By Dan Fletcher
Tri Peaks Solitaire is a popular solitaire game, combining many elements from Pyramid Solitaire, and Golf Solitaire.
Unlike many other solitaire games, Tri Peaks Solitaire makes it fun to do the same deal many times over, because you can keep playing trying to maximize your score.
Aim of Tri Peaks Solitaire
The aim is to move all the cards to the waste, and maximize your score.
Tri Peaks Solitaire Layout
The initial layout for Tri Peaks Solitaire is 3 pyramids. These Pyramids overlap, and are 4 rows high, using up a total of 28 cards, all face up.
The intital tableau looks like this:
There is 1 card turned up in the waste pile.
There are 23 cards in the talon, which can be dealt at any time.
Cards can be moved to the waste pile, if they are 1 less than, or 1 more than the rank of the current card on the waste pile.
For example, if an 8 is at the top of the waste pile, then a 7 or a 9 can be moved onto it.
Unlike Golf Solitaire, when playing Tri Peak Solitaire, cards wrap around from King to Ace. This means an Ace can be moved onto a King, and a King can be moved onto an Ace.
Tri Peaks Solitaire Scoring
The scoring in Tri Peaks Solitaire is a little confusing at first, but makes the game very fun and challenging. You get points based on how long an uninterrupted sequence of moves you can make from the Pyramids:
- The first card you move from a Pyramid gives you 1 point.
- The second card you move from a Pyramid gives you another 2 points.
- The third card you move from a Pyramid gives you another 3 points.
- The fourth card you move from a Pyramid gives you another 4 points.
- etc.
As soon as you deal a card from the Talon, you lose 5 points, and the sequence goes back to 1 point again.
The first two pyramids you clear will give you 15 points each, and when you clear the final pyramid, you will get an extra 30 points.
Tri Peaks Solitaire Scoring Example
The scoring system may sound confusing, but it's easy enough to understand when you see an example:
- Move a card from the Pyramid: +1 point
- Move another card from the Pyramid: +2 points
- Move another card from the Pyramid: +3 points
- Deal from the talon: -5 points
- Move a card from the Pyramid: +1 point
- Move another card from the Pyramid: +2 points
- Move another card from the Pyramid, clears the first pyramid: +3 points, + 15 points
Strategy In Tri Peaks Solitaire
The biggest scores in Tri Peaks come from making long sequences. So sometimes it makes sense NOT to play all the cards that you can play, because they may be useful to form an even longer sequence later on.
To find these long sequences, it often pays to look carefully at the initial tableau, and look for long sequences, and which cards are in the way. Then play to remove the cards in the way first.
Tri Peaks Solitaire is great fun, and I strongly encourage you to give it a go!
Dan Fletcher is a developer at dogMelon. They make Classic Solitaire, a fun pack of solitaire card games for Palm, Mac, and PC. Classic Solitaire has plenty of fun solitaire games, including Tri Peaks Solitaire. [source]
