TriPeaks Solitaire

Climbing the peaks

How to play TriPeaks Solitaire

Twenty-eight cards are dealt into three overlapping pyramids — a row of three peak tops, then six, then nine, then a base of ten shared across all three. Everything is face up. One card is turned to start the waste and twenty-three remain in the stock.

A card can be played when nothing covers it, and it can be played when it is exactly one rank above or below the waste card. That card then becomes the new waste, so each move sets up the next. Suits are irrelevant throughout.

Clear all twenty-eight and you win; whatever is left in the stock does not matter. The whole skill is stringing moves together, because every card you clear without drawing is a stock card saved for later.

The chain never breaks

The chain is a loop, not a line

In TriPeaks the ranks form a circle. An ace connects to a 2 in one direction and to a king in the other, so every rank on the board has exactly two neighbours and nothing is ever a dead end.

That sounds like a small detail and it changes the entire feel of the game. In Golf, which uses the same one-rank rule without wrapping, a king can only be reached from a queen and leads nowhere afterwards — kings and aces are cards you have to plan around. Here they are the best cards on the board, because an ace can be reached from either end of the deck.

Keeping a run alive

What continues a TriPeaks run

Chaining moves

TriPeaks Solitaire strategy

Trace chains before you start them. When several cards fit the waste, follow each one forward as far as you can and take the longest — not the one nearest your cursor. This single habit is worth more than everything else on this page.

Work the three peaks in parallel. Availability is the resource, and a board eaten evenly keeps more cards uncovered than one dug straight down. It is tempting to finish a peak because it feels like an achievement; the peak itself is worth nothing extra.

Uncover the peak cards early rather than late. A card at the top of a peak needs the entire small pyramid beneath it gone, so those three cards are the ones most likely to strand you at the end. If you can see a route to one of them, take it while you still have stock in hand.

Save the wrap for when you need it. Knowing that an ace bridges the king-to-2 gap turns a stalled position into a long run surprisingly often, and it is the option most players forget to look for.

Three ways a run dies

Where TriPeaks deals stall

Opening one peak and ignoring the other two

Clearing straight down through a single peak feels like progress and leaves you with one deep hole and two untouched pyramids. Availability is what you are really farming: a board eaten evenly across all three peaks gives you far more candidates per turn than one dug to the bottom.

Taking the short chain when a longer one exists

Two cards that both fit the waste are rarely worth the same. Before playing, follow each option forward — one may run four or five cards and open a peak card, the other may end immediately and cost you a draw.

Forgetting that the wrap works both ways

Players who learned Golf first tend not to see king-to-ace-to-2 as a route. In TriPeaks it is often the longest chain on the board, because aces and kings are as connected as everything else rather than being dead ends.

TriPeaks' odds

Is TriPeaks Solitaire winnable?

More often than most quick clearing games, and considerably more often than Golf on this site, because the wrapping chain means no card is ever unreachable in principle. A careful player who looks ahead before each move will clear the peaks in a healthy share of deals.

It is still not guaranteed. Twenty-three stock cards against twenty-eight peak cards is a real budget, and a deal that scatters the ranks badly across the peaks can run out. We do not publish a figure: many TriPeaks versions add scoring, multiple passes or a wildcard, and a number measured against those would not describe this page.

Peaks and pyramids

TriPeaks against the other board clearers

Pyramid uses the same two-card blocking on a single triangle but asks for exact partners totalling thirteen rather than a run, which is stricter and slower. If you like the peaks but want no luck at all, Giza puts the pairing rule on a fully visible board with no stock.