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Pyramid Solitaire Strategy: Scoring More Cards in Three Minutes

Updated October 2026

This version of Pyramid Solitaire is a race, not a single patient deal. You get three minutes, every deal that is cleared or exhausted is replaced at once, and the score is the total number of pyramid cards you remove across all of them. That changes the right way to play. This guide covers the exact rules the game uses, which moves are worth more points, why clearing a whole pyramid is rarer than you might expect, and how to keep your card rate high to the final second.

The layout and the rules this version uses

Each deal shuffles a full 52-card deck. Twenty-eight cards form a pyramid of seven rows, from one card at the top to seven at the bottom, all face up. The other twenty-four cards become the stock, shown face down below the pyramid, with the waste pile beside it.

A pyramid card can be used only when both of the cards that overlap it from the row below are gone. At the start of a deal that means only the seven cards in the bottom row are available. Cards that are still covered are dimmed and ignore taps.

Card values are Ace 1, number cards at face value, Jack 11, Queen 12 and King 13. Two available cards whose values add up to 13 are removed together. There are exactly six pairings to learn: Ace with Queen, 2 with Jack, 3 with 10, 4 with 9, 5 with 8, and 6 with 7. A King is already 13 and is removed by itself.

Tapping the stock turns its top card onto the waste. Only the top card of the waste can be used, and the stock goes through once per deal; there is no second pass. There is one subtlety that many players miss: the waste is a stack. When you pair away its top card, the card that was underneath becomes the new top and is usable again.

How points are counted

Only pyramid cards score. That gives each move a clear value:

There is no bonus for clearing a whole pyramid. When the last pyramid card goes, a fresh deal appears and the clock keeps running. When the stock is empty and no pair or King is available, the game shows a stuck message and deals again automatically. Your score carries over in both cases.

Clearing is rare, so play for rate

It is tempting to treat every deal as something to solve, but the numbers argue against it. In our simulation of 100,000 deals played by a simple strategy that always takes a King or an available pair before turning the stock, under half a percent of pyramids were cleared completely. The same strategy removed about 16 pyramid cards per deal on average and needed about 49 taps per deal, counting every stock turn.

The single pass through the stock is the reason. A pair whose partner is buried under the waste, or still locked inside the pyramid when its matching card is turned, often never meets again. A careful human can beat the simple strategy, but even a strong player will see most deals end with cards left in the pyramid.

The useful conclusion is that your three minutes are worth a certain number of taps, and every tap should either score or bring a scoring move closer. Spending twenty seconds staring at a hopeless layout is the most expensive mistake in this mode.

Choosing between available moves

Most of the time the move is forced: one pair or nothing. When you do have a choice, a few rules of thumb help.

  1. Prefer moves that uncover cards. A pyramid card in the upper rows stays dimmed until both cards beneath it are gone. Removing a card that is the last blocker of something above it adds a new option; removing one that leaves its neighbour still in place adds nothing yet.
  2. Prefer pyramid-to-pyramid pairs. They score twice as much as a waste pair for the same two taps, and they open the layout from two places at once.
  3. Think twice before spending a waste card that the pyramid needs later. If a 9 is sitting in the waste and you can see a 4 that is one removal away from becoming available, it can be worth uncovering the 4 first. Remember the waste card stays usable until you turn another card on top of it.
  4. Remember which partners are already gone. Each value has four copies. If three Queens have already been used and an Ace is stuck high in the pyramid, the last Queen is the only way to free it this deal.

Tapping cleanly under time pressure

The controls are tap to select, tap the partner to remove both. A selected card is highlighted. Tapping the same card again cancels the selection, and tapping a card that does not make 13 with the selected one simply moves the highlight to the new card, so a wrong second tap costs you nothing but time.

Kings deserve a special note. An available King is always removed with a single tap, whether or not another card is highlighted; if something was selected, the selection is simply cleared at the same time. So there is no need to tidy up before taking a King: the moment one is uncovered, in the pyramid or on top of the waste, tap it. Turning a stock card also clears the selection, which is a quick way to reset if you lose track.

When a deal is clearly finished but the stock still has cards, there is no button to give it up; the replacement deal arrives only after the stock is empty and nothing is playable. In that situation turn the stock as fast as you can while glancing at each new waste card, because one of them may still pair with an available pyramid card and earn another point on the way. Pressing New during a round is not a shortcut: it starts a completely fresh three-minute game with the score back at zero.

Managing the three minutes

The clock starts when you press Start on the ready card, not when the page loads. It is a real-time countdown, so it keeps running if you switch apps or lock the screen, and it turns to the warning style in the last twenty seconds. Your best total is stored on the device, and any score above zero can be submitted to the Hall of Fame. This board ranks the three-minute total, so it is separate from any older single-deal scores.

A good pacing plan is to scan the bottom row as each deal appears, take every available pair and King at once, and only then start turning the stock. With fifteen seconds left, stop planning altogether and take any scoring move on the board, since anything left in the pyramid when the timer ends is worth nothing.

The skill in this mode is a blend of quick arithmetic, a short memory for which partners have passed, and the discipline to move on from dead deals. Learn the six pairings until they feel automatic, keep your taps purposeful, and your total will grow from one session to the next.

▶ Play Pyramid Solitaire Pair cards to 13 and clear as many as you can in three minutes.