Play Two Pyramids — Two Triangles, Two Decks, One Stock

Two Pyramids is the classic game doubled. Two decks are shuffled together and fifty-six cards are dealt as two seven-row triangles, with the remaining forty-eight forming a stock that turns one card at a time to a waste. Two available cards leave together when their values add up to thirteen, and a king is thirteen on its own. Each triangle blocks only its own cards, but any available card may pair with any other — so the two boards are separate to dig and joined to play, and every open card is a candidate partner. The stock may be recycled twice, and the win asks for all hundred and four cards. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.

How Do You Play Two Pyramids?

Goal: Play Two Pyramids Solitaire free online. Two seven-row triangles from two decks, cleared by pairing cards to thirteen, with a stock and two redeals.

Setup

• Two decks: 104 cards in all.
• Two pyramids: seven rows each, 28 cards apiece, 56 on the board.
• Stock: 47 cards, with one already turned to the waste.
• Redeals: two — the waste returns under the stock twice.

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: A+Q, 2+J, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8 and 6+7.
• A king is thirteen by itself — and with two decks there are eight of them.
• A card is available only when both cards covering it — within its own pyramid — have gone.
• Cards pair across the two pyramids freely, and with the stock and waste tops as well.
• The stock's top card is face up and playable, as in the classic game.
• Click the stock to turn its next card to the waste; when it empties you may recycle twice.
• You win when all 104 cards have been removed. You lose when no pair, no king, no deal and no redeal remains.

What's the Best Two Pyramids Strategy?

• Fourteen cards are open at the deal — an unusually wide front. Both bottom rows are available at once, so you can nearly always find a pair. Use that freedom to choose the pair that opens the deepest row rather than the first you spot.
• Keep the two pyramids level. Digging one triangle to the apex while the other sits untouched wastes the game's main advantage. A card high in one pyramid usually needs a partner low in the other.
• Eight kings is a real resource. Each costs nothing and unblocks two cards. Spend them on whichever triangle is lagging.
• Duplicates cut both ways. Eight copies of every value means a partner is rarely far away, but the win needs every one of them — a value you strand costs you twice over.
• The stock is deep; do not hoard it. Forty-seven cards and two redeals is a lot of material and it is what makes fifty-six board cards playable at all. Work through it steadily.

A Short History

Two Pyramids is marked in the source as an original variant rather than a traditional patience, and its idea is simple and effective: take the classic pyramid, deal a second one beside it from a second deck, and let the two share a stock. The consequence is more interesting than the description. Each triangle keeps its own blocking, so you are digging two independent boards; but every available card can pair with every other, so the two boards constantly rescue each other. That is a far more forgiving structure than a single pyramid, where a card with no reachable partner simply stalls the game. What it does not make easier is finishing: the win condition is the classic one, and all hundred and four cards must reach the discard. Measured on this implementation, an automatic player following the hints cleared all but about one and a half of the fifty-six board cards on average and still won only twice in a hundred and twenty deals — the board comes apart readily, and the last stock cards decide it.

About This Version

This Two Pyramids 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

• Pharaohs — three triangles and no stock at all
• Double Pyramid — one nine-row triangle from two decks
• Relaxed Pyramid — one triangle, and winning needs only the board
• Giza — one triangle and eight open reserve piles