Pyramid Solitaire: A Strategy Guide for Beginners

Pyramid Solitaire is a fun solitaire game, with a very distinctive opening tableau in the shape of a pyramid. There is a large element of luck involved, but there are certain strategies that can be used to dramatically increase your chances of winning.

The object of pyramid solitaire is to remove all cards from the tableau and the claw. Cards are removed in pairs, when their combined total is 13. The exception to this is Kings, which are removed on their own.

Cards can only be removed when fully exposed (i.e. when the entire card is visible, with no cards on top of it)

The combinations of cards that you can eliminate are:

• ace and queen
• 2 and jack
• 3 and 10
• 4 and 9
• 5 and 8
• 6 and 7
• King

While the rules of pyramid solitaire are quite easy to understand, the game itself offers interesting intricacies. You have to plan which cards to remove to maximize potential options later in the game. Sometimes you have to save a card for later in the game, or you’ll create a dead end. And sometimes you have to carefully remember the order of the cards in the deck, or you’ll have cards left over at the end.

At the start of the game, it scans the first four rows, looking for any situations that make the game impossible to complete. This happens when all the cards that can be combined with a card are in the triangle below it.

This occurs because a card cannot be selected until all the cards in the triangle below it are removed first.

For example, suppose part of the offer was like this (Taken from Classic Solitaire 20064 offer)

   2

  J 9

 Q J 8

6 J 4 J

All jacks are found in the triangle below the top 2. So, to expose the top 2, all jacks will have to be removed first… But that’s impossible, because jacks can only be removed in combination with the 2s. We can remove three of the jacks, but we can never remove the top jack, because the 2 you need is on top.

So if all four combined cards appear on one card below the triangle, then the game cannot be finished and you can also re-deal.

If only three of the combined cards appear in the bottom triangle, you’ve discovered a potential dead end later on. Wherever the fourth meld card is, it MUST be melded with the top card. So if the fourth combination card is in the talon, you have to remember this and be careful not to use it on any card other than the one on top.

Another impasse to check early on is to see if all the melded cards appear in the triangle on one card.

For example, suppose the offer was like this (Taken from the offer of Classic Solitaire 3841)

      7

     8 J

    4 2 4

   A 6 8 2

  8 5 9 Q 2

 7 8 9 7 K 4

K A 5 3 Q 6 10

All 8 are in the triangle above the bottom 5, so the game cannot be finished.

However, the latter case does not happen very often, so it is not worth spending too much time checking it. A quick glance at the middle 3 cards on the bottom row is usually enough.

So, long story short, even before we start playing, we check if the game is winnable (Make sure there are no cases where all four combined cards are in the triangle below or on top of one card). We also check for times when three of the melded cards appear below… as they will need special attention, to make sure we don’t waste the fourth card and create a dead end.

So what about the game in general?

Well, for starters, always remove kings whenever you can. There is absolutely no reason not to remove Kings, because they are not used in combination with any other card, so you gain nothing by waiting.

Another thing to consider is that there is often no need to rush. You can cycle through the claw three times, so you’ll often be better off waiting and seeing what cards are left, rather than jumping around and clearing a combination as soon as you can.

Finally, try to remove the cards evenly between the claw and the box. Ideally, you want to finish removing cards from the tableau at the same time that the talon is depleted.

You still won’t be able to win every Pyramid Solitaire game with the above strategy, but you should find that your probability of winning has increased considerably.