Pyramid Solitaire Strategy: How to Win, Tested on 500 Deals

The best Pyramid Solitaire strategy is to take out Kings at once, but don't grab every other pair the moment you see it. Before you pair, check whether the card you're about to use is the last partner some pyramid card can ever get, especially a card sitting on top of its own partner. When you're not sure, draw: with passes left, a drawn card isn't lost.

How often can you win? We ran an exact solver on deals #1 to #500 of Poozee's Pyramid Solitaire. With perfect play, 67.6% of deals can be won with 3 passes through the stock, 62.8% with 2 and just 8.0% with 1. Simple "always pair" strategies won less than half as many.

The rules in one minute

Pyramid Solitaire deals 28 cards face up in a pyramid of 7 overlapping rows. The other 24 cards form the stock. You remove two uncovered cards that add up to 13: Aces count 1, number cards their number, Jacks 11, Queens 12 and Kings 13, so a King goes on its own. A card is uncovered when no card overlaps it from the row below.

You turn cards from the stock one at a time. The card you just turned and the top card of the waste pile can both pair with an uncovered pyramid card or with each other. When the stock runs out you may turn the waste over and go through it again, if you have passes left. You win when all 28 pyramid cards are gone.

How many Pyramid Solitaire deals can you win?

We gave deals #1 to #500 to a solver that tries every line of play and remembers every position it has already proved lost, so its answer is exact. It knows the order of the face-down stock, which you only learn by going through it once, so these numbers are a ceiling for a real player.

The second pass is worth far more than the third. With one pass, every stock card has to find a partner the moment it turns up or wait on the waste, where only the top card is playable. A second pass took winnable deals from 40 to 314. The third added only 24 more.

We counted a deal as won when the pyramid is cleared. Some versions also make you clear the stock and the waste; that stricter rule can only lower these numbers, never raise them.

Pro tip: On Poozee, keep Winnable deals only switched on and the same solver checks every new deal before you see it, so each game you get has a solution. The Hint button uses it too: it shows a move that keeps the deal winnable, or tells you when it can't be won any more.

Don't grab every pair

The most common way to play Pyramid Solitaire is to make any pair you can see and draw only when there's nothing left to pair. We tested that habit two ways.

First, we held the solver to it: it could still pick the best pair every time, but it had to make one whenever it could, instead of drawing. That alone cut its wins from 338 to 229 deals with 3 passes, losing 109 of the 338 winnable deals. With one pass it kept only 13 of 40.

Then we played the same 500 deals with simple rules that only look at the cards face up right now. Each rule takes out Kings at once, always pairs when it can, and uses a different way to choose between pairs. Here are the wins out of 500 deals:

"Free the most covered cards" picks the pair that uncovers the most pyramid cards underneath it, and it was the best of the simple rules. Still, it won 155 deals, less than half of the 338 that could be won. Pairing stock and waste cards first did worst of all (tied with random pairing at 2 passes): it spends partners the pyramid needs on cards you never had to clear.

The lesson is not that pairing is bad. It's that every rank has only four cards and only one partner rank. When a rank runs short, which pyramid card gets which partner decides the game.

Worked example 1: two 9s, two 4s

This position comes from deal #52 with 3 passes, played to the second pass. The stock is used up and the 4 of spades has just been turned. It can pair with either uncovered 9.

The 9 of spades looks like the natural choice: it covers both Kings. But count the cards. The other two 4s and 9s are gone, so each 9 needs one of the two 4s left: the 4 of spades and the 4 of diamonds. The 4 of diamonds sits under the 9 of clubs, so those two can never pair with each other. The 9 of clubs must get the 4 of spades.

Pair the 4 of spades with the 9 of spades and the 9 of clubs is stuck on top of its only partner. The solver confirms the deal is lost. Pair it with the 9 of clubs instead and the 4 of diamonds comes free for the 9 of spades, the Kings come off, and the solver finds a win on the third pass.

Worked example 2: when to leave a pair alone

Deal #60 with 3 passes, again on the second pass. The 2 of clubs has just been turned, and the Jack of diamonds is on top of the waste. They add up to 13, and they're the only pair on the table.

Take that pair and the solver proves the deal is lost. The reason is the Jack of clubs: it lies under the 2 of diamonds, the 2 of hearts and the 2 of spades are already gone, so the 2 of clubs is the only card that can ever take it. The Jack of diamonds has another way out, the 2 of diamonds, once the Queen of diamonds is paired off.

So draw. The 2 of clubs goes onto the waste and comes back on the next pass. Every winning line from here pairs the Queen of diamonds with the Ace of spades (the last Ace), which uncovers the 2 of diamonds for the Jack of diamonds, and saves the 2 of clubs for the Jack of clubs. None of them finishes without the third pass.

Both examples have the same shape: a card that covers the only other card of its partner rank. Spot that shape and you know which pair to save.

How to win Pyramid Solitaire: the habits that matter

1. Take Kings out right away. Nothing pairs with a King, so removing it can only uncover cards.
2. Draw when a pair isn't clearly safe. With passes left, the drawn card goes to the waste and comes back on the next pass. Forcing a pair every time cost a third of the winnable deals in our test.
3. Count before you pair. Each rank has four cards, and each has one partner rank. When only two of a rank are left, work out which pyramid card each one has to go to.
4. Look for cards sitting on their own partner. A card can never pair with a card it covers. If only one other partner is left, save it for that card, as in both examples above.
5. Free covered cards. Among the simple rules, choosing the pair that uncovers the most cards did best at every pass setting.
6. Learn the stock on the first pass. When you turn the waste over, the stock comes back in the same order, minus the cards you took out. A player who remembers it knows as much as our solver did.

Pro tip: Undo is unlimited on Poozee, so you can try a pair, draw a few cards to see what it costs, and take it back. Replaying a numbered deal, like deal #52 above, is a good way to practice.

Keep playing

Try the two positions yourself in Pyramid Solitaire: enter deal 52 or 60 with the Deal # button and see if you can reach them. For the same question asked about other solitaire games, read are all solitaire games winnable. If you'd like a game where every card is face up from the start, try FreeCell with our FreeCell strategy guide, or go back to Klondike Solitaire.