Pyramid Solitaire Game Play Online Free

There are a few terms you should understand before accepting a challenge. Below, you will find their descriptions and explanations.

• Set. It means 3 cards of identical rank.
• Run. This term is used to name several cards in one suit. Whenever an Ace is in the row, it is not a proper run. Aces rank unexpectedly low in this game and cannot form runs.
• Meld. This common term applies to both a set or a run. It works as follows – you may have several melds of a different character. One particular card never belongs to both a set or a run – a playing card can be available in one place at a time
• Stock. This is a common pile for all gamers that they use for drawing additional cards from. No cards are visible here.
• Discard pile. This pile exists in every round, players add a card here, and the face is up for all cards.
• Deadwood. These are idle cards not included in melds.
• Knocking.  This term means a special move to finish the round. In this case, a user adds  a selected card to a discard pile, but its face is not visible.
• Gin. It is a lucky situation when a user can arrange all his cards in melds.
• Big Gin. It is even more luck as 11 cards build melds.
• Lay off. It is a situation when you dispose of your idle card by contributing it to the adversary’s meld.

What’s your goal in this game?

As many readers may have already correctly guessed, your task is to have as few idle cards as possible. Your main goal is to bind all your cards in groups. Your score will directly depend on how many idle (deadwood) elements you own for the moment the entertainment is over. The entertainment may have several rounds. But if one of the participants manages to collect 100 points, he stops, and the game finishes for the others. Each participant will leave the game with an individual score, taking into account all incentives he earned during the gameplay. It is obvious that to become a winner, you need to earn the most impressive score!

Gameplay details Pyramid Solitaire

You enter the round with 10 cards. The rest are not touched yet – they remain with all ranks invisible to others. You leave only one card with a face up – it will be a discard pile.

Now, everyone draws one more card. This can be a random choice from the incomplete deck or the upper card from the remaining pile. All you need is to be lucky enough to get an option that will favorably build melds with your current card set.

Now it is time to make the first move. The player needs to decide whether he collects the card or passes his turn. If you choose the first option, the game unfolds in a routine way. If you decide to skip this move, the next player will need to follow the same pattern. And this algorithm can be repeated like this for other players if needed.

What happens after the player selects a card? He then should give back one card. For this, he analyzes all his set and selects one to get rid off. If initially, you have taken it from this pile, there is no need to return it until the next move. But you may need to return a card that you received earlier or any other element from your current set.

So this is the main principle of the game – draw and discard! The main purpose of this algorithm is to create as many sets and runs as you only can. When does the round end? It happens when one of the players declares he knocks! In this case, the knocker uses a card with face down to put on the discard pile. After it, this player needs to demonstrate all his remaining cards and show how many melds (sets in one suit) and deadwoods (idle cards) he has. This moment should be used by the opponents to get rid of their idle cards – they can lay off these cards to contribute to the knocker’s melds if it is possible at all. How does it work in simple terms? Imagine a user has a particular meld, while the other has one idle card in this suit. So he can add this unnecessary cart to this meld. This way you get rid of the card that does not bring you any benefit. However, this procedure cannot be repeated by the knocker – the rules do not allow him this action. There is one important nuance to remember – you will not be able to pass anything to the player if he manages to achieve Gin or Big Gin.

Knocking cannot be done whenever you want. There are certain rules for this move. You can meet different sets of rules, but this version has this special restriction. You can announce knocking when your idle card points do not exceed 10. How to calculate these? Ace is one point, king, queen and jack is 10 points each, and all other cards are treated by their values. The card that you are planning to use for knocking is not added up when you calculate your deadwood score. Let’s see how it looks in reality. For example, you have 7, 5, and 9 deadwood cards. You can dispose of the 9, and your idle score remains 7+5 =12 in this particular case.

If you wish to proceed with knocking, but have only melds, you can announce Gin. This term means all your 10 cards are arranged in combinations. And if you achieve it for 11 cards, it’s Big Gin – and you are proclaimed an absolute winner.

What if nobody is ready for knocking? The game will be over anyway, and it will happen when only two cards remain in the deck. This situation leaves both players without points.

How is the score counted?

When your score is summed up, all idle points and bonuses are taken into account. Melds do not bring any incentives to the player. Their main benefit is to bring down your bad score.

• Knock points. It is counted after opponents’ layoffs – you should calculate all your idle card points and compare them. If the knocker idle card score was 10, and after the laying off it grew to 25, then a new score is 15.
• Gin bonus. Reaching this game combination will bring you additional 25 points. These are added to the current score.
• Big Gin bonus Pyramid Solitaire. This winning combination gives you 31 additional points.
• Undercut. This score change happens when a player knocks with more or equal idle card score to his adversary. In this case, 25 points go to the opponent. The other receives nothing. If the knocker comes with Gin, no undercut score can be applied.
• Game bonus. Each 100 points bring you additional 100 points.
• Line bonus. Win a hand and boost your overall result by 25 points.
• Shutout bonus. Sometimes it happens
  that you may continuously get winning combinations during the game. This success will double all points given for each win. However, even one hand finished in a tie will cancel this incentive.

You will find a lot of different variants of this cool game. Many of them come with unique rules. But one thing is sure – you will love the engaging process to the fullest.