Pyramid

How to Play

Each player builds a face-down pyramid from six cards — one on top, two in the middle, three on the bottom. Over six rounds you flip one card at a time, with a $1-limit betting round after each but the last. At showdown the pot splits into three independent thirds — best top card, best two-card middle, and best three-card bottom — so a single hand can have up to three different winners.

🏆Three winners, one pot. Every row is its own contest for a third of the pot — you can win the bottom and still lose the top.

🎭You choose what to show. Each round you pick which card to flip face-up. Hiding your strength — or faking it — is the whole game.

🔀The bottom row is 3-card poker. There only, a straight beats a flush — three-card straights are harder to make. Full order in the table below.

A hand, step by step

Ante & deal. Everyone antes $1, then gets six cards and arranges their own pyramid face-down. You see only your own cards.

Reveal. Each round, every player flips one face-down card of their choosing.

Bet. Each reveal except the last is followed by a $1-limit betting round — the opening bet plus at most three raises, after which players can only call or fold. After the final card is up there's no betting — everyone can see the result — so the hand goes to showdown. The dealer button moves one seat each hand. The player to the dealer's left turns up first in round 1, the next seat in round 2, and so on around the table — the lead advances one seat each round (coming around to the dealer in turn).

Repeat six times until every card is face-up.

Showdown. Compare row by row; each row's best hand takes its third of the pot.

Play on. Everyone re-antes, the dealer button moves one seat, and a new hand is dealt. Run out of chips and you're out — once only one player still has money, they win the game.

How the rows rank

Bottom · 3 cardsStraight flush > Three of a kind > Straight > Flush > Pair > High card

Middle · 2 cardsPair > High card

Top · 1 cardHighest card wins

TiesBroken by the next row down (top → middle → bottom). A tie on the bottom row splits that third.

Variations to try

Pyramid is a natural for house rules. The most popular twist gives everyone extra cards and a discard, so you have a say in which six cards make your pyramid instead of playing the luck of the deal:

Deal 7, burn 1. Each player is dealt seven cards and discards one, then builds a pyramid from the remaining six.

Deal 8, burn 2. Each player is dealt eight cards and discards two. More control over your hand — and tougher reads, since everyone's pyramid is hand-picked.

Everything else plays exactly the same: $1 ante, six reveal rounds with $1-limit betting (none after the final card), and the three-way split-pot showdown. You can pick any of these when you Play Now — just choose the game on the setup screen before dealing.

Watch a Full Hand — step by step

Step through a complete 4-player hand one action at a time. Watch how each player chooses which card to reveal each round — hiding a strong row or representing one they don't have — and how it all resolves in the three-way split.

Pre-deal

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Pot $0

Step 1 / 1

▲ Every card starts face-down — even yours — and turns up only when its owner flips it. Players reveal in their own order, not top-to-bottom; the narration explains why each card is the one they chose to show.