Pyramid Poker
Pyramid Poker is a two-player design that consists of 54 wooden rectangular blocks, 52 of them with the standard card deck distribution (2-A in four suits) on one side and two of them with a pharaoh on one side.
To set up the game, place all of the blocks face down and shuffle them. Each player then takes fifteen blocks. They take turns looking at one of their blocks and placing them into a two-dimensional pyramid-shaped structure, again seeing only their blocks, then they take turns removing any one block from the pyramid and placing it into one of three poker hands that they're constructing. Each poker hand is competing against the one opposite it that's being built by the opponent.
If a player draws a pharaoh, they draw three face-down blocks that weren't initially chosen, discard two of them, then add the third block to one of their poker hands.
Once all the blocks have been removed, the player who wins two or three of the poker hands wins!
Number of players: 2
Game duration: 13 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Pyramid Poker and 837 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Components and Setup
54 blocks comprising a full set of playing cards plus two jokers. Jokers are not wild, but instead give a player a special action during the Building your Hands phase. Shuffle all 54 blocks together face down into the general supply; each player then takes 15 blocks to put in their personal supply face down without looking at them.
Place the Pyramid foundation board between the two players.
Building the Pyramid
Players take turns choosing one block from their personal supply and placing it on the pyramid. Blocks must either be placed directly on the foundation board or centered on a pair of blocks already in place. You should place the block so that only you can see the face of it. Continue alternating placement of blocks until all 30 blocks have been set into the pyramid structure.
Building your Hands
Players now take turns removing blocks from the pyramid to form poker hands. Take any block with no blocks on top of it and look at the face. If you have chosen a Joker block, discard that block and turn over three tiles from the general supply; choose one of these blocks to keep and discard the other two. Now choose one of your three Hands for that block; Hands are limited to 5 blocks each.
Scoring
Basic Scoring
Compare each players Hands, one at a time, according to the poker Hand Rankings below. Higher rank wins the Hand. Winning two out of three Hands wins the game.
| Poker Hand | Example | Score (for Advanced games) |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 10♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠ | 5 Points |
| Straight Flush | 4♠ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ | 4 Points |
| 4 of a Kind | Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ Q♠ 3♣ | 3 Points |
| Full House | Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ 2♦ 2♠ | 2 Points |
| Flush | Q♠ 7♠ 4♠ 9♠ K♠ | 1 Point |
| Straight | 4♠ 5♦ 6♣ 7♥ 8♦ | 1 Point |
| 3 of a Kind | 4♦ Q♦ Q♣ Q♥ 7♦ | 0 Points |
| 2 Pair | 4♦ 4♣ Q♣ Q♥ 7♦ | 0 Points |
| Pair | 4♦ 9♣ Q♣ Q♥ 7♦ | 0 Points |
| No Pair (Highest Card wins) |
4♦ 9♣ Q♣ K♥ 7♦ | -1 Points |
Advanced Scoring
Certain hand rankings provide points, according to the chart above. Calculate individual Hand scores as well as comparative wins and keep track of cumulative points.
| Each Hand | As scored above |
| Win 2 hands | 3 Points |
| Win all 3 hands | 4 Points |
| Every hand lower than one Pair | -1 Point |
Play to 7 points for a short game or 11 points for a longer game.
