How to play Tri Peaks Solitaire
Tri Peaks Solitaire is a popular solitaire game, which combines many elements of Pyramid Solitaire and Golf Solitaire.
Unlike many other solitaire games, Tri Peaks Solitaire makes it fun to do the same deal many times, because you can keep playing trying to maximize your score.
***** Target of Tri Peaks Solitaire *****
The goal is to throw all the cards in the trash and maximize your score.
***** Tri Peaks Solitaire Design *****
Tri Peaks Solitaire’s initial design is 3 pyramids. These pyramids overlap and are 4 rows high, using a total of 28 cards, all face up.
The intimate painting looks like this, with the asterisks representing where the cards go.
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_ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ * _ *
There is 1 uncovered card in the waste pile.
There are 23 cards in the claw, which can be dealt at any time.
Cards can be moved to the waste pile, if they are 1 less or 1 more than the rank of the current card in the waste pile.
For example, if there is an 8 at the top of the waste pile, then a 7 or a 9 can be moved.
Unlike Golf Solitaire, when playing Tri Peak Solitaire, the cards go from King to Ace. This means that an Ace can be moved to a King and a King can be moved to an Ace.
***** Tri Peaks Solitaire Score *****
Scoring in Tri Peaks Solitaire is a bit confusing at first, but it makes the game a lot of fun and challenging.
You get points based on the duration of an uninterrupted sequence of movements that 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 Talon card, you lose 5 points and the sequence goes back to 1 point.
These first two pyramids you remove will give you 15 points each, and when you clear the final pyramid, you will get an additional 30 points.
***** Tri Peaks Solitaire Scoring Example *****
The scoring system may seem confusing, but it’s pretty easy 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
– Treatment from the heel. -5 points
– Move a card from the pyramid. +1 point
– Move another card from the Pyramid. +2 points
– Move another card from the Pyramid, clean the first pyramid +3 points, +15 points
***** Strategy in Tri Peaks Solitaire *****
The highest scores on Tri Peaks come from doing long sequences. So sometimes it makes sense NOT to play all the cards you can play, because they can be helpful in forming an even longer sequence later on.
To find these long sequences, it is often worth looking carefully at the starting frame and looking for long sequences and what cards are in the way. Then play to remove the cards on the way first.
Tri Peaks Solitaire is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend you give it a try!
