Pyramid Solitaire

Pyramid solitaire is a one-player card game where you clear a pyramid of 28 cards by removing pairs that add up to 13. Play it free below: no sign-up, no download, no money. The rules, odds and tips follow the game.

Pyramid Solitaire at a Glance

How to Play Pyramid Solitaire

1. Build the pyramid. Deal one card face up at the top, then two overlapping it, then three, and so on down to a row of seven: 28 cards in all.
2. Set up the stock. Put the other 24 cards face down beside the pyramid.
3. Remove pairs that make 13. Take away any two uncovered cards whose values add up to 13, such as a 6 and a 7 or a Jack and a 2. A King is worth 13 by itself, so it goes on its own.
4. Uncover cards. A card is free once both cards overlapping it have gone. At the start, only the bottom row of seven is free.
5. Use the stock. Turn stock cards over one at a time. The card you turn and the top card of the waste pile can both be paired with a free pyramid card, or with each other.
6. Redeal. When the stock runs out, turn the waste pile over to make a new stock. Most versions allow this twice, for three passes in all.
7. Win or lose. You win when the pyramid is cleared. The game is over when no pair can be made and no passes are left.

The Pairs That Make 13

Pyramid Solitaire Rules Questions

Pyramid Solitaire Scoring

The simplest score is the number of cards left in the pyramid when the game ends: 0 is a perfect game. Some apps count your moves and time instead, but the way to win is the same.

Pyramid Solitaire Odds: How Often Can You Win?

To measure it, 2,000 random deals were played by computer: once with perfect play (every possible order of moves tried, with every card known, including the stock), and with two simple strategies that only use what a player can see. Each was run with three passes and with one.

• About two deals in three can be won with perfect play and three passes (66.8%). Clearing the whole deck as well is almost as likely (66.4%).
• A simple strategy wins about three games in ten (30.5%). That matches what Solitaired reports from real players: 30.05% of 355,570 games won.
• Some deals are lost before you start. In 10.5% of deals, a card has all four of its partners lying on top of it in the pyramid, so it can never be paired.
• One pass is brutal. Even with perfect play only 8.8% of deals clear, and a simple strategy wins about 1.4%. Wikipedia puts the odds under the strictest rules at around 1 in 50.
• Most deals start well. In 93% of deals the bottom row alone offers a pair or a King. On average 2.2 of the four Kings are in the pyramid.

Which Tip Is Right? Pyramid Pairs or Stock Pairs First

Guides disagree. Solitaired says to prioritise pairs inside the pyramid; BVS Solitaire says it is often better to pair pyramid cards with waste or stock cards. Played on the same 2,000 deals, pairing pyramid cards with each other first won 30.5% against 27.5%. It won 77 deals the other approach lost, and lost only 17 that the other won. A likely reason: a pair inside the pyramid clears two blocking cards at once, while a stock card comes round again on the next pass.

Pyramid Solitaire Strategy

• Remove Kings at once. A King pairs with nothing, so it only ever gets in the way.
• Pair pyramid cards with each other first. On the same deals it won more often than reaching for the stock first.
• Look for trapped cards. A card can never pair with a partner that lies on top of it in the pyramid, because that partner has to go first. If two 8s cover a 5, only the other two 8s can pair with it, so don’t spend those elsewhere.
• Work from the bottom and the middle. Clearing cards that each cover two others opens the pyramid fastest.
• Remember the stock order. A redeal turns the waste over without shuffling, so on the second and third passes the cards come in the same order. Note where the partners you need are.
• Use Undo to learn. In the game above, step back and try another pair: it is the quickest way to see which choices matter.

Pyramid Solitaire Variations

• Strict Pyramid: one pass through the stock, and every card in the deck must be paired off. Try “One pass only” above.
• Par Pyramid: the waste can be turned over and dealt again twice, as in the game on this page.
• Relaxed Pyramid: the game is won as soon as the pyramid is cleared, even with cards left in the stock.
• Tut’s Tomb (King Tut): stock cards are dealt three at a time and you redeal until no more pairs can be made.
• Apophis: three waste piles instead of one.
• Giza: after the pyramid, the rest of the deck is dealt as eight columns of three cards, and their exposed cards can be paired too.
• Triangle: the pyramid is dealt upside down.
• Reserve and cell versions: a row of seven extra cards, or a spare cell for holding one card.
• Spanish deck: with the 48-card Spanish deck the King is worth 12, so pairs add up to 12.

Pyramid vs TriPeaks vs Golf

History of Pyramid Solitaire

Pyramid appears in classic rule books such as Hoyle’s Rules of Games, which describes the pairs-to-13 game. A version called Tut’s Tomb shipped in Microsoft’s Entertainment Pack 2 in 1991, and Pyramid is now part of the Microsoft Solitaire Collection, where the stock cards are shown face up.

More Solitaire Games

For the classic seven-pile game, see how to play solitaire (Klondike). If you like a fast game against the stock, play TriPeaks or Golf solitaire, both free on this site.

Pyramid solitaire: frequently asked questions