FIND 13. OPEN THE PYRAMID.
Pyramid Solitaire
Pyramid solitaire deals 28 cards into a seven-row pyramid and asks one thing of you: remove them all in pairs that add up to 13. It plays fast, it is pure arithmetic and planning, and it loses honestly — most deals can be cleared, some cannot. Here every deal you are dealt can be cleared: we verify each one with an exact solver before it reaches you. No ads, no sign-up, unlimited undo, and a hint button backed by the same solver.
Learn Pyramid Solitaire in 100 seconds: the pairs that make 13
The seven-row deal, the pairs-to-13 rule, the pairs worth memorizing, and five habits that clear more pyramids. Full written rules follow below.
In this video
01 · READ THE OVERLAP
How Pyramid solitaire works
Want every rule beside you? Open the illustrated Pyramid Solitaire guide or print its four-page PDF.
The pyramid holds 28 cards, face up but overlapping: every card is pinned by the two cards below it and becomes playable only when both are gone, so at the start just the bottom row of seven is free. The other 24 cards form a face-down stock — tap it to flip one card at a time onto the waste, where only the top card is playable. Remove any two exposed cards whose values sum to 13: pair two pyramid cards, or a pyramid card with the waste top. Kings count as 13 by themselves and leave with a single tap. Number cards count face value, Jacks are 11 and Queens are 12. When the stock runs out you may flip the waste back over and go again — twice, for three passes in total. You win the moment the pyramid is empty; whatever is left in the stock or waste does not matter.
02 · SEVEN ANSWERS. NO SUITS.
The six pairs that make 13
There are exactly six pairings, and knowing them cold is half the game: Ace + Queen, 2 + Jack, 3 + 10, 4 + 9, 5 + 8, 6 + 7 — plus the King, which needs no partner. Each pairing has four copies of each rank in the deck, so every card has exactly four candidate partners (a Queen can only ever leave with one of the four Aces). That scarcity is the whole strategic texture of Pyramid: before you spend a 9 from the waste, it is worth knowing how many 4s are still buried and where.
03 · CLEARABLE IS NOT GUARANTEED
Can every Pyramid deal be won?
No — and this is measurable, not folklore. We ran our exact solver over 1,520 randomly dealt games under these exact rules (draw one, two redeals, win by clearing the pyramid): 65.8% were provably clearable and the rest were provably dead, most often because a card’s four partners were all trapped in its own cone of the pyramid. That is why New Game here deals only from a pool of 1,000 solver-verified clearable deals — when you lose, the deal was not rigged against you, and Restart lets you attack the same board again. The hint button consults the same solver, so it suggests moves that keep a winning line alive.
04 · OPEN TWO BEFORE OPENING NONE
Strategy: unbury partners, spend the stock late
Two habits win most Pyramid games. First, prefer pairs that expose new cards: a pair that frees two buried cards is nearly always better than one that frees none, and removing evenly across the pyramid beats digging a single hole (a card is released only when both cards below it are gone). Second, treat the stock as a budget: every draw buries the waste card under a new one, and you only get three passes. If a pyramid-to-pyramid pair is available, taking it before drawing is usually right — it makes progress without spending stock. Watch for the classic trap: a card whose remaining partners all sit above it in the same slice of the pyramid can never leave, and spotting that early saves the redeals for pairs that still matter.
05 · TWO FIXED DEALS
Practice decisions—not lucky shuffles
Both lessons restart to the same solver-verified deal. First remove four exposed pairs or Kings. Then clear a complete bottom row and watch the next layer open.
01Make four removalsTry it on the exact deal from the diagram above: the King of clubs leaves on a single tap, and two 13-pairs are already exposed. Make four removals.+
02Clear the bottom rowThe bottom row is the gate to everything above it. Clear it to open the next layer.+
06 · THE CLEARING ORDER
Five habits that clear more pyramids
Measured against our solver’s optimal lines, most lost winnable deals die to the same handful of mistakes. These habits prevent them.
- 01Count the remaining partners
Count partners before you spend a card: every rank has exactly four 13-partners in the deck. If three 4s are gone, the last 9 in the pyramid just became precious.
- 02Open two cards when you can
Prefer removals that expose two new cards over removals that expose none — exposure is the only resource that grows.
- 03Prefer pairs inside the pyramid
Take pyramid-to-pyramid pairs before pyramid-to-waste pairs when both are available; the waste card will still be reachable on a later pass, the board pair may block the row above.
- 04Remove every exposed King
Tap Kings the moment they surface. They pair with nothing, cost nothing, and always uncover something.
- 05Use all three passes deliberately
Budget your three passes: on the first pass, note where the key partners sit in the stock order; the second and third passes replay that exact order minus what you removed.
07 · QUICK ANSWERS
Pyramid solitaire FAQ
01How is Pyramid solitaire set up?+
Deal 28 cards face up into a pyramid of seven rows — one card in the top row, seven in the bottom. Each card is overlapped by two cards in the row below and is playable only when both are removed. The remaining 24 cards form the face-down stock, drawn one at a time onto a waste pile.
02What do the cards count in Pyramid solitaire?+
Aces count 1, number cards count face value, Jacks 11, Queens 12, Kings 13. Pairs must sum to exactly 13 — Ace+Queen, 2+Jack, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8, 6+7 — and Kings are removed alone since they reach 13 by themselves.
03What percentage of Pyramid solitaire games can be won?+
Under these rules (draw one, two redeals, win by clearing the pyramid), our exact solver measured 65.8% of 1,520 random deals as provably clearable — the rest cannot be won by any sequence of moves. On this site every New Game is dealt from a solver-verified clearable pool, so 100% of the deals you receive can be won. How this compares across every game we run: our win-rates page.
04Is there a Pyramid solitaire solver?+
Yes — the hint button here is backed by an exact solver that enumerates every reachable position of your deal and suggests a move from the best line it can prove. It is the same solver we use to verify that every dealt game is clearable, and its win/loss verdicts are exact rather than estimated.
05What happens when the stock runs out?+
The waste pile is turned back over to form a new stock, preserving the original draw order, and you continue — up to two redeals, for three passes in total. If the stock is spent, no redeal remains, and no 13-pair is available, the game is over.
06How is Pyramid different from Klondike solitaire?+
Klondike is a building game — you stack sequences and move piles to foundations. Pyramid is a removal game: nothing is ever built, cards only leave the board in pairs summing to 13. Games are shorter, arithmetic replaces sequencing, and the skill lies in choosing which of several legal pairs to take and when to spend stock draws.