Summit Rush

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order
3. Setup
4. Playing
5. Winning and losing
6. Difficulty levels
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Summit Rush is a cooperative real-time patience: you play as a team and win or lose together. Twenty-eight cards lie in three overlapping pyramids – the peaks – and you clear them by playing cards one rank higher or lower onto a pile, regardless of suit. But each of you has your own pile and your own stock of cards, there are no turns – you both play at the same time – and a timer is running. Grab, shout, help each other, and clear all three peaks before time runs out.

• Players: 2 (3 as a variant).
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and a timer – a 3-minute sand timer or a phone.

Summit Rush is a new game written for this site and not yet playtested. It is our own cooperative version of the patience TriPeaks (Robert Hogue, 1989). The layout and the rule for playing a card are the same; what is new: two waste piles instead of one, a small stock for each player, simultaneous play and the timer. The number of stock cards and the time are the first things to tune if your games are won or lost too easily (see "Difficulty levels").

Card order

As in TriPeaks, the ranks run A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K, and then round the corner: after the King comes the Ace again. So a Queen or an Ace may follow a King, and a King or a 2 may follow an Ace. Suits and colours play no part.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal the peaks as in TriPeaks: 28 cards in four overlapping rows, from top to bottom – 3, 6 and 9 cards face down, then 10 cards face up. Each card in rows 2–4 partly covers the bottom edge of the cards above it, so the three pyramids meet at their base.
2. Deal the other 24 cards alternately to the two of you, face down: 12 each. This is your own stock. Put it in front of you.
3. Each of you turns the top card of your stock face up next to it. It starts your own waste pile – the pile that cards are played onto. Your stock now has 11 cards.
4. Have the timer ready for 3 minutes. Sit so that both of you can reach all the peaks and both waste piles.

Seen from below, each card in rows 1–3 is covered by the two cards of the next row that overlap it. The 10 cards of the bottom row are not covered – they are free. Only free cards may be played.

Playing

Start the timer and say "Go!". From now on there are no turns: you both play at the same time, as fast as you can.

• One hand only: play with one hand, and move one card at a time.
• Onto either pile: a free peak card may go onto your waste pile or onto your partner's, if it is one rank higher or one rank lower than the top card there – for example a 5 or a 7 onto a 6, a Queen or an Ace onto a King. Keep going as long as cards fit; such a series of cards is called a run.
• Touch it, play it: a card you touch must be played at once – you may not pick it up and hold it while you wait for a pile to change. If you both reach for the same card, whoever touches it first plays it. If a pile changes under your hand so that your card no longer fits anywhere, put it back where it was.
• Turning up: as soon as both cards covering a face-down card are gone – whoever removed them – turn it face up. It is now free.
• Your stock: whenever you like, you may turn the top card of your own stock face up onto your own waste pile. It always goes there, whether it fits or not, and becomes the new card to play on. Only you turn your stock, and only onto your pile. There is no second pass: a turned card stays on the waste pile.
• Talking is allowed – and helps: "Eight on my pile!", "Wait, don't turn!", "I'll turn."

If your stock is empty, you keep playing peak cards onto both piles; only your partner can bring in new cards now.

Winning and losing

• You win together as soon as all 28 peak cards are gone – before time runs out. Then count the cards left in both stocks: that is your score for bragging rights.
• You lose when the time runs out (hands off at once), or when both stocks are empty and no free card fits either pile.

Example: The start shown above: Anna's waste pile shows the 4♠, Ben's the 9♣. "Go!" Anna plays the 5♥ and then the 6♦ onto her pile; at the same time Ben plays the 10♠ and then the J♥ onto his. Four neighbouring cards of the bottom row are gone, so three face-down cards are uncovered: Anna turns up a 7♦, Ben a 2♣ and a Q♣. Anna plays the 7♦ onto her 6♦; Ben plays the Q♣ onto his J♥ and the K♦ onto the Q♣. The 8♥ lies right in front of Ben – it fits Anna's 7♦, so he plays it onto her pile. Now the K♦ and the 8♥ are gone, and the card they covered is turned up: a 9♠. Anna plays it onto the 8♥.

Ben adds the Q♠ to his K♦, which uncovers a 4♦. Now nothing fits: the piles show the 9♠ and the Q♠, the free cards are 7♣, 2♠, 2♣, 3♣ and 4♦. "I'll turn!" Ben turns his next stock card onto his pile: a 3♥. A new run starts – Ben plays the 4♦ onto it, Anna the 3♣ onto the 4♦, then the 2♠. These three cards uncover four more face-down cards, and the rush goes on.

Difficulty levels

The budget: 28 peak cards against the stock cards – on Normal 22 fresh starts (11 per player after the first card is turned) and 180 seconds, about six seconds per peak card. On Hard only 18 fresh starts and 120 seconds, about four seconds per card.

In a computer simulation with a simple but careful strategy and no timer, TriPeaks alone was won in 37% of the deals. With two waste piles and 12 stock cards each it was 62%, with 10 each 41%; without round the corner 27% (12 each) and 15% (10 each). The timer comes on top of that and was not simulated – and people play differently from a computer. If the game is too easy or too hard for you, change the time first, then the number of stock cards.

Tips for beginners

• Save your stock. Turn a card only when nothing fits on either pile – every stock card is a fresh start you may need later. And only one of you turns: "I'll turn!"
• Call out what you need. "I need a Jack!" is faster than both of you searching.
• Free the face-down cards first. Prefer cards that uncover something: every new free card is a new chance.
• Keep the piles one apart. With a 7 and an 8 on top, every 6, 7, 8 and 9 fits somewhere – even a card of the same rank as a top card, which a single pile could never take. That makes long runs possible.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Three players: three waste piles, 8 stock cards each (7 after turning up the first). On Hard and Expert, 6 each – put the 6 left-over cards aside unseen. The timer stays the same. With three piles more cards fit somewhere, so the game gets a little easier.
• Silent summit: no talking at all – you may only watch each other's hands. Much harder.
• Race the record: play several games in a row and add up the stock cards left over in the games you win.