Amazons (card game)

Amazons is a card solitaire game, sometimes described as a tolerance or patience game, played by a single player using one deck of playing cards. Depending on the variant, the deck is either a thirty two card Piquet pack with the kings removed or a standard fifty two card deck with the twos through sixes and the kings removed. The game takes its name from the mythical society of female warriors because the queen ranks as the highest card in each suit, and a won game displays all four queens prominently at the finish. Play involves building four foundation piles, one per suit, from ace upward through the sequence to the jack and queen, while a tableau of four auxiliary cards supplies further plays whenever a card matches the next needed rank and suit. When no further moves are available, additional cards are dealt onto the tableau, and the deck may be redealt repeatedly without reshuffling until the layout is solved or becomes permanently blocked. A typical game takes about five minutes, and the odds of winning are commonly cited as roughly one in ten.