Pyramid Rules

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck without jokers. High hands are ranked according to the standard poker hand rankings.

Six shared cards are dealt face down in a pyramid of three rows: one card at the top, two in the middle and three at the bottom. Each position is numbered to show the order in which it is turned up:

The pyramid has three sides, each of three cards: the left side (4-3-6), the right side (4-1-5) and the base (6-2-5). Each corner card belongs to two sides.

This page describes the three-sided game as the standard version. Another game called Pyramid, with wild, shared and kill rows, is covered in Article 5. Pyramid Poker is an unrelated casino game.

Each player places an agreed ante before the deal. Each betting round begins with the first active player to the dealer's left.

Each player is dealt four cards face down. The dealer then lays out the six shared cards face down in the pyramid.

There is a betting round after the deal. The shared cards are then turned face up one at a time, in the order 1 to 6, with a betting round after each: seven betting rounds in all. The top card (4) is turned fourth, and the corners 6 and 5 last.

Each player makes a five-card hand by combining two, three or four of their own cards with three, two or one shared cards. All the shared cards used must come from one side of the pyramid.

This is a high-low game with a declaration. After the last betting round, each surviving player declares high, low or both. The best high hand among those declaring high takes half the pot, and the best low hand among those declaring low takes the other half.

A player who declares both must make both hands from the same seven cards: their four hole cards and one side of the pyramid. Under the usual declaration convention, such a player must win or tie both ways to take any part of the pot.

The source does not fix the ranking for low hands. Players shall agree it in advance; ace-to-five, in which straights and flushes are ignored and 5-4-3-2-A is the best low, is common in home games. See hand rankings.

Low ranking. If the group uses a low ranking in which straights and flushes count, such as ace-to-six or deuce-to-seven, a hand such as A-2-3-4-5 is a straight and is no longer a good low. The ranking must be agreed before play.

Other Pyramid games. Because the name only describes the triangular layout, the dealer shall say which Pyramid is being played. The wild, shared and kill cards version is set out in Article 5.

In this version each player is dealt five cards face down and nine shared cards are laid face down in three rows: two cards at the top, three in the middle and four at the bottom.

Play proceeds as follows:

5.2(a) There is a betting round after the deal.

5.2(b) The top row is turned up. Every card of those ranks is wild, but the two top-row cards themselves cannot be used by anyone. A second betting round follows.

5.2(c) The middle row is turned up. These three cards are shared cards that every player may use with their own cards. A third betting round follows.

5.2(d) The bottom row of four cards is turned up. Every card of the same rank as a bottom-row card is killed: it must be discarded, whether it is in the middle row or in a player's hand. A fourth betting round follows, then the showdown.

At showdown each player makes the best five-card hand from their surviving hand cards and the surviving middle-row cards. With wild cards, five of a kind is possible and normally ranks above a straight flush.

The source does not say whether this version is played high only or high-low, or what happens when a rank is both wild and killed. The dealer shall announce these points before the deal.