Pyramid Solitaire Rules: How to Play, Step by Step

Pyramid Solitaire is the one where you do a little arithmetic. Instead of building suits or runs, you take cards away two at a time, and each pair has to add up to 13. It is quick to learn, a game lasts only a few minutes, and the pyramid of cards looks handsome on the table. Many people learned it from a parent or grandparent with a worn deck at the kitchen table.

This page explains the Pyramid Solitaire rules from the deal to the last card, with small worked examples. These are the rules our free Pyramid Solitaire game uses. Where families play it differently, we say so.

What You Need

• One standard deck of 52 playing cards, with the jokers taken out.
• A table with room for a row of seven cards side by side.
• A few minutes. A game of Pyramid is short, so it is easy to play "just one more."

The Goal

Clear away all 28 cards of the pyramid. You do it by removing cards in pairs that add up to 13. Kings are the exception: a King is worth 13 by itself, so it comes off alone.

Card Values

Suits do not matter in Pyramid Solitaire. Only the value of each card counts.

That gives six kinds of pair to remember: Ace–Queen, 2–Jack, 3–10, 4–9, 5–8 and 6–7. After a game or two you will spot them without counting.

The Deal

Shuffle the deck and deal 28 cards face up in the shape of a pyramid:

1. Place one card at the top.
2. Deal a row of two cards below it, so that each of them overlaps the lower half of the top card.
3. Deal a row of three below that, then four, five, six and finally seven.

Each new row overlaps the row above. When you are done, every card except those in the bottom row is partly covered by two cards from the row below it. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 makes 28 cards.

The other 24 cards form the stock. Set it beside the pyramid. In our game the top card of the stock is face up, so you always know what is coming next. Leave room next to it for a waste pile, which starts out empty.

Which Cards Are Free

You may only use free cards. A pyramid card is free when no other card is lying on top of it. At the start, that means the seven cards of the bottom row and nothing else.

As cards leave, the ones above open up. A card in the sixth row becomes free once both of the cards overlapping it are gone. If only one of the two has been removed, the card is still covered and still out of play.

Besides the free pyramid cards, two more cards are always in play:

• the top card of the stock, and
• the top card of the waste pile, once there is one.

In our game, free cards are bright and stand a little off the table. Covered cards are greyed out and lie flat. If you tap a covered card, the game simply tells you it is still covered.

How to Play

On each move you do one of three things.

1. Remove a pair that adds up to 13

Pick any two free cards whose values total 13 and take both off the table. They are out of the game for good. The two cards can come from anywhere that is in play:

• two cards in the pyramid,
• a pyramid card and the top stock card,
• a pyramid card and the top waste card, or
• the top stock card and the top waste card.

2. Remove a King

A free King is removed by itself. This is always a good move. It costs you nothing, and a King in the pyramid may be holding other cards down.

3. Turn a stock card

If you can't make a pair, or would rather not, move the top card of the stock face up onto the waste pile. The next stock card is now showing. Only the top card of the waste pile is in play. The cards under it have to wait until it is removed.

A worked example

Say the bottom row of the pyramid reads, from left to right:

9♠   4♦   K♣   7♥   2♠   Q♦   6♣

and the top stock card is the J♥. Here is what you can do:

• The K♣ comes off on its own.
• The 9♠ and 4♦ make 13. They are neighbors, so removing both also frees the card that was resting above them.
• The 7♥ and 6♣ make 13 as well.
• The 2♠ pairs with the J♥ on the stock (2 + 11).
• The Q♦ has to wait for an Ace.

After those four moves only the Queen is left in the bottom row, and several cards in the row above it have become free. Now you look at those, and at the new top card of the stock, and carry on.

Going Through the Stock Again

When the last stock card has been turned, pick up the waste pile, turn it over without shuffling, and it becomes the new stock. The cards come up in the same order as before, minus any you removed.

How many times you may do this is the most common house rule. Our game lets you go through the stock three times in all, which is the usual rule. You can change it to once (strict) or as often as you like (relaxed) in Settings. The table always shows which pass you are on, and tells you when it is the last one.

Winning and Losing

You win the moment the last pyramid card is removed. Cards still sitting in the stock or waste pile don't matter.

The game is lost when the pyramid still has cards in it and nothing can be removed: no pair makes 13 among the free cards, and there are no more cards to turn. Our game tells you when that happens, so you are never left wondering. You can then press Undo to go back and try a different path, restart the same deal, or start a new one.

Keeping Score

Pyramid Solitaire at the kitchen table is simply won or lost. Our game keeps things just as simple. It counts your moves, and your statistics show how many games you have played and won, your winning streak and your best time. Nothing is taken off for using Undo or Hint.

If you like to keep a score with a real deck, a common way is to count what is left when you get stuck:

Lower is better, as in golf. Play a set of nine deals and add up your points.

How to Play on This Site

• Tap a free card. It lifts up and gets a thick ring, so you can see what you picked. The status box tells you which card would complete the pair.
• Tap its partner. Both cards leave the table. If the two don't add up to 13, the game says what they do add up to, and nothing happens.
• Tap a King and it goes at once.
• Changed your mind? Tap the picked card again to put it back.
• Turn Next Card moves the top stock card to the waste pile. When the stock is empty, the same button reads Turn Pile Over.
• Undo takes back as many moves as you like. Hint points to a sensible move and explains it.
• Deal numbers. Every deal has a number. Type the same number in Settings to replay a deal, or give it to a friend so you can both try the same cards.

Common Questions About the Rules

Can I pair a card with the card that is covering it?

Not under the standard rules. Both cards must be free before you touch them, and a card with something on top of it isn't free. Some players allow it as a relaxed rule. See the variations page.

Do I have to remove a pair when I see one?

No. You may turn a stock card instead. Sometimes it is wiser to hold a pair back, for instance when one of its cards is the last partner for a card buried higher up.

Do suits or colors matter?

No. A red 6 and a black 7 make 13 just as well as two cards of the same suit.

Can every deal be won?

No. A fair share of shuffles can't be cleared no matter what you do. That is part of the game's character. Our strategy guide shows how to win the ones that can be.

If you enjoy Pyramid, you may also like Tri Peaks solitaire, which clears three smaller peaks one card at a time, or FreeCell, where every card is face up and nearly every deal can be solved.