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Setting the table…

TriPeaks Solitaire

Conquer three mountain peaks

Clear all 28 peak cards by chaining plays exactly one rank up or down from the foundation — suits never matter. One card seeds the foundation, 23 draws wait in the stock, and every chain you extend saves a draw you will want later.

How to Play TriPeaks Solitaire

  1. 128 cards are arranged in 3 overlapping peaks
  2. 2Bottom row of 10 cards starts face-up
  3. 3On Hard, covered cards start face-down; Easy and Medium deal all 28 face-up
  4. 4A card is uncovered when both cards covering it are removed
  5. 5Click an exposed card to play it to the foundation
  6. 6Cards must be exactly +1 or -1 rank from foundation top
  7. 7Suits do not matter - only rank counts
  8. 8Kings wrap to Aces on Easy difficulty; on Medium and Hard they do not
  9. 9Click the stock pile to draw a new foundation card
  10. 10Win by clearing all 28 peak cards

About TriPeaks Solitaire

TriPeaks Solitaire — also called Tri Towers or Triple Peaks — deals 28 cards into three overlapping mountains and challenges you to tear every one of them down. The engine of the game is simple: play any exposed card that sits exactly one rank above or below the current foundation card, in either direction and in any suit. Robert Hogue designed the layout in 1989 after mathematically testing solitaire structures, and the three-peak shape he settled on remains one of the best-balanced boards in solitaire.

This version runs entirely in your browser with none of the mobile-app friction. There are no energy meters rationing your deals, no coin store, no download, and no account wall. Deal, play, and deal again — every hand is free, and your statistics stay on your own device.

The board math is worth knowing before your first click. The 28 cards stack up in rows of 3, 6, 9, and 10: three apex cards, then their supports, then a shared middle layer, and finally an open base row of ten. Eighteen of the 28 start covered, a single card seeds the foundation, and the remaining 23 form your stock. That ratio — 28 cards to clear against only 23 backup draws — is why you cannot draw your way to victory; you have to chain plays.

Every covered card is pinned by exactly two cards from the row beneath it, and both must leave the board before it unlocks. Because the nine-card middle layer is shared between neighboring peaks, work you do at the base of one mountain often loosens cards in the next. Choosing which of the ten base cards to remove first is the real puzzle: two players given the same deal can finish ten cards apart purely on excavation order.

Chains are the currency of TriPeaks. Each card you play without touching the stock extends the current run, and under the traditional streak-scoring convention a run of N cards is worth N(N+1)/2 points — 15 for a 5-card chain, but 55 for a 10-card chain. Even if you only track wins and losses, the same math applies: long chains clear more of the board per stock draw, and stock draws are the scarcest resource you have.

Difficulty changes the rules here, not just the pace. Easy allows King-to-Ace wrapping, so Queen-King-Ace-2 plays as one continuous sequence, and deals every card face-up. Medium keeps the fully open board but removes wrapping, turning Kings and Aces into chain-breaking walls. Hard removes wrapping and deals all 18 covered cards face-down, so you excavate the peaks partly blind. Pick a setting, learn its odds, and start climbing.

Board layout

28 cards

Rows of 3, 6, 9, and 10 build the three peaks — 18 cards start covered, and only the base row of ten is playable on move one.

Stock supply

23 draws

One card seeds the foundation and 23 wait in the stock, so a full clear means out-chaining a 28-to-23 deficit.

Easy-only wrap

K ↔ A

Wrapping links Kings to Aces on Easy; on Medium and Hard the rank ladder dead-ends at both extremes.

How the peaks come apart

Each upper card is locked by the two cards overlapping it from below, so the board dismantles bottom-up. Excavation order is the whole strategy: the same deal can end in a clear or a stall depending on which base cards go first.

  • Both covering cards must be removed before the card beneath becomes playable.
  • The base row of ten is always live, so your options are widest at the start.
  • The middle peak shares its lower layer with both neighbors — clearing its flanks pays off twice.

Streak math rewards patience

Under the classic convention each successive card in a run is worth one more point than the last, so scoring is triangular. Two 5-card chains earn 30; one 10-card chain earns 55. When a fork appears, trace both branches and take the one that keeps the run alive longer — our Odds page works through the numbers.

  • 5-card chain: 15 points (3 per card on average)
  • 10-card chain: 55 points (5.5 per card)
  • 15-card chain: 120 points (8 per card)

Three difficulties, three different games

The difficulty picker changes the actual rule set, so clear rates shift meaningfully between settings rather than just feeling harder.

  • Easy: King-Ace wrapping is on and all 28 cards are dealt face-up.
  • Medium: wrapping is off, but the whole board stays visible for full planning.
  • Hard: wrapping is off and the 18 covered cards start face-down until you dig them out.

Tools that respect the grind

Undo and redo are unlimited, so you can rewind a bad branch and test the other line of a fork. A move counter and timer run quietly, and your games played and games won persist in your browser between sessions — no signup, no sync, no nagging.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is TriPeaks Solitaire?
TriPeaks (also called Tri Towers) arranges 28 cards into three overlapping peaks above an open bottom row of ten. You tear the peaks down by clicking any exposed card exactly one rank above or below the current foundation card, drawing from a 23-card stock when you stall.
How do cards become uncovered?
Every card in the upper rows sits beneath two cards from the row below, and both must be cleared before it becomes playable. On the Hard setting those covered cards also start face down, so you are excavating the peaks partly blind.
Can Kings wrap to Aces?
On Easy, yes — wrapping is enabled, so Queen-King-Ace-2 plays as one continuous chain. Medium and Hard use the stricter traditional rule where the rank ladder ends at both extremes, turning Kings and Aces into natural chain-breakers.
What makes TriPeaks different from Golf Solitaire?
Both share the one-up, one-down mechanic, but Golf deals fully open columns while TriPeaks buries most of its cards under an overlapping peak structure. Deciding which bottom cards to remove first — to unlock the right cards above — is the extra puzzle TriPeaks adds.
What is a chain play?
A chain is the streak that makes TriPeaks addictive: playing one card exposes another playable card, and the run keeps rolling without touching the stock. Stringing together ten or more in a single pass is rare enough to brag about.
Is this game free?
Completely, and with none of the mobile-app baggage — no energy meters deciding when you may deal, no coin store, no account wall. Open the page and the next hand is always waiting.