Rules for Diamond Rush

Family: Diamond Rush
Categories: Small, New
Variants:
Also Known As: Diamond, Cory's Game

This game was invented by Cory Arnold and was recommended to us by his father, Kenneth C. R. C. Arnold. There is some strategy involved, and you may be able to win as many as half of your games with intelligent play.

Layout

Lay out all 52 cards in four tableau piles, squared up and face down. Turn up the top card of each pile. A single foundation starts out empty, and there is a discard pile to one side. For an attractive layout, arrange the tableaus in a diamond, with the foundation in the center.

Play

For the first move, select the top card of any tableau pile and move it to the foundation.

After the first move, the top card of each tableau is available for building onto the foundation. A card may be moved if it either matches the suit of the top card of the foundation, or has equal or greater rank. Aces rank high when being moved, and can be moved at any time. Once on the foundation, they rank low and any card may be moved onto them.

If the rank of the moved card matches the rank of the top card of the foundation, discard the next card from the same pile. Also, if the suits match and the rank of the moved card is higher than that of the foundation card, discard the next card from the same pile.

Goal

The goal is to empty all four tableau piles.

Tips

Keep the tableau piles fairly even in size. It’s difficult to win if you empty out three piles and still have half a dozen cards in the fourth.

Aces and Kings are especially valuable because they can be played at any time. You may want to wait to play them in case all your other piles become blocked. But don’t wait forever because it’s more important to keep the piles balanced.

The lower the rank of the foundation card, the more tableau cards can be played onto it. Play cards that have the same suit but lower rank to keep the rank of the foundation card as low as possible.