TriPeaks Solitaire

How to play

1. How does a game of TriPeaks start?: The page opens on a dealt game: 28 cards form three peaks side by side. Each peak has one face-down card at the top, then two, then three, and a shared bottom row of ten face-up cards. The other 23 cards wait face down in the stock, and one more card is already turned onto the waste pile. On a phone in portrait the peaks lie on their side, tips pointing left, with the ten face-up cards in the right-hand column.
2. How do you play a card in TriPeaks?: Look at the top of the waste pile and tap any exposed card one rank higher or lower — it flies over and becomes the new top card. Suits don't matter. Aces are 1, Jacks 11, Queens 12, Kings 13, and Kings and Aces wrap around: a Queen or an Ace goes on a King, a 2 or a King goes on an Ace. Playable cards glow ice blue; tap one that doesn't fit and it shakes while the status line tells you what you need.
3. When should you turn a card from the stock?: When nothing on the peaks fits, tap the stock in the bottom-left to turn its top card onto the waste, then keep playing from that new card. You only go through the stock once — there's no redeal. You may turn a card at any time, but it ends your current streak, so play everything you can first.
4. How does TriPeaks scoring work?: In a streak the first card scores 10, the second 15, the third 20, and each one after adds 5 more. Taking a peak's top card adds 50. Clearing all three peaks adds 100, plus 20 for every card still in the stock. Turning a card scores nothing and resets the streak; when it breaks a streak you see an “N in a row +X” summary.
5. What if you get stuck?: The bulb shows a card you can play, or points at the stock when there isn't one. Undo is unlimited and free, and it steps back across stock turns. If the stock is empty and nothing fits, the game is stuck: the results card spells out the waste card, the ranks you needed and every exposed card, so you can undo a move and try another line or replay the same deal.

Rules & variants

TriPeaks uses one 52-card deck without jokers. Twenty-eight cards form three peaks: each peak has one card at the top, two below it and three below those, all face down, over a shared bottom row of ten face-up cards. The remaining 24 cards form the face-down stock, and the last beat of the deal turns one of them onto the waste pile. The goal is to move all 28 peak cards onto the waste; whatever is left in the stock doesn't matter.

Exposed and face-down cards: a card is exposed — and playable — only when both cards covering it have been played. Covered cards are always face down, and a card turns face up the moment the last card lying on it is played. That flip is the little surprise of every TriPeaks game: you never know what's underneath.

Playing a card: any exposed card one rank above or below the top of the waste can be played onto it, regardless of suit. Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13, and King and Ace wrap around, so a King takes a Queen or an Ace and an Ace takes a 2 or a King. The played card becomes the new top of the waste, and the next card has to be one away from it.

The stock: each tap turns the top stock card onto the waste. Turning a card is always allowed, even when a card on the peaks could be played. You get one pass through the stock and no redeal, which makes the stock your lifeline — once its 23 cards are gone and nothing fits, the game is stuck.

Scoring: the n-th card of a streak scores 5n + 5 (10, 15, 20 …), a peak's top card adds 50, clearing all three peaks adds 100, and every card left in the stock at the end adds 20. Turning a stock card scores nothing and costs nothing — it only resets the streak. There are no negative points. Streaks of 5, 10, 15 and 20 get a small celebration on the streak counter.

Undo and deal numbers: undo is unlimited and free, it steps back across stock turns, and cards turned face up by a play are turned back down. A game that used undo still counts as a win but isn't recorded as a best score. Every deal has a number and the same number always deals the same cards — copy the game link to a friend and compare scores on the same game.

Variations and house rules: other versions don't let Kings and Aces connect, deal all cards face up, require the bottom row to be cleared too, allow several passes through the stock or add wild cards. This game uses the rules above — King–Ace wrap, face-down start, clear all 28 cards to win, one pass through the stock and no wild cards. There are no rule switches, so a deal number always means exactly one game.

TriPeaks strategy: ① play every card you can before turning the stock — a broken streak costs a lot of points; ② when two cards fit, take the one that turns a face-down card over, especially on the side leading to a peak; ③ look one card ahead and pick the line that keeps going; ④ when you hold several cards of the same rank, keep one on the peaks as a turning point for later; ⑤ Kings and Aces are corners — with a King on the waste, both a Queen and an Ace fit.

Common beginner mistakes: ① turning the stock while a playable card is still on the peaks, throwing away the streak; ② staring at the bottom row and forgetting that playing a card may flip the one above it — the flipped card is often the next play; ③ forgetting the King–Ace wrap and thinking a King only takes a Queen; ④ always building in one direction (7→8→9) when going back down (9→8) would open more face-down cards.

A worked example: the waste shows 7♣ and the bottom row reads 9♦ 8♠ 2♦ K♣ A♥ 5♠ J♦ 3♣ Q♥ 4♠. Play 8♠ for 10 points, then 9♦ for 15 — the face-down card those two were covering turns over, a 10♠. Tapping 2♦ is refused: the waste shows 9, you need an 8 or a 10. Play the new 10♠ for 20, then J♦, Q♥ and K♣, and the Ace of hearts still goes on the King. When nothing else fits, turn the stock and the streak counter shows the “N in a row +X” summary.

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