TriPeaks Solitaire: play uncovered cards one rank above or below the waste card, King and Ace connect, and clear all three peaks.
What is TriPeaks Solitaire?
TriPeaks Solitaire is a one-player card game in which you clear three overlapping peaks of cards by moving them, one at a time, onto a waste pile, each card one rank higher or lower than the card before it. It uses a single 52-card deck, and suits and colours do not matter at all. Only the rank counts.
A deal often takes just a few minutes, but the order of your plays decides the result. Two or three cards often fit the waste card at the same moment, and the one you pick changes which face-down cards turn up next. The stock goes through once in a fixed order, so some deals cannot be cleared even with perfect play.
How to play TriPeaks Solitaire
The layout: 28 cards form three peaks in four rows. From the top down there are 3 cards, then 6, then 9, and a full bottom row of 10 that joins the peaks together. Every card above the bottom row is overlapped by two cards in the row beneath it. The 10 bottom cards start face up and the other 18 are face down. One more card is turned up to start the waste pile, and the remaining 23 cards form the stock.
Playing a card: a face-up card that nothing covers can go onto the waste if it is exactly one rank above or below the top waste card. The direction can change on every play, so 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5 is a legal chain. King and Ace connect both ways: an Ace can follow a King and a King can follow an Ace, so Q, K, A, 2 works too. The card you play becomes the new waste card.
Uncovering: when both cards that overlap a face-down card are gone, it turns face up by itself and can be played.
The stock: when nothing fits, turn the next stock card onto the waste. That card becomes the new target and the old waste card is out of reach for good. There is one pass through the stock and no redeal. You win by clearing all 28 peak cards. If the stock is empty and no uncovered card fits, the deal is over and the game tells you there are no more moves. From there you can undo or start a new deal.
TriPeaks strategy: how to clear more deals
Play whenever you can. A stock card covers the waste card, so turning the stock while a play exists throws away a link in the chain and spends one of your 23 stock cards. The real decisions come when more than one card fits.
Trace the chain before you touch a card. Say the waste shows a 6 and both a 5 and a 7 are free. Check where each one leads. If the 7 goes on to an 8 and a 9 while the 5 leads nowhere, start with the 7. Often you can use both directions: climb 7, 8, 9, then come back down 8, 7, 6, 5 if the cards are there.
Uncover cards first. A card that sits on a face-down card is worth more than one that covers nothing, because playing it brings a new card into the game. The three cards at the very top of the peaks cover nothing once they are face up. They can wait: they stay available and can bridge a gap after the next stock card.
Watch for duplicates. With a 7 on the waste and two 8s free, play the 8 that uncovers something. The other 8 can connect a later stock card, such as a 9 that would otherwise have no partner on the table.
Open all three peaks. A peak with its upper cards still face down is a block of unknowns. Clearing the bottom row under every peak spreads new face-up cards across the layout and gives you more choices for each waste card.
Remember the wrap. Many players forget that a King can follow an Ace. In this version, chains such as J, Q, K, A, 2 come up often.
TriPeaks rules in our version and other variants
Our TriPeaks has one rule set and no menu options: King and Ace connect, the stock turns one card at a time, and there is one pass through it. These are the rules most players know.
Other variants exist. Some do not let King and Ace connect, and some use scoring that pays a growing bonus for long chains. If you like the one-rank-up-or-down rule, Golf Solitaire on Hevagames uses it with seven columns and no wrap between King and Ace, and Pyramid Solitaire clears a pyramid by pairing cards that add up to 13.
Where TriPeaks Solitaire comes from
TriPeaks was devised by Robert Hogue in 1989. Its main rule comes from Golf, an older patience game in which cards are also played one rank up or down onto a single pile. What Hogue added was the three-peak layout, with face-down cards that open up as the rows below them are cleared.
Computer versions made the game widely known in the 1990s, and it has been a regular part of solitaire collections since then.
Play TriPeaks Solitaire on Hevagames
Our TriPeaks runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to install. Tap an uncovered card to play it, or drag it onto the waste. Tap the stock, or press D, to turn a new card. With a keyboard, the arrow keys move between piles and Enter plays. Z or Backspace undoes a move and N deals a new game.
Undo has no limit, and each undo counts as a move. The current deal is saved in your browser together with the last 60 steps of undo history, so you can close the page and carry on later. The top bar shows moves, time and score, and the timer starts with your first move.
Scoring: each peak card you clear is worth 10 points. When all three peaks are cleared, every card still in the stock adds 10 more, and a win bonus of 500 minus 2 per move and minus half a point per second is added, never below zero. Your best score is kept on your device. The cards are drawn in code, so they stay sharp at any screen size, and the table follows light or dark mode.
How to play
- 128 cards form three peaks. Only the bottom row starts face up.
- 2Tap an uncovered card that is one rank higher or lower than the waste card to play it. Suits do not matter, and King and Ace connect.
- 3A card turns face up once nothing covers it.
- 4When you have no play, tap the stock to turn a new waste card. The stock goes through once.
- 5Clear all three peaks to win.
Controls
Tips
- Look for long chains, such as 7-8-9-8-7, before you start playing.
- Prefer cards that uncover face-down cards.
- Cards left in the stock when you win are worth points, so do not turn the stock early.
