Pyramid Solitaire Variations and House Rules
Ask three people how to play Pyramid Solitaire and you may hear three slightly different games. The heart of it never changes: a pyramid of 28 cards, pairs that add up to 13, Kings on their own. But how often you may go through the stock, what counts as a win, and a few smaller points differ from one family and one rule book to the next.
This page covers the common variations. Two of them are options in our free Pyramid Solitaire game. You will find them in Settings under House rules. A change takes effect with your next deal.
Times Through the Stock
When the stock runs out, may you turn the waste pile over and go through it again? This is the rule that changes the game the most.
| Setting | What it means | How it feels |
|---|---|---|
| Once | One trip through the 24 stock cards. No turning the waste over. | Hard. Many old rule books play it this way. Every card you cover is gone, so wins are rare and worth bragging about. |
| Three times | You may turn the waste over twice. | The usual rule, and our default. The first pass shows you the cards, and the later ones let you use what you learned. |
| As often as I like | No limit. | The most relaxed. You only lose when nothing left can ever pair up, and the game tells you when that is. |
In every case the waste pile is turned over without shuffling, so the cards come back in the same order. The table shows which pass you are on, and marks the last one.
More passes mean more winnable deals. A card buried in the waste on pass one can still be reached on pass two. With a single pass, one careless turn of a card can end the game.
Clear Every Card
What do you have to clear to win? There are two schools.
- Clear the pyramid (our default). The moment the 28th pyramid card comes off, you have won. Whatever is left in the stock and waste doesn't matter.
- Clear every card. You must also pair off the whole stock and waste, so that all 52 cards are gone. Turn on Clear every card to win in Settings to play this way.
The second way is the older and stricter one. It changes your thinking: pairing the top of the stock with the top of the waste is no longer just a way of digging, it is part of the job. It is also harder with a single pass, because every card you turn without pairing is one more card stranded in the waste.
Your statistics are kept separately for each mix of house rules, so a strict win is never lumped in with an easy one.
Is the Top Stock Card in Play?
In our game the top card of the stock is face up and can be paired, just like the top of the waste pile. Many computer versions of the game play this way, and it means the two pile tops can be matched with each other.
The older table rule keeps the stock face down. You turn a card onto the waste, and only then is it in play. That version is a little harder, because two partners lying next to each other in the stock can't be paired directly. If you play with real cards, agree on this before you deal.
Pairing a Card With the One Covering It
Under standard rules both cards of a pair must be free. A popular relaxed rule makes one exception: if a card is covered by only one remaining card, and the two add up to 13, you may remove them together. It rescues some deals that would otherwise be dead, such as a 6 sitting directly on the last 7.
Our game plays the standard way: a covered card is out of play. It keeps the rule simple and makes it easy to see which cards you can tap.
A Spare Space
Some versions give you one extra space, a bit like a free cell in FreeCell. You may park a single free card there and bring it back into a pair later. It makes the game noticeably easier, because you can lift a blocker out of the way without needing its partner right then. Our game doesn't use a spare space.
Three Cards at a Time
In this harder variation you turn the stock three cards at a time, as in draw-three Klondike, and only the top card of each turned group is in play. Removing that card frees the one beneath it. It takes real care with the order of your pairs, and it is usually played with unlimited passes to make up for it.
Scoring Variations
At home most people just play to win or lose. If you'd like a number to beat, here are two common ways.
| Method | How it works |
|---|---|
| Cards left | Score 1 point for each card left in the pyramid when you are stuck. Zero is a perfect game. Lower is better. |
| Par | Play a round of several deals, like holes of golf. Clearing the pyramid on the first pass scores best; needing a second or third pass adds strokes. Try to finish the round under an agreed total. |
Our game keeps count of moves, time, games won and winning streaks, and leaves the rest to you.
Related Games
Pyramid has a few cousins built on the same idea of adding to a target number.
- All cards showing. One family of variations deals the 24 leftover cards face up in rows beside the pyramid, instead of a stock. Nothing is hidden, so it plays like a puzzle rather than a game of chance.
- Upside-down pyramid. The triangle is dealt point down, so the single card is at the bottom and free from the start, and the wide row of seven is the last to open.
- Adding to other numbers. Older patience games pair cards to make 10, 11 or 14 from a simple grid. Thirteen suits a pyramid best, because the King then has no partner and gets its own rule.
Deal Numbers
Every deal in our game has a number, shown above the table. The same number always gives the same shuffle, whatever house rules you choose. To replay a deal, or to play the same cards as a friend, open Settings and type the number under Play a specific deal.
When you press New Game, the game looks for a deal that can be won under your current house rules. A deal you type in is dealt as is, so it may or may not be winnable. That makes for a fair challenge between friends: same cards, same rules, see who clears more.