Pyramid Solitaire Rules

Pyramid Solitaire is a quick, arithmetic-flavoured patience game: you dismantle a pyramid of cards by pairing them up so each pair adds to thirteen. The rules are simple to learn but the deals can be genuinely tough, which is part of the appeal. This page is a complete reference to how the game is set up, what the cards are worth, and exactly which moves are legal. When you want to put it into practice, you can play a hand straight away.

What is Pyramid Solitaire?

Pyramid is a single-player card game played with one standard 52-card deck. Twenty-eight cards are dealt face up into a pyramid shape, and the rest form a draw pile. Your job is to remove the entire pyramid by repeatedly taking away pairs of cards whose ranks total thirteen. Unlike Klondike, there are no foundations to build and no suits or colours to worry about — only the numbers matter.

The setup

The game begins with 28 cards dealt face up in a pyramid of seven rows. The top row holds a single card, the second row two, the third three, and so on down to seven cards across the bottom row (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28). The rows overlap so that each card is partially covered by the two cards in the row below it.

A card is "exposed" (playable) only when both of the cards covering it have been removed. At the start of the deal, just the seven cards along the bottom row are exposed; everything above them is blocked until you clear the cards in front of it.

The remaining 24 cards form the stock (the draw pile), dealt face down. As you turn cards over from the stock they go to a waste pile, and the top card of the waste is always available to use.

Card values

Every card is worth its rank, with the picture cards continuing the count:

• Ace = 1
• 2 through 10 = their face value
• Jack = 11
• Queen = 12
• King = 13

Suits and colours have no effect at all in Pyramid — a card's only property that matters is its numeric value.

The objective

Your goal is to remove the entire pyramid by pairing exposed cards that sum to thirteen. Because a King already equals 13 on its own, a King is removed singly rather than paired with anything. Clear all 28 pyramid cards and you win.

Legal moves

On any turn you can make one of the following moves:

• Pair two exposed cards that sum to 13. The valid pairs are Queen+Ace, Jack+2, 10+3, 9+4, 8+5 and 7+6. You can pair one exposed pyramid card with another exposed pyramid card, or pair an exposed pyramid card with the top card of the waste pile.
• Remove a King alone. Any exposed King (or the King on top of the waste) comes off by itself, since it is already worth 13.
• Draw from the stock. When you run out of pairs, turn over the top stock card onto the waste, one card at a time, to bring a fresh card into play.
• Recycle the waste. Once the stock is empty, you may turn the waste pile back over to form a new stock and go through it again. On CardHearth you get two recycles — three passes through the stock in total — so spend your late-stock cards thoughtfully on the final pass.

How you win

You win the moment the pyramid is completely cleared — all 28 cards removed. Whatever is left in the stock or waste at that point does not matter. Be aware that not every Pyramid deal is winnable: a card you need can end up buried directly beneath its only matching partner, leaving no legal sequence to free both. That is normal for Pyramid, which has a relatively low win rate, so don't expect to clear every game even with flawless play. Unlimited undo and numbered deals make it easy to retry a tricky one.

Frequently asked questions

Keep going

Now that you know the rules, play Pyramid Solitaire and put them to work. When you're ready to win more often, read our Pyramid Solitaire strategy guide, brush up on any unfamiliar terms in the solitaire glossary, or explore the rest of the guides hub.