TriPeaks

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order
3. Setup
4. Playing
5. Winning
6. Scoring (optional)
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

TriPeaks is a quick patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire). Twenty-eight cards are laid out as three overlapping pyramids – the peaks. You clear them by moving cards onto a single pile, each card one rank higher or lower than the one before, regardless of suit. Clear all three peaks and you win.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Paper and pencil if you want to keep score.

Card order

The ranks run A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K, and then round the corner: after the King comes the Ace again. So a Queen or an Ace may follow a King, and a King or a 2 may follow an Ace. Suits and colours play no part.

Setup

Shuffle and deal 28 cards in four overlapping rows, from top to bottom: 3, 6, 9 and 10 cards. The first three rows lie face down, only the bottom row of 10 lies face up. The top card of each peak is its tip. Each card in rows 2–4 partly covers the bottom edge of the cards above it, so the three pyramids overlap at their base.

Seen from below, each card in rows 1–3 is covered by the two cards of the next row that overlap it. The 10 cards in the bottom row are not covered – they are free.

Turn the next card face up to start the waste (the pile you play onto). The remaining 23 cards form the face-down stock.

Playing

1. Play to the waste: move any free card from the peaks onto the waste if it is one rank higher or one rank lower than the top card of the waste. Suit does not matter.
2. Keep going: the card you just played is now the top of the waste, so you can go on up or down as you like – for example 7 – 8 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6. Such a series of cards is called a run.
3. Turn up cards: as soon as both cards covering a face-down card are gone, turn it face up. It is now free.
4. Use the stock: when you cannot (or do not want to) play any more, turn the top card of the stock face up onto the waste. It always goes there, whether it fits or not, and becomes the new card to build on – a new run can start.
5. There is no redeal: when the stock is empty and you cannot move, the game is over.

Example: The waste shows a 5♣. The free cards include 4♥, 6♠, 3♦ and K♣. You play the 4♥ (one lower), then the 3♦ (one lower again). The 4♥ and the 3♦ were neighbours, so removing both uncovers the face-down card they covered: a 2♠ – play it too. Nothing else fits, so you turn up the next stock card: a K♥. Now the K♣ could not go on it, but a Q or an A could.

Winning

You win when all 28 cards of the peaks have gone to the waste – it does not matter how many cards are left in the stock. If the stock is empty and no card fits, you lose.

Scoring (optional)

For a series of games, keep score as in the original computer version:

Example: a run of 4 cards scores 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 points, then turning up a stock card costs 5.

Tips for beginners

• Look ahead before you play: with several free cards, choose the order that makes the longest run.
• Prefer cards that uncover face-down cards – that gives you new options.
• If two cards fit, take the one that leaves a card you can still use next.
• Clearing the tips of the peaks early is not important; freeing the lower rows is.

Variants

• No turning the corner: the King and the Ace are not neighbours – nothing goes on a King except a Queen, nothing on an Ace except a 2 (as in the older patience Golf).
• Open peaks: deal all 28 cards face up, so you can plan the whole game.
• Free start: don't turn up a waste card at the start – begin with any free card from the bottom row.