Pyramid Solitaire — free online card game, no download

Twenty-eight cards are stacked in a seven-row pyramid, each one pinned by the two cards resting on it. The single rule is arithmetic: remove any two uncovered cards whose ranks add up to 13. An Ace counts 1, a Jack 11, a Queen 12, and a King is already 13, so a King leaves on its own. Ace with Queen, 2 with Jack, 3 with 10, and so on down to 6 with 7 — those are the only six pairings that exist, and learning them is the whole of the setup.

When nothing on the pyramid can pair, you turn a card from the stock and pair that instead. You get three passes through the stock and no more. Your score is the time on the clock when the last card leaves the pyramid, so only a cleared pyramid counts — and because a run can take a few minutes, this one saves itself if you close the tab. It is free, runs in any browser, and needs nothing installed.

How to play

• Tap two uncovered cards that sum to 13. Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12.
• Tap a King to remove it alone — it is worth 13 by itself.
• A card is uncovered once both cards resting on it are gone. Buried cards are dimmed.
• Tap the stock to turn a card, then pair it with the pyramid or with the card beneath it in the tray.
• You get three passes through the stock. The clock is your score, so only a cleared pyramid banks a time.

Six pairs, four of a kind, and the card that has no partner

There are only six ways to make 13: A–Q, 2–J, 3–10, 4–9, 5–8 and 6–7. Every ordinary rank has exactly one partner rank, four cards of it in the deck, so a card has at most four possible partners, ever. The King is the exception — it sums to 13 alone, the only free removal in the game. Clear one the moment it's uncovered.

That pairing is also what kills a deal: once all four of a rank's partners are gone, every card of the matching rank still buried is dead — unremovable for the rest of the game. Watch ranks disappear, not just the cards in front of you, so you catch a card going dead before wasting a stock pass hoping to pair it.

So don't pair just because it's legal. Count how many pyramid cards each candidate is pinning, and clear the pair that frees the most first. When two of the same rank are playable, take the deeper one and save the shallow one for later — then spend a partner drawn from the stock on whichever buried card is blocking the most.

Finally, use the three passes deliberately. The first pass is for reconnaissance as much as removal — every card you decline still tells you where a rank has gone. Players who clear the pyramid tend to spend the first pass clearing the bottom rows and the third pass mopping up, rather than grabbing every legal pair the moment it appears. If you like this sort of forward planning, TriPeaks and Golf Solitaire reward the same habit with a much shorter run.

More games

More from 🃏 Card & solitaire games:

• Hearts — Four hands against three computer players. Every heart costs one, the queen of spades costs thirteen.
• Dominoes — Double-six dominoes against a computer that counts what you have failed to play. Score is rounds won in a row.
• Crazy Eights — Match the suit or the rank against one computer opponent. Eights are wild. Score is rounds won in a row.
• Spades — You and North against West and East. Bid your tricks, then take them. Spades are always trump.
• Gin Rummy — Gin Rummy

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