How to play TriPeaks
Patience for one: three peaks of cards, cleared by playing each card one rank above or below the last.
- Players
- 1
- What you need
- One pack of 52 cards
- How long
- Two to five minutes a deal
What TriPeaks is
TriPeaks is a patience game for one, played with a single pack. Twenty-eight cards are dealt into three overlapping peaks, four rows deep, and the aim is to clear every one of them onto the waste pile.
The cards that are not in the peaks form the stock. One is turned face up to start the waste, and the rest wait face down, to be turned one at a time when nothing on the peaks will play.
Playing it here
- Tap a card in the peaks that has nothing on it. If it is one rank above or below the waste’s top card, it goes onto the waste.
- Tap the stock to turn its next card onto the waste, when nothing plays or when you would rather wait.
- Keep going until the peaks are clear, or until the stock is spent and nothing plays.
Undo takes back as many moves as you like, and Start again deals the same cards from the beginning. Hint lights a card worth playing, or the stock. On a computer, U undoes, H asks for a hint and the space bar turns the stock.
What plays
A card plays when it is one rank above or below the card on top of the waste. The suit and the colour do not matter: on a seven of hearts, any six and any eight will go.
The card you play becomes the new top of the waste, so the next card has to follow it. Playing several cards in a row without touching the stock is a streak, and a long one is how a deal is won.
Turning the peaks over
Every card above the bottom row rests on two cards in the row below. It stays face down, and cannot be played, until both of them are gone. Then it turns face up by itself and is free to play.
King and ace
In the usual rules the ranks go round in a circle, so an ace plays on a king and a king plays on an ace. This is on unless you turn it off, and with it off the ranks stop at both ends, which makes a deal harder.
How a deal ends
The deal is won the moment the last card leaves the peaks, whatever is left in the stock. The clock stops there, and your time is kept as your best under those rules if you took no hint.
When the stock is spent and nothing in the peaks plays, the deal is stuck. You can still Undo or Start again, or end the deal there, and it counts as lost.
Every deal here is one the computer has won before it reaches you, with every card known. A lost deal is never a deal that could not be won.
Today’s deal
Each set of rules has a deal of the day, the same for everybody in Nepal, which changes at midnight in Kathmandu. Play it as often as you like: your best time on it is kept.
A new deal is shuffled fresh every time, as many as you like.
A few tips
- Look along the whole run before you play. When two cards play, choose the one that leads on to more cards after it.
- Prefer a card that uncovers a face-down one. A card you can see is a card you can plan with.
- The stock is your only way out of a dead end, and it does not come round twice. Use the peaks first.
- Stuck early? Start again costs nothing but time, and the same cards played in another order often come out.
Settings
TriPeaks has two settings, and the page asks first whether you want today’s deal or a new one.
| Setting | Standard | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| King and ace | Meet: a king plays on an ace | Whether an ace plays on a king and a king on an ace. Off makes every deal harder. |
| The peaks | A card turns up when uncovered | Whether every card of the peaks is face up from the start, so you can plan the whole deal. |
Words
- Peaks
- The 28 cards dealt in three overlapping triangles, which are what you clear.
- Waste
- The face-up pile under the peaks. Its top card is the one you play on.
- Stock
- The face-down cards left over, turned onto the waste one at a time.
- Streak
- Cards played from the peaks one after another without turning the stock.
Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.