diff --git a/bin/ansible-playbook b/bin/ansible-playbook
index 545f07f587a..69be57cfab1 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-playbook
+++ b/bin/ansible-playbook
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 
 import sys
 import os
+import stat
 
 import ansible.playbook
 import ansible.constants as C
@@ -118,7 +119,7 @@ def main(args):
     for playbook in args:
         if not os.path.exists(playbook):
             raise errors.AnsibleError("the playbook: %s could not be found" % playbook)
-        if not os.path.isfile(playbook):
+        if not (os.path.isfile(playbook) or stat.S_ISFIFO(os.stat(playbook).st_mode)):
             raise errors.AnsibleError("the playbook: %s does not appear to be a file" % playbook)
 
     # run all playbooks specified on the command line