Pyramid Dozen takes Giza's open board and moves the target down by one, and that small change reshapes the court cards completely. Twenty-four cards are dealt face up as six reserve piles of four, and the other twenty-eight as a seven-row triangle. There is no stock and no waste. Two available cards leave together when their values add up to twelve — ace with jack, two with ten, three with nine, and so on, with two sixes pairing with each other — or when they are a queen and a king, which add to twenty-five. Nothing is ever removed alone, not even a king. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.
Goal: Play Pyramid Dozen free online. An open pyramid game: pair cards adding to twelve, match the queen with the king, and clear the whole pack with no stock.
Pyramid Dozen is Giza's variant and, on paper, a trivial change: the target sum drops from thirteen to twelve. What that does to the court cards is anything but trivial. At thirteen, the ace meets the queen, the two meets the jack, and the king is worth the target on its own — every rank has a natural partner and the king is a free removal. At twelve, the jack pairs with the ace, but the queen can no longer reach the target with anything at all, and neither can the king. So the source gives them a second sum of their own — twenty-five, which only a queen and a king can make — and takes away the king's solo removal entirely, in two places at once: the click shortcut is overridden to do nothing, and the discard is rebuilt to refuse a single card. The result is a game with a hard constraint at the top of the deck: eight court cards that can only be cleared in four specific pairings. The open-source PySolFC collection tags it open and rates it balanced, and the six deeper reserve piles make it the tighter of the two open pyramid games.
This Pyramid Dozen runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day.
Ace with jack, two with ten, three with nine, four with eight, five with seven, and six with six. The queen and king cannot reach twelve at all.
Only by pairing them with each other — they total twenty-five, which is the game's second sum. There are four such pairs in the deck and no other way.
No. Nothing is removed alone in Pyramid Dozen. The lone king belongs to the pair-to-thirteen games; this one has no thirteen.
Yes. Six plus six is twelve. It is the only same-rank pair here and the easiest move to walk past.
The sum is twelve rather than thirteen, the queen and king pair only with each other, nothing goes alone, and the reserves are six piles of four rather than eight of three.
No, and it is tighter than Giza. The eight court cards must clear in four exact pairings, so a buried queen can end a deal on its own. Plan before you play.