Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (31 page)

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   long
   
3. DECKS
   : 2
   

Tourney is neither the most innovative nor most challenging Solitaire variant. The twist is that with so few cards in play, your tourney may last a long, long time. The odds of winning are 1 in every 20 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total), remove all kings and aces, and place these on the table as your foundations. Next, deal six tableau piles, each with four face-up cards. Finally, deal eight face-up cards to a reserve. The remaining cards are your stock.

WINNING
Build eight total foundations: four by suit in ascending rank from ace to king, four by suit in descending rank from king to ace.

HOW TO PLAY
Play the topmost tableau cards directly to the foundations. There is no building within the tableau. Fill vacant tableau slots with four cards from the stock.

You may play any reserve card at any time, but only to the foundations. Replace gaps in the reserve with any available tableau card.

When you’re out of moves, turn up stock cards one at a time and play them directly to the foundations, if possible. Otherwise, place them face up in a waste pile (the topmost waste card may always be played directly to the foundations). When the stock is empty, turn over the waste (do not shuffle) to create a new stock. You are allowed to do this two times.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

This is the card version of the famous “Tower of Hanoi” puzzle, which has three pegs and nine wooden disks of various sizes. The puzzle starts with the disks stacked together in a pyramid shape. The goal is to move the entire pyramid from one peg to any another. Fortunately, where the puzzle version takes hundreds of moves to complete successfully, the card version can be won in much less time.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and set aside all cards except the ace through 9 of any suit (suits are irrelevant in this game). Shuffle these nine cards and deal them, face up, into a random three-by-three grid:

WINNING
The goal is to build a single vertical column of nine cards, the 9 at the top and ace at the bottom, following the rules below.

HOW TO PLAY
Move cards however you like, as long as you follow these simple rules:

Only the exposed card in each column may be moved.

Only one card at a time may be moved.

A card may never be played on lower-ranked cards, only on higher-ranked cards.

In the example above, you may move the 2 onto the 4 or 9, since both cards rank higher than the 2, or move the 4 onto the 9. But you may not move the 9 onto the 4, or the 4 onto the 2. It’s up to you if and when to fill an empty column with any non-buried card from another column.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

Tri Peaks combines the frenzy of Golf with the strategy of Pyramid. The resulting mashup is completely addictive. The odds of winning are 1 in every 6 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal twenty-eight cards to the tableau in the pattern below, with each row slightly overlapping the row above it. The remaining cards are your stock.

WINNING
Remove every card from the tableau, according to the rules below.

HOW TO PLAY
At the start of the game, cards at the bottom of each pyramid are considered “uncovered.” As you discard them, cards higher up the pyramid become available to be played. Start by placing the topmost stock card onto a
waste pile, face up. You now may discard any “uncovered” card in the tableau to the waste pile, as long as it is one rank higher or lower. If the waste card is 5, for example, you may remove any uncovered 6 or 4 from the tableau.