Play Triangle Solitaire — The Pyramid Stood on Its Point
Triangle is the pyramid turned upside down, and the change of shape changes the whole game. Twenty-eight cards are dealt face-up in seven rows — seven across the top, then six, five, four, three, two, and a single card at the point — with each row covering the one above it. Two available cards leave together when their values add up to thirteen, and a king is thirteen on its own. The remaining twenty-four cards form a stock that may be recycled twice. What makes it play so differently from an upright pyramid is where the cards come free: the two ends of every row are covered by a single card, not two, so the corners open early while the middle stays buried. Also known as Yield and Funnel. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.
How Do You Play Triangle?
Goal: Play Triangle Solitaire free online. An inverted pyramid: seven cards across the top narrowing to one, cleared by pairing cards that total thirteen.
Setup
- Board: 28 cards face-up in an inverted triangle — seven across the top, narrowing to one.
- Stock: 23 cards, with one card already turned to the waste.
- Redeals: two — the waste returns under the stock twice.
- Discard: removed cards leave the game entirely; there are no foundations.
Rules
- Card values are ace 1, pip cards their face value, jack 11, queen 12, king 13.
- Click two available cards whose values add up to thirteen to remove them: A+Q, 2+J, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8 and 6+7.
- A king is thirteen by itself. One click removes it.
- Suits and colours are ignored. Only the value counts.
- A card is available only when the cards covering it have all gone. Covered cards are dimmed.
- The stock's top card is face up and playable, and so is the waste's top. Either may pair with a board card.
- Click the stock to turn its next card to the waste.
- The ends of a row are covered by ONE card; the middle of a row by two. This is the whole difference from an upright pyramid.
- When the stock empties you may recycle the waste back under it, twice.
- You win when every card has been removed — the board, the stock and the waste all empty.
- You lose when no pair, no king, no deal and no redeal remains.
What's the Best Triangle Strategy?
- Work the edges. The left and right ends of each row need only one card removed to come free, so the sides of the triangle peel away far faster than the middle. Nearly every good line of play runs down an edge.
- The centre of the top row is the last thing you will reach. Treat it as the target the whole game is aiming at, and check early whether the card sitting there has a partner still in the deck.
- Do not clear the point too casually. The single card at the bottom is the only one free at the deal, and everything follows from it — but the row above it is only two cards wide, so the board narrows very quickly. Look at what you are opening.
- Remove kings wherever they sit. A king costs nothing and each one unblocks the cards above it. In this shape a king at the end of a row is especially valuable.
- Save a pass for the middle. You have three looks at the stock. Spend the first on the edges and keep the later ones for the buried centre cards, whose partners you will by then be able to predict.
A Short History
Triangle, also catalogued as Yield and Funnel, is the inverted cousin of Pyramid and much the more interesting board of the two. The covering rule is not simply a mirror image, and that is what gives the game its character: in an upright pyramid every buried card has two cards over it, but here the first and last card of each row have only one, because there is nothing beyond the edge. The result is a game that opens from the sides inward rather than from the bottom up, and one where the hardest card to reach is the middle of the widest row — the exact opposite of Pyramid, where the apex is a single card resting on everything. The open-source PySolFC collection, whose rules this version follows, spells the three covering cases out explicitly, and this implementation follows that rather than assuming symmetry. The pairing rule, the lone king and the two redeals are all Pyramid's.
About This Version
This Triangle runs in your browser — free, no download, no sign-up. Install it as an app on your phone or computer; once installed it works offline. Unlimited undo, statistics, and a daily challenge that gives every player the same deal that day.
Other Solitaire Games to Try
- Relaxed Pyramid — the upright triangle, won when the board clears
- Pyramid — the strict upright game
- Cheops — the pyramid board with adjacent ranks instead of sums
- Thirteens — pairs to thirteen with nothing blocking anything