 16 cards left.  Can you beat that?  Play one time and then let us know how you did!!

Variation:  Instead of going through the deck one card at a time, you can deal three cards at a time.  Turn them over as a stack and do NOT put them on your discard pile.  You can only use the top one.  If you use the top one, then the next one is revealed and you can use that one.  When you can't use the top card, turn over the next group of three, again so you can only see and use the top one.  When you have only 1 or 2 cards left in your hand, turn those over on the top of the deck pile.  If you can't use one, you can pick up the cards left in the deck, turn it over (DO NOT SHUFFLE), and start going through them 3 cards at a time again.  Keep going until you have nothing else you can do.