Pyramid Solitaire Rules: How to Play and Win

The layout

Twenty-eight cards are dealt face-up into a pyramid of seven overlapping rows — one card at the top, seven at the base, 28 in total. Each card is covered by the two cards in the row below it. The remaining 24 cards form a face-down stock, and the top stock card is turned up to start the waste pile.

Card values and the pair rule

Every card counts at its rank, with three adjustments: an Ace is 1, a Jack is 11, a Queen is 12, and a King is 13 — which means a King never needs a partner and is removed by clicking it alone.

That table is the entire game engine. Memorise the six pairs and most turns become pattern recognition rather than arithmetic.

The rules

1. A pyramid card is in play only when nothing overlaps it. Only the bottom row is exposed at the start.
2. Remove any two exposed cards whose values add to 13. Suits never matter.
3. A King is removed by itself, immediately, with a single click.
4. When no pairs are available, flip a card from the stock onto the waste pile. The top waste card pairs with any exposed pyramid card.
5. You win by clearing all 28 pyramid cards. In most versions the stock and waste may keep cards — only the pyramid has to empty.

Whether the waste can be recycled back through the stock is the big rules fork between versions, and it changes everything about how careful you must be with the stock. Check the version you are playing before you start flipping freely.

The trap that ends most games

Pyramid is lost through buried pairs. Each rank has four copies, and every pair needs one specific partner rank — a 6 can only ever leave with a 7. The classic disaster: two sixes sitting side by side in the base row, both covered by the same seven. Remove both sixes and that seven can never leave; leave them and something else above locks instead. Spotting these conflicts before you commit is the whole skill.

• Before removing a pair, check what it uncovers — and what it strands.
• Track the copies. After three sevens are gone, the last seven has exactly one 6 left to meet; if that 6 is buried deep, plan around it now.
• Work the pyramid evenly. Stripping one side leaves the other side blocked by cards you can no longer reach.
• Clear Kings on sight. They cost nothing, they unblock two cards, and delaying them has literally no upside.
• Exhaust pyramid pairs before touching the stock. Every flip spends a card you may desperately need later.

Pyramid vs the other fast solitaires

Try the arithmetic yourself on Pyramid Solitaire. When you want the same pace with chain reactions instead of sums, TriPeaks Solitaire rules is the natural next read, and the full family is in How to play solitaire.