Pyramid Solitaire — Play Online Free

How to play Pyramid Solitaire

Here's what you need to play your first game. For the complete rules, with a worked example and the rule questions people argue about, read our complete Pyramid Solitaire rules guide.

Pyramid Solitaire is a quick, satisfying adding game for one player. You use a standard 52-card deck, and the goal is simple: take every card out of the pyramid by removing pairs of cards that add up to 13. There are no suits to follow and no columns to build — just a little math and a lot of looking ahead.

The layout

• The pyramid is made of 28 cards dealt face up in seven rows: one card at the top, two in the next row, and so on down to seven cards across the bottom. Each card is partly covered by the two cards just below it.
• The stock is the face-down pile of the 24 cards that were not dealt to the pyramid.
• The waste sits next to the stock. When you turn over a card from the stock it lands face up on the waste, and the top waste card can be used in a pair.
• The removed pile collects every card you take out of play, so you can see how far you have come.

Free cards

Only free cards can be played. A card in the pyramid is free when both cards covering it — the two cards in the row below that overlap it — are gone. At the start of a game, only the seven cards in the bottom row are free. The top card of the waste is always free too.

Removing cards

1. Pair two free cards that add up to 13. A 6 and a 7, a 4 and a 9, or a Jack and a 2 all make 13. Both cards leave the game together. Suits and colors don't matter.
2. Remove Kings on their own. A King is worth 13 all by itself, so a free King can be removed without a partner.
3. Use the waste. The top card of the waste can pair with any free card in the pyramid. Once it is used, the card underneath it becomes the new top card.
4. Turn over the stock when you need a new card. Tap the stock to turn one card onto the waste. When the stock runs out, you can turn the whole waste back over to make a new stock — up to three times through in total with the classic rule.

Winning

You win the moment the last card leaves the pyramid. Cards still sitting in the stock or waste don't count against you. If no two free cards add up to 13 and the stock can't help any more, the game is over — undo a few moves to try a different path, or deal a fresh game.

Playing on BieGames

Tap a free card to pick it up, then tap a card that adds up to 13 with it — the cards it can pair with glow green. You can also drag one card straight onto its partner. Tap a King and it goes right away. Tap the stock to turn over a card, and tap the empty stock to turn the waste back over. On a keyboard, Tab and the arrow keys move between free cards, Enter or Space picks a card and pairs it, D turns over the stock, H shows a hint, Escape cancels, and Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac) undoes.

Card values and the pairs that make 13

Number cards are worth their face value, and the picture cards continue the count: an Ace is 1, a Jack is 11, a Queen is 12 and a King is 13. That gives exactly six kinds of pairs, plus the Kings that go alone:

Because there are four of every rank, each card has exactly four possible partners in the whole deck. That number matters more than you might think: if two of the four Queens are already gone and the other two are buried in the pyramid, an Ace may suddenly be hard to clear. Keeping track of which partners are left is the heart of good Pyramid play.

Pyramid Solitaire scoring

Every card you remove earns points, and clearing the pyramid earns a big bonus:

Points are never taken away, so a pair of pyramid cards is worth 20, a pyramid card paired with the waste is worth 15, and a King is worth 10 from the pyramid or 5 from the waste. Every win is worth at least 780 points — 280 for the pyramid plus the bonus — and each stock or waste card you use along the way adds 5 more. BieGames keeps your best time, fewest moves and top score for each stock setting, and the Stats button shows your wins, win rate and streaks.

Pyramid Solitaire strategy tips

1. Work from the bottom up — and across. The pyramid only opens from the bottom row. Try to clear cards evenly across the row rather than digging one deep hole, so more cards become free at once.
2. Look at what each pair uncovers. When two different pairs are possible, choose the one that frees the most new cards, or the one that frees a card you know you can pair right away.
3. Choose your partner with care. If you have a free 9 and two free 4s, think about which 4 to use. One of them may be covering a card you need sooner.
4. Watch out for cards that block their own partners. If a 5 is sitting right on top of the 8 it needs, those two can never be paired with each other. You'll need a different 8 — and if the other 8s are gone, that 5 is stuck for good.
5. Count the partners that are left. Before you use up a rank, glance at how many of its partners remain. Spending the last two Queens on waste Aces can leave a pyramid Ace with no way out.
6. Prefer pyramid cards over waste cards. The stock comes back around, but the pyramid is what you have to clear. When a free pyramid card could pair with either another pyramid card or the waste, pairing inside the pyramid usually does more good.
7. Remember the order of the stock. On your second and third passes the stock comes up in the same order, minus the cards you used. If you know a 7 is coming two cards from now, you can hold a 6 for it.
8. Don't rush through the stock. Make every useful pair before you turn over the next card. A card you skip in the waste is buried until the next pass.
9. Use Hint and Undo to learn. The Hint button looks ahead through the whole stock, and when it can see a winning line it shows you the next step. Undo is unlimited, so test an idea and step back if it goes nowhere.

Passes, winnable deals and other versions

Passes through the stock

The classic rule lets you go through the stock three times: the first deal plus two redeals. That is the default here, and the badge on the stock shows how many passes you have left. In Settings you can choose One pass for a real challenge — only a few deals in a hundred can be won that way — or Unlimited for a relaxed game where the only question is the order you clear the pyramid in.

Winnable deals

Many Pyramid deals simply can't be won, no matter how well you play. With Winnable deals only turned on (the default), BieGames runs a solver on each shuffle before you see it and only deals games that can be cleared with your stock setting. You still have to find the way. Switch to Any deal if you prefer the luck of a real deck.

The daily deal

Every day brings one daily deal that is the same for everyone who plays it with the same stock setting, and it is always winnable. Win it to build a daily streak, and come back tomorrow for a new one.

Other versions you may meet

• Stock and waste both open: some apps let the top stock card and the top waste card be used at the same time, or even paired with each other. That makes the game noticeably easier.
• Relaxed covering: some versions let a card pair with the one card still covering it, which takes away the "blocked partner" problem.
• Giza: deals the 24 stock cards face up in three rows below the pyramid, turning the game into a pure puzzle with no hidden cards.
• Tri Peaks: a cousin with three smaller peaks, where you build up or down by one rank instead of adding to 13.

A short history of Pyramid Solitaire

Pyramid belongs to the family of "adding" solitaires, where cards are removed in pairs or groups that reach a target total. Adding games such as Baroness, also known as Thirteens, have been played for well over a century, and Pyramid takes the same pair-to-13 idea and lays the cards out in a triangle, so every pair you make opens up the cards above it.

The game found a huge new audience on computers. Its simple rules and short playing time made it a natural fit for PC solitaire collections, and it became one of the five games in Microsoft Solitaire Collection alongside Klondike, Spider, FreeCell and Tri Peaks. Today it is a favorite for a quick break: most games take only a few minutes, but winning one takes real planning.

When you have more time, classic Klondike Solitaire and FreeCell offer longer puzzles. Our guide to card games to play alone explains how they compare.