Pyramid Solitaire rules and how to play

Pyramid Solitaire is a gentle, thoughtful card game where your goal is to clear a pyramid of cards by matching them into pairs that add up to 13. It is quick to learn, easy on the eyes, and gives you a satisfying little puzzle every time you deal. You can play it right here, free, with large cards and no clutter, at /play/pyramid/. If you have never tried it before, do not worry — the whole game rests on one simple idea, and this guide walks you through it slowly and clearly.

What you need

Pyramid uses a single standard 52-card deck. There is nothing to memorize about suits, because in Pyramid the suit of a card does not matter at all. What matters is each card’s number value:

That is the entire scoring system. Once you have those values in mind, you are ready to play. Online you do not need to shuffle or deal — the game sets everything up for you — but it helps to picture how the cards are arranged.

The layout

Twenty-eight cards are dealt face-up into the shape of a pyramid. The top row has a single card, the second row has two cards, the third has three, and so on down to the seventh and bottom row, which has seven cards. Each card slightly overlaps the two cards below it, so the pyramid tiers stack like roof tiles.

The remaining 24 cards form the stock — a face-down pile you draw from. Cards you turn over from the stock but do not use go onto the waste pile, face-up, beside it.

A card is called exposed (or “free”) when nothing is lying on top of it. At the start, only the bottom row of seven cards is fully exposed. As you remove cards, the ones above them become uncovered and available in turn.

How to play

The heart of the game is this: remove pairs of exposed cards whose values add up to exactly 13.

For example, a 6 and a 7 make 13, so you can remove them together. So do a 9 and a 4, a 10 and a 3, a Queen (12) and an Ace (1), or a Jack (11) and a 2. Each valid pair is cleared away, and the cards that were resting on them become exposed for your next move.

Kings are the exception. A King is already worth 13 all by itself, so whenever a King is exposed you simply remove it on its own — no partner needed.

You may pair an exposed pyramid card with another exposed pyramid card, or with the top card of the waste pile, or with the top card of the stock when you turn it up. The waste pile’s top card is always available to pair.

When you cannot make any more moves from the pyramid, draw a card from the stock. It goes to the waste pile. If it makes 13 with something exposed, clear the pair; if not, it simply waits on the waste pile, and you draw again. In many versions, including the one on this site, you may pass through the stock more than once — reshuffling the waste back into the stock as many times as you like. When the stock runs out, click it to recycle the waste into a fresh stock, and keep going.

Moving cards

To make a match, you select two exposed cards that total 13 and they lift away together. A King is removed with a single tap or click. On our site the cards are large and the targets are generous, so a slightly imprecise tap still lands where you meant it.

You cannot move a card that is still partly covered — it must be fully exposed first. And you cannot “store” a card somewhere for later; every removal is either a King on its own or a pair that makes 13 right now.

Winning and losing

You win when you have cleared the entire pyramid — all 28 cards gone. The stock and waste do not need to be empty; only the pyramid must be dismantled completely.

You reach the end of a game without winning when there are no legal pairs left among the exposed cards even after recycling the stock, and the pyramid still has cards on it. Pyramid is partly a game of luck — not every deal can be solved — so an unfinished pyramid is nothing to feel bad about. Deal again and enjoy the next one.

A worked example

Suppose the bottom row shows, left to right: King, 8, 5, Jack, 2, 9, 4.

In just a few moves the whole bottom row is gone, and all six cards from the row above are now exposed, ready to be matched. That steady peeling-away is the rhythm of Pyramid.

Getting started

If this is your first game, take it slowly. There is no timer forcing you along, and no penalty for thinking. Scan the exposed cards, look for any two that add to 13, and clear the easy ones first. When you get stuck, draw from the stock and see what turns up. You will find your eye gets quicker at spotting pairs after just a hand or two.

When you are ready to sharpen your play — deciding which pair to remove when you have a choice, and how to avoid getting boxed in — read our companion Pyramid strategy guide. It builds directly on the rules you have just learned.

If you enjoy Pyramid, you may like these calmer number-and-sequence games too:

Play Pyramid →