Pyramid solitaire is a fun solitaire game that is quite different from normal solitaire: in most solitaire games you build cards on a foundation, but in Pyramid solitaire you remove cards! Cards can only be removed when they add up to 13. With its easily recognizable layout (in the form of a pyramid) and requiring a combination of luck and skill, it is a popular solitaire game played by many.

The basic rules are…

• You win if you can remove ALL cards from the game.
• The cards are drawn in pairs, when they add up to 13
• You can deal from the heel at any time
• You get 2 heel reoffers
• Only a maximum of 2 cards are visible from the claw at any time

You can only use cards that are fully revealed (if a card is in the pyramid but is covered by another card, you cannot select it)
For example, if a part of the pyramid looks like this…

... K... 

... Q.7... 

..2.4.7..

.5.8.K.J.

Initially, you will not be able to pair the jack with the two (because the two is covered by the five and eight cards). Start by removing the five and eight. Now card 2 will be face up and can be paired with the Jack card.

The possible pairings in Pyramid Solitaire are…

King

Six Seven

Five Eight

Four Nine

Three Ten

Two Jack

Ace Queen

Kings are a special case, they remove themselves.

Pyramid solitaire tips

• Don’t just automatically meld any card you see. Knowing when to match and when to wait is often the difference between winning and losing.
• Always remove kings as soon as you can. There is never any reason to keep them in play.
• Look for cards “trapped” by other cards below. You may need to remove specific cards in a certain order to access them

Here’s an example of a “stuck” card…

... 2... 

... 5.3... 

..8.8.4..

.7.8.6.6.

Notice that the five has 3 eights under it. The fives are eliminated with the eights, so we must pay special attention to this investment. That 5 cannot match any of the eight below it. Wherever the other 8 are, we’ll have to save them for EAST five. If we use it on five others, then we will never be able to remove this one and the game will become unwinnable.

That may seem a bit complicated, but don’t worry too much about it, you will begin to learn it effortlessly the more you play.

Pyramid solitaire can be quite difficult at times. In fact, some offers are really impossible to complete. However, you can still win quite often – data collected from Dailysol shows that you can win about 60% of the games, so make sure you don’t give up too soon!