TriPeaks Strategy: Longer Runs and All Three Peaks Cleared
How to win more TriPeaks solitaire games: look for the longest run, keep it alive when two cards fit, work on all three peaks and save the stock.
Sunroom Games · Updated
TriPeaks is quick, cheerful and a little bit lucky — but good players clear far more games than beginners. The difference is mostly about runs: seeing the long ones, keeping them going, and not wasting the stock. Here's how.
If you'd like the rules first, see how to play TriPeaks.
What a run looks like
A run is every card you play in a row without turning a card from the stock. Each card must be one higher or one lower than the last, in any suit — and the run can change direction as often as you like.
Remember the corner, too: in TriPeaks a King and an Ace count as next to each other, so a run can go Queen, King, Ace, 2.
1. Look for the longest run, not the first card that fits
When the waste pile shows a 7, it's tempting to tap the first 6 or 8 you see. Pause and follow each possibility a few steps. A lone 6 that leads nowhere is worth much less than an 8 that leads on to a 9, a 10 and another 9.
2. When two cards fit, keep the run alive
Often two cards could go next — say a 6 and an 8 on a 7. Ask which one leaves you another card to play. If both lead to equally long runs, choose the one that turns over a face-down card, because every new card is another chance to keep going.
3. Turn over face-down cards
Only the bottom row starts face up. Each face-down card you turn over adds options, so plays that uncover cards are especially valuable. Pay attention to the three cards at the very tops of the peaks: they're the last to be uncovered, and you can't win without clearing them.
4. Don't leave one peak behind
It's easy to work happily on one peak and forget the others — and then find, near the end, that one peak is still nearly full and the stock is running out. Try to make progress on all three peaks as you go, so you always have cards to choose from.
5. Save the stock
The stock holds 23 cards and you only go through it once. Every card you turn ends your run, so play every card you can before you turn one over. If you run out of stock with cards still in the peaks, the game is over.
6. Remember the King–Ace corner
It's the move people miss most often. With a King on the waste pile, any Ace can follow it — and with an Ace on the pile, any King or 2 can follow. Keep it in mind when you're counting runs.
Playing with every card face up
If you'd like to plan every move, turn on Show every card face up in Settings. Now there's no luck at all: you can see exactly which cards each play will uncover, and with patience you can work out a complete path to a win. In our own tests, about 97% of TriPeaks deals can be won by a player who knows where every card is.
In this mode our hint follows a real winning path whenever there is one. In the classic face-down game, the hint only uses the cards you can see — it never peeks — and points you to the play that starts the longest run.
Can every game be won?
Every new and daily game on Sunroom Games has a way to win, because we check before dealing. With face-down cards you can still lose, of course — you can't see what's coming — but you'll never be dealt a game that was impossible from the start.