Pyramid Solitaire Strategy
Pyramid has real luck in it — not every deal can be cleared. But most losses come from pairing the wrong cards, not from the shuffle. These habits will turn many of your near-misses into wins.
Play Pyramid Now1. Clear the bottom row first
Only uncovered cards can be played, and at the start that means the seven cards in the bottom row. Every card you remove there frees something above it; a pair that uses the waste and the stock frees nothing. So when you have a choice, prefer the move that takes cards out of the pyramid, and among those, the ones that uncover a new card. Two neighbouring bottom-row cards are worth more than two far apart, because removing neighbours exposes the card they share.
2. Count the 13-pairs before you commit
There are only six pairs — Ace and Queen, 2 and Jack, 3 and 10, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, 6 and 7 — and each rank appears exactly four times. Before you pair, say, a 5 from the waste with an 8 from the pyramid, glance at the pyramid: how many 5s and 8s are still in it? If three 8s are buried high up and only one 5 is left anywhere, that 5 is precious — spend it on the 8 that unlocks the most, not the first one you see. The apex and the second row are the hardest cards to reach, so their partners should be protected above all.
3. Kings first, always
A King needs no partner and blocks whatever is above it, so an uncovered King should be removed the moment it appears. There is no reason to wait: it can never be used for anything else, and removing it costs you nothing.
4. Draw with a purpose — know when not to remove
Drawing is free, but a removal is not always good. Consider drawing instead of removing when the only pair on offer uses a waste card that a hard-to-reach pyramid card will need later, or when it would pair two cards that are both easy to reach anyway. Equally, don't draw past a useful card just because you can: once a stock card lands on the waste, it stays in play only until the next card covers it. On CardCouch the top of the stock is face up, so you can see what is coming and decide whether to pair it directly from the stock — which keeps the waste top free — or draw it first.
5. Use the waste as a second hand
The waste is more than a discard pile. Cards you draw and skip pile up in order, and when the top waste card is removed, the one beneath it is back in play. So a run of useful cards drawn one after another becomes a stack you can dig into: pair the top card, then the next, then the next. Watch for the chance to pair the waste top with the stock top, too — that removes two cards without touching the pyramid but often reveals a waste card you needed.
6. Budget your three passes
The first pass through the stock is for reconnaissance as much as for removals: note where the partners of your buried cards sit in the order. The order is preserved when the waste is recycled, so on the second pass you know exactly when each card is coming and can leave the right card on top of the waste to meet it. Save the third pass for finishing — if you reach it with more than a handful of pyramid cards left, it is usually time to Undo a few moves and try a different order.
7. Undo is a tool, not a cheat
Because the whole pyramid is face up, most stuck positions can be traced back to one wrong pair. When the game tells you there are no moves left, step back with Undo to the last real decision and take the other line. Playing a deal out this way teaches you the patterns — which partner to protect, which row to open — far faster than dealing again.
Practice makes perfect
New to the game? Start with our how to play Pyramid Solitaire guide, or try the Solitaire strategy guide for the Klondike classic.
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