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PLAYING SOME PYRAMID CARD GAMES

(1 deck)

Deal 28 cards face up in the form of a pyramid. Start with 1 card at the top, then a row of 2 below it with these cards overlapping the lower corners of the first. Continue with a row of 3 overlapping the row of 2, and so on, ending with a row of 7 at the bottom. Thus each card in the upper rows is overlapped by 2 cards in the row just below it.

At the beginning, only the 7 cards in the bottom row are free to be moved away. As they are removed, cards in the upper row become free.

Whenever you see 2 free cards in the pyramid that total 13, you may remove them to a discard pile. Jack (counting 11) makes 13 with a 2, and Queen (counting 12) goes with an Ace (1). Kings count 13 and so may be removed singly. Begin the play by removing what cards you can from the pyramid.

The undealt remainder of the deck is the stock. Put this face down at your left, with the discard pile at your right. Turn up cards from the top of the stock one at a time. When you cannot use a turned card immediately, put it face up in a wastepile between the stock and discard pile. You may play off the top of the wastepile, just as you can play from the pyramid.

If a card turned from the stock makes 13 with a free card of the pyramid, or with the top card of the wastepile, you may remove such cards to the discard pile.

To Win the Game you must get the whole deck into the discard pile—that is, match all the cards into 13's.

It is quite proper to keep the wastepile spread so that you can see all the cards in it. When you have choice of removing a card from the wastepile or the pyramid, try to calculate whether one play or the other will cause a block.

For example, suppose that three 7's are gone, two into the discard and one into the wastepile. You turn up the fourth 7,

and there happen to be free 6's on the wastepile and on the pyramid. If you take the 6 from the pyramid, you will be blocked, for the 7 needed to remove the 6 from the waste-pile is buried below it. Therefore you must use the fourth 7 to play from the wastepile, hoping to be able to uncover the buried 7 to match with the 6 on the pyramid.

SIMPLE ADDITION

(1 deck)

Unless you are much luckier than I, you will not win Pyramid often. When you find yourself blocked for the umpteenth time, give it up and try Simple Addition. The principle is the same but you don't have to contend with all those buried cards in the pyramid.

Deal 10 cards face up, in two rows of 5. Remove two cards at a time that total 13—Queen with Ace, Jack with 2, 10 with 3, and so on. Remove Kings alone. Fill the spaces by dealing additional cards from the deck.

To Win the Game you must throw out the whole deck in 13s. You are bound to win if you succeed in dealing the entire deck.

Related terms include pyramid card game and black jack card game.