Play King Tut — A Pyramid With an Endless Stock, Dealt Three at a Time
King Tut is the pyramid game with no limit on how often you may go back through the stock — and one rule that makes that generosity harder to use than it sounds. Twenty-eight cards are dealt face-up as a seven-row triangle, each card covering two below it, and the remaining twenty-four form a stock that turns three cards at a time to the waste. Only the waste's top card can be played; the stock itself is face down. Two available cards leave together when their values add up to thirteen, and a king is thirteen on its own. You win when the triangle is clear, whatever is left over. Also known as Tut's Tomb. Free in your browser, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.
How Do You Play King Tut?
Goal: Play King Tut Solitaire free online. Clear a 28-card pyramid by pairing to thirteen, with a stock dealt three at a time that you may recycle for ever.
Setup
- Board: 28 cards face-up in a seven-row triangle, each card covering two below it.
- Stock: face down, dealt three cards at a time. The opening deal turns three, leaving 21.
- Redeals: unlimited — the waste returns under the stock as often as you like.
- Discard: removed cards leave the game; 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: A+Q, 2+J, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8 and 6+7.
- A king is thirteen by itself. One click removes it.
- A card is available only when both cards covering it have gone. Covered cards are dimmed.
- Only the waste's top card is playable. The stock is face down, unlike in most pyramid games.
- Clicking the stock turns three cards to the waste, so two of every three land buried.
- When the stock empties, the waste goes back under it. There is no limit on how often.
- You win the moment the triangle is empty, whatever is left in the stock and waste.
- You lose when no pair or king remains and no amount of dealing can produce one.
What's the Best King Tut Strategy?
- The deal of three is the whole difficulty. Two cards in every three go straight under the next one and cannot be played until the card above them is removed. Endless redeals do not help by themselves, because the cycle repeats exactly: deal all the way round without removing anything and you will see the same cards on top again.
- Removing a waste card is what shifts the cycle. This is the key idea. Every card you take off the waste moves the grouping by one, so the next pass exposes a different third of the stock. If you are stuck, look for any waste removal at all — it changes what the next lap will offer.
- Take kings from the waste, not just from the board. A king costs nothing and, taken from the waste, it also shifts the alignment. It is the cheapest way to change your luck.
- Use undo deliberately. This game rewards replaying a lap with one different choice more than almost any other in the family. If a pass produces nothing, step back and take a different pair earlier.
- Dig the triangle, not the stock. The win needs only the twenty-eight board cards. Every board pair is worth more than a waste pair, because it is progress towards the actual goal.
A Short History
King Tut, also catalogued as Tut's Tomb, looks at first like the most forgiving game in the pyramid family: the stock may be recycled without limit, and the win asks only that the triangle be cleared. Both are true, and the game is still hard, because of the deal of three. Turning three cards at a time means only every third card ever reaches the top of the waste, and since a redeal restores the stock in exactly the order it started in, going round again shows the same cards unless something has been removed in between. That single fact — that the cycle repeats until you break it — is what the game is really about, and it is also what lets a computer tell you honestly when a deal is finished rather than letting you shuffle for ever. Measured on this implementation, an automatic player following the hints cleared about half the triangle and won none of 120 deals; dealing one card at a time instead of three raised that to 40. The difficulty is the deal, not the board.
About This Version
This King Tut 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.
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