Pyramid Solitaire Exposed Cards: Choose Pairs That Open the Board
Read Pyramid Solitaire exposed cards before choosing a pair. Compare adjacent removals, top-waste access and the one-pass stock in ProjectGAMR's casual game.
Check access before adding the values
Pyramid Solitaire exposed cards are the ones you can actually use in a pair. A card higher in the pyramid becomes available only after both cards immediately covering it have been removed. An attractive total of thirteen has no immediate value if one proposed partner is still covered.
This guide uses ProjectGAMR's casual game checked November 2, 2026: twenty-eight pyramid cards in seven rows, a separate twenty-four-card stock and one pass through that stock. The goal is to clear the pyramid. The worked layouts below are original training arrangements, rather than a promised shuffled deal.
Know the complements, then inspect the covering cards
Ace counts as one, Jack eleven and Queen twelve. The ordinary pairs are A–Q, 2–J, 3–10, 4–9, 5–8 and 6–7. An exposed King already supplies thirteen and can be removed alone. Suits and colors do not change these totals.
BVS Development's Pyramid rules document the same arithmetic and restriction to uncovered pyramid cards. For this browser version, first check which cards are selectable. Higher covered cards appear face down. Their hidden ranks cannot supply information for the next choice, even when the card's location is easy to identify.
Compare two equal totals by what they expose
Label the seven bottom-row positions A through G, left to right. In an original opening example, B holds a seven, C a six and E another six; nothing has been removed. Both B–C and B–E are legal pairs totaling thirteen.
Removing B and C uncovers the card directly above that adjacent pair. Removing B and E uncovers no higher card yet, because every affected card still has another covering card present. Both choices remove two pyramid cards, but only the adjacent choice immediately supplies another selectable card. This comparison needs no knowledge of the hidden rank; it counts the access created.
Read the waste as a stack with one available top
Drawing moves one stock card onto the waste. Only the top waste card is selectable. Suppose a five is drawn, followed by an eight. The eight now covers the five in the waste, so the earlier five cannot be selected directly.
If an exposed pyramid five is available, pair it with that waste eight. Removing the eight reveals the earlier waste five again. The two fives in this example are different cards. A covered waste card has not vanished, but recovering it requires removing everything above it; another draw can add a new obstruction. This is a composed stack example, not a guaranteed recovery route.
Treat the stock-pass rule as part of the position
BVS's published version allows two redeals and sets a different all-deck clearing objective. ProjectGAMR instead offers one stock pass with no recycling and ends successfully when all twenty-eight pyramid cards are removed. Stock cards may remain at that finish. A familiar game name does not establish identical rules.
Before drawing, inspect the current waste top against the exposed pyramid. Advancing the stock spends access to that top until it can be uncovered again. When the stock is empty, its draw control is disabled. This interface supplies no Undo button, so do not plan around reversing a committed pair.
Use exposure as a planning question, not a winning guarantee
For each available pair, identify the two cards removed and which higher cards would become selectable. Then inspect any newly revealed ranks before deciding on a continuation. A newly opened card may have no available complement; opening it measures an immediate change in access, rather than proving the entire deal solvable.
When no useful pair is available, draw if stock remains and reassess the new waste top. New game shuffles a fresh layout. The adjacent-pair example and waste exercise explain local consequences under these declared rules; they provide neither an optimal full-deal policy nor a promise that every random layout can be cleared.
Keep exploring
Sources & further reading
- ProjectGAMR Pyramid Solitaire: current casual rules and playable implementation ↗
- BVS Development: Pyramid rules, card values and its separate two-redeal variant ↗
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