How to play TriPeaks
TriPeaks is played with one pack. Twenty-eight cards are laid out as three overlapping peaks, and you win by clearing all of them onto the pile.
The layout
The bottom row of ten cards is face up. The eighteen cards above it are face down, each one partly covered by two cards in the row below. One card is turned up to start the pile, and the other 23 are the stock, spread out beside it so you can see how many are left.
Moving cards
- A face-up card can go onto the pile when it is one rank higher or one rank lower than the pile’s top card. Suits and colours do not matter.
- An ace and a king are neighbours, so a run can go queen, king, ace, 2.
- You can change direction as often as you like: 7, 8, 7, 6 is a fine run.
- A face-down card turns over as soon as both cards covering it have gone.
- When nothing fits, or when you choose to, tap the stock to turn its next card onto the pile.
Tap a card to play it. The deal ends when the peaks are clear, or when the stock has run out and nothing fits.
Scoring
| Event | Points |
|---|---|
| First card of a run | 1 |
| Each further card in the same run | one more than the last: 2, 3, 4… |
| Turning a stock card (it also ends the run) | −5 |
| Clearing the first or second peak | +15 |
| Clearing the last peak | +30 |
Long runs are where the points are: a run of ten cards is worth 55, while ten cards played one at a time between stock cards would lose points. Undoing a move puts the score back as it was.
Winnable or Random
With Winnable chosen, the game only deals shuffles that it has found a way to clear. With Random you get any shuffle.
Tips for winning more often
- Before turning a stock card, check all three peaks. It is easy to miss a card on the far side of the table.
- When two cards fit, play the one that turns a face-down card over, or the one covering the most cards.
- Work the peaks evenly. A card left at the top of one peak can only be reached through everything under it.
- Think a card ahead: if both a 5 and a 7 fit on your 6, see which one lets the run carry on.
- Winning and scoring well are different things. The Hint button shows a way to clear the peaks, not the highest-scoring way.
Can every deal be won?
Nearly. Of 1,000 shuffles checked, at least 95 in every 100 could be cleared, and none was proved impossible. With Winnable chosen you only get deals the game has already found a way through. The Hint button shows the next move of a winning line while one exists, and tells you if it finds that the peaks can no longer be cleared.