Blogger / 15 July, 2026 / Nanny Anita

How To Play Pyramid Patience

It has been quite a while since I did a card game related post.  Today’s game is pyramid patience (or pyramid solitaire).  Lie clock patience and normal patience it is a solo card game.

Make sure you follow my card game board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To play pyramid patience you will need:

• A pack of cards with the jokers removed

Set up the cards in a pyramid with 7 rows.  The last row should have 7 cards in it.  Each card in the pyramid overlaps two cards from the row below it.

The remaining cards go into your stockpile.

Aim

The aim of the game is to remove all the cards from the pyramid by making pairs that add up to 13.

Rules

You can only remove cards once they are completely exposed.  If it still has a card from another row on top of it, then it is not free and can’t be removed yet.

The stockpile in your hand has all the cards facing down.  You can turn over one card at a time to see if it can be paired with a card on the pyramid.  During the game can only go through your stockpile 3 times.

You don’t just have to use cards in your stockpile to make a pair.  If there are 2 exposed cards on the pyramid that add up to 13 you can use them.

The card values are:

Ace = 1

Number cards = face value

Jacks = 11

Queens = 12

Kings = 13 (these cards can be removed by themselves as they already have a value of 13)

In this first picture of my game, you can see that I haven’t used any cards from my stockpile.  I had a King, then a Queen and an ace to make 13.  Removing the Queen and ace meant that the 2 became exposed from the row below it.

I could also use the 9 and 4 in that bottom row, followed by the 8 and 5 underneath, and then the King.

After these 5 moves I had to use cards from my stockpile.  The first card turned over was a 10, which I couldn’t use.

The next card was a 3, which could be paired with the 10 on the bottom row of the pyramid.

This particular game was easy to clear all the cards.  I think I actually only went through my stockpile once.  This is not the norm.  Like other forms of patience, you are more likely to lose than win.  I lost the previous game by 1 card because I had been through my stockpile 3 times already.

If you enjoyed this game of pyramid patience, be sure to check out my clock patience, how to play spoons, and beggar my neighbour.

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