Pyramid Solitaire - Winning Strategy
By Boris Sandberg
Pyramid Solitaire
Pyramid Solitaire looks simple on paper — remove pairs that add up to 13, clear the pyramid, done. But anyone who's played more than a few games knows that most of them end with cards still on the table and no obvious way forward. The problem is rarely bad luck. It's usually a decision made a couple of minutes earlier that quietly closed off all your options. Here's how to avoid that.
Before your first move, count — don't just look
The most common mistake in Pyramid Solitaire is grabbing the first available pair and getting on with it. The better habit is to spend ten seconds scanning the whole pyramid before touching anything. What you're looking for: cards that are buried directly under their own partners. If a 6 is sitting on top of a 7 in the same column, you need to remove that 6 before you can ever reach the 7 to pair them. Miss this at the start and you might spend the whole game working toward a match that was never going to happen. Also count how many cards of each rank are still buried. If three 8s are deep in the pyramid and only one 5 is visible, those 8s are going to be a serious problem. Knowing this early means you can plan around it — rather than suddenly realizing it when it's too late.
The waste pile first, the stock second
Playing from the waste pile before drawing new cards isn't just tidier — it's about preserving the order of your stock. Every time you draw unnecessarily, you're pushing useful cards further down into a pile you can only go through a limited number of times. The waste pile card is already out in the open. Use it first, and keep your stock as intact as possible for when you actually need it. There's a related mistake that even experienced players make: drawing a new card the moment they're stuck, without really being stuck. Before you touch the stock, ask yourself whether there's a pyramid-to-pyramid pair you haven't tried, or whether the current waste card can pair with something you overlooked. The stock isn't going anywhere — but once you've drawn past a card, it's gone until the next cycle.
Kings are free moves — treat them that way
A King is the only card in the game that asks nothing of you. It doesn't require a partner, it doesn't depend on anything being uncovered first. The moment a King is exposed, removing it is strictly better than not removing it. There's no version of "I'll save this King for later" that makes sense. What's less obvious is that Kings buried in the upper rows of the pyramid are often the hidden key to unlocking a stuck position. Getting to them requires patient, systematic clearing — which is another reason to think several moves ahead rather than just grabbing whatever pair happens to be available.
Pairing two pyramid cards together is often a trap
When you pair two pyramid cards, it feels efficient — two birds, one stone. But consider what you're giving up: each of those pyramid cards could have served as a partner for a stock or waste card later. Use them both on each other, and you've closed off two future possibilities at once. Wherever you have a choice, prefer pairing a pyramid card with a stock or waste card — and save pyramid-to-pyramid pairs for when there's no other option.
Don't rush stock-waste matches
The cards in your stock come up in the same order every time through, and the waste pile mirrors that. So a stock-waste pair you see now will be available again next pass — there's no urgency to play it. Save those matches for your last time through the deck. In the meantime, use those cards to pair off pyramid cards one at a time instead. A stock or waste card used to clear the pyramid is doing more work than the same match played between two cards that were never blocking anything. The stock will come around again — the pyramid won't fix itself.
Trapped cards: think about it before the game even starts
The concept is easy to understand — a card blocked by its own partner is a problem. The harder part is building the habit of spotting it before it matters, not after. At the very start of the game, before making a single move, scan the pyramid for pairs where both cards sit in the same column, one on top of the other. Make a mental note of them. Every move you make should at least not make those situations worse, and ideally should be actively working toward resolving them. The same logic applies throughout the game. When you're choosing between two possible pairs, ask which one brings you closer to freeing a trapped card. That's almost always the right move, even if the other pair looks more immediately satisfying.