Pyramid Solitaire rules: the complete guide

Pyramid Solitaire at a glance

If you only remember one thing, remember this: a card can only be used once nothing is lying on top of it. Two cards that add to 13 are useless to each other until both are uncovered.

Card values: the pairs that make 13

Pyramid is an adding game, so the first thing to learn is what each card is worth. Suits and colors never matter. Only the rank counts.

That’s the whole list: six kinds of pairs, plus Kings. A few things follow from it:

• Aces are always 1. They’re never high in Pyramid.
• A King never pairs. It’s already 13, so it leaves on its own as soon as it’s free.
• Two of the same rank never pair. No rank adds to 13 with itself, so a 6 can’t go with a 6, or a Queen with a Queen.
• Every card has exactly four possible partners. There are four Queens for the four Aces, four 7s for the four 6s, and so on. Once a partner rank is used up, the cards waiting for it are stuck.

A handy trick for the picture cards: think “Jack is 2 short, Queen is 1 short.” The Jack needs a 2 and the Queen needs an Ace.

Setting up the game

Shuffle a standard 52-card deck. With real cards, deal the pyramid from the top down, face up:

1. Place one card at the top.
2. Below it, deal a row of two cards, each overlapping the bottom half of the card above.
3. Keep going, adding one card per row, until the seventh row has seven cards.

That’s 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28 cards, all face up. Each card in rows one to six is partly covered by the two cards just below it. The bottom row is covered by nothing.

The other 24 cards go face down as the stock. Leave space beside it for the waste, the face-up pile of cards you turn over from the stock, and somewhere to put cards you’ve removed.

Which cards are free

Only free cards can be used. A pyramid card is free when both cards overlapping it from the row below are gone. Removing just one of them isn’t enough.

At the start, the seven cards in the bottom row are free and nothing else is. The top card of the waste is always free too. The card underneath it isn’t, until the top one is used.

How to play, step by step

There are no turns. You keep making moves until the pyramid is empty or you can’t go on.

1. Remove any free King. It goes straight to the removed pile.
2. Remove any two free cards that add up to 13. Both can be pyramid cards, or one can be the top card of the waste. They can be in different rows and on opposite sides of the pyramid.
3. Turn over the stock when you need a new card. Take the top stock card and place it face up on the waste. It’s now free. If you don’t use it, the next card you turn covers it.
4. Turn the waste over when the stock runs out. Pick up the waste pile and turn it face down, without shuffling, to make a new stock. The cards come up again in the same order, minus any you used. How many passes you get depends on the rules (see below).
5. Keep going until you win or get stuck. You win the moment the last pyramid card is removed, even if cards are still in the stock or waste. You’re stuck when no free cards make 13 and your stock has no passes left to help.

You’re never forced to make a pair. If two pairs are open, you choose which to take, and often that choice decides the game.

A worked example: clearing the bottom rows

Here are the bottom two rows of a pyramid. Each card in row six sits over two cards in row seven: the first card of row six over the first and second cards of row seven, the second over the second and third, and so on.

1. Remove the K♦ on its own. Nothing is uncovered yet: the 8♣ still has the 6♣ over it, and the 5♦ still has the 9♠.
2. Pair the 6♣ and 7♦. They’re both in the bottom row, so both are free. Now the 8♣ is free, because the 6♣ and K♦ are gone.
3. Pair the 9♠ and 4♥. This one frees three cards at once: the 5♦, the J♠ and the 3♣.
4. Pair the 8♣ and 5♦, then the J♠ and 2♥.
5. Look at the Q♠. It needs an Ace, and there’s an A♦ right above it — but the Q♠ is one of the cards covering that A♦. The A♦ can’t be free while the Q♠ is still there, so these two can never pair with each other. You need a different Ace.
6. Turn the stock. The first card is the 5♠, which doesn’t help. The second is the A♣. Pair it with the Q♠. That frees both the A♦ and the 10♥.
7. Pair the 3♣ and the 10♥.

The whole bottom row is gone, only the A♦ is left in row six, and three of the five cards in row five are now free.

Step 5 is the trap to watch for in every game. A card can never pair with a card it covers, or a card that covers it.

Pyramid Solitaire scoring

Pyramid with real cards has no official score. Win or lose is what counts. Computer versions keep score in different ways; this is the system BieGames uses:

Points are only ever added, never taken away. Turning over the stock and turning the waste back over cost nothing. If you undo a move, the points it earned are taken back along with it.

Scoring the example above. The K♦ is worth 10. The five pyramid-only pairs (6♣ + 7♦, 9♠ + 4♥, 8♣ + 5♦, J♠ + 2♥ and 3♣ + 10♥) are worth 20 each, for 100. The A♣ from the waste with the Q♠ is worth 5 + 10 = 15. That’s 125 points so far, from twelve pyramid cards and one waste card.

Scoring a win. The 28 pyramid cards are worth 280, and clearing them adds 500, so every win is worth at least 780. Say you also used 9 cards from the waste along the way: that’s 9 × 5 = 45 more, for a total of 825.

So the score mostly tells you whether you won. Beyond that, each waste card you put to use nudges it up a little.

Rule questions people argue about

How many times can you go through the stock? It depends on whose rules you follow. Book rules, apps and kitchen tables all differ. Three passes (the first trip through, then two more) is a common standard, and it’s the default on BieGames. One pass and unlimited passes are both common too.

Can the top stock card pair with the top waste card? In some versions, yes: the next stock card is turned face up and both it and the waste top are in play. In the version on this page, only the top waste card is available, so two cards from the stock and waste can’t pair with each other.

Can a card pair with the card covering it? Not under the standard rule, because the lower card isn’t free yet. A few versions relax this and allow it. That makes the game easier, since it removes the trap in the worked example.

Do you have to clear the stock and waste to win? Under the standard rule, no. Clearing the pyramid is the win. Some players set themselves the harder goal of removing all 52 cards.

Is a King in the waste removed too? Yes. A King is free on top of the waste just like a pyramid card, and it can go on its own.

Can a deal be impossible from the start? Yes. Picture a 5 high in the pyramid with all four 8s in the part beneath it that has to be cleared first. Those 8s must all be gone before that 5 is free, so it can never find a partner. No amount of skill wins that deal.

Common variations

• Pass limits. One pass makes Pyramid hard and very luck-driven. Unlimited passes turns it into a relaxed puzzle about the order you clear cards in.
• Relaxed covering. A card may pair with the single card still lying on it.
• Stock and waste both open. The top stock card and the top waste card can both be used, and even paired together.
• Giza. The stock cards are dealt face up below the pyramid, so you can see every card and plan the whole game.
• Baroness (also called Thirteens). A close relative with the same pair-to-13 rule. Instead of a pyramid, you deal a row of five cards, remove what you can, then deal five more on top.
• Tri Peaks. A cousin with three smaller peaks where you play cards one rank up or down instead of adding to 13.

If you want something slower and deeper, try Spider Solitaire, FreeCell or classic Klondike Solitaire, whose rules guide covers the basics most other solitaires build on. Our roundup of card games to play alone explains how they compare.

Playing Pyramid on BieGames

You can change these options in Settings on the Pyramid Solitaire page:

• Passes through the stock: One pass, Three passes (the default) or Unlimited.
• Deals: Winnable deals only, where a solver checks every shuffle before you see it, or Any deal, just as a real shuffle falls.

The rest of the rules are fixed and match this page. Only the top waste card can be played, a card can’t pair with one covering it, and you win when the pyramid is clear. Undo is unlimited, and Hint looks ahead through the stock to point you toward a win when it can find one. The daily deal is always winnable.

Pyramid Solitaire terms

• Pyramid — the 28 face-up cards in seven rows.
• Free (or exposed) — a card with nothing overlapping it, so it can be used.
• Stock — the 24 face-down cards left after the pyramid is dealt.
• Waste (or talon) — the face-up pile of cards turned from the stock. Only its top card is in play.
• Pass — one trip through the stock.
• Redeal or recycle — turning the waste back over to make a new stock.
• Pair — two free cards that add up to 13, removed together.
• Blocked — a card that can’t pair because every partner left is covering it, covered by it, or already gone.

Quick questions about the rules

What adds up to 13 in Pyramid Solitaire? Ace and Queen, 2 and Jack, 3 and 10, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, 6 and 7. Kings are 13 on their own.

What is a Jack worth in Pyramid Solitaire? 11, so it pairs with a 2. A Queen is 12 and pairs with an Ace.

Can you pair two cards from the bottom row? Yes. Any two free cards can pair, wherever they are.

Do suits matter in Pyramid? No. A red 6 pairs with a black 7 just as well as with a red one.

Is every Pyramid deal winnable? No. Many deals can’t be cleared, especially with just one pass through the stock. Klondike has the same problem, as we explain in Are all Solitaire games winnable?

How long does a game take? Usually just a few minutes, which is why so many people play it on a short break.