Amazons

Amazons is an old patience or card solitaire game which is played with a single deck of playing cards. The game is played with a Piquet pack minus the kings or a standard 52-card pack that has its twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, and kings removed. This game is named after the female-led tribe, the Amazons, because the queen is the highest card, and all queens are displayed if the game is won. Background Amazons is an old game, recorded as early as 1898 in the 2nd series of Dick's Games of Patience, where it is described as being played with a Piquet pack. Parlett points out that, like Puzzler, it is the short pack equivalent of the compulsive but frustrating game of Auld Lang Syne. As a 32-card patience, it is not commonly included in English games compendia. Rules First, four cards are dealt in a row as the tableau, called the auxiliary row by Dick and the reserve row by Morehead & Mott-Smith. Above this is another row of initially four spaces for the foundations. Once an ace is available, it is placed on the foundations from left to right in the order in which they become available. If an available card in the auxiliary row is immediately below the foundation of the same suit and is the next card in sequence, it is played onto that foundation pile. The order of placing is in ascending sequence: A-7-8-9-10-J-Q.