TriPeaks chains: which card to play when two of them fit

Your waste card is a 7, and both a 6 and an 8 are free in the peaks. Which one should you play? In TriPeaks that small choice decides how long your chain runs, and long chains are how you clear 28 peak cards with a stock that never comes round again. This note shows how to look a few cards ahead before you touch anything.

How a chain works here

In Card Lounge TriPeaks, the 28 peak cards sit in four rows of 3, 6, 9 and 10. The bottom row of 10 starts face up; every other card turns face up once no card covers it any more. One card starts the waste and the other 23 wait in the stock.

You may move any face-up, uncovered peak card to the waste if it is exactly one rank higher or lower than the top waste card. Suit does not matter, and ranks wrap: a King and an Ace are neighbours, so Q, K, A, 2 is a perfectly good run. A chain is the number of peak cards you play in a row without drawing, and the game shows the longest chain of the round.

The stock is not recycled. The starting waste card plus 23 draws gives you at most 24 starting points, so the 28 peak cards must be cleared in at most 24 chains. Some chains have to be longer than one card, and every draw you avoid is a starting point saved for later.

Look before you play

When two cards fit, do not simply take the first one you notice. Trace each option until it stops, then compare:

1. Picture every free, face-up peak card.
2. For each playable card, follow the chain it starts, one rank up or down at a time.
3. Watch for duplicate ranks. A second card of the same rank is what lets a chain turn round and run back the other way.
4. Choose the line that clears the most cards. If two lines tie, prefer the one that frees covered cards, because every card that turns face up is a new option.

Each card you clear may uncover a card above it, so look at the layout again after every play rather than following a plan blindly.

Worked example

The waste shows 7♦. Five uncovered cards are face up in the bottom row: 6♣, 7♥, 8♦, 9♠ and K♣. To keep the example simple, assume that any card turned face up during the chain does not fit it.

Going up first:

• Play 8♦ (one above 7). Now the choice is 9♠ or 7♥.
• Take 7♥, then 6♣. The waste shows 6♣ and nothing left is a 5 or a 7. Chain: 3.
• Take 9♠ instead and the chain stops at 2, because the only 8 has gone.

Going down first:

• Play 6♣ (one below 7), then 7♥, then 8♦, then 9♠. The waste shows 9♠; you would need an 8 or a 10. Chain: 4.

Starting with 6♣ wins an extra card because the spare 7♥ works as a bridge. You step down once, use the second 7 to climb back past your starting rank, and keep going upwards. Going up first spends the 8♦ too early, so the chain has nowhere to go once it turns down.

The K♣ is left over either way. It needs a Queen or, thanks to the wrap, an Ace on the waste. Remember that when you draw: an Ace from the stock rescues it just as well as a Queen.

When to draw

Drawing ends the current chain and spends one of your 23 stock cards, so draw only when no peak card can be played. Before you do, check the whole layout again, including any cards that have just turned face up. If you think you are stuck, the Hint button (H) highlights one legal move without playing it; if it points at a peak card, you missed a play.

A drawn card covers the old waste card, so after a draw only the new card matters. As the stock shrinks, make a short list of the ranks that would free your stranded cards: each free peak card can be reached from exactly two ranks. In the example above, the K♣ is waiting for a Queen or an Ace to turn up. The round is lost once the stock is empty and no peak card can be played, so knowing what you are waiting for makes each draw easier to judge.

Try it

The waste shows 9♥. Five uncovered cards are face up: 10♠, 8♣, 9♦, 10♦ and J♣. Assume nothing that turns over fits.

1. Find an order that clears all five without drawing.
2. Find the tempting order that strands two cards.

Answer: 8♣, 9♦, 10♠, J♣, 10♦ clears everything, and so does 10♠, J♣, 10♦, 9♦, 8♣. The trap is 10♠, 9♦, 8♣: the waste then shows 8♣, and J♣ and 10♦ are left behind because neither is a 7 or a 9. Notice the pattern from the worked example again: the duplicate 10 lets the chain turn round.

Practise the idea on TriPeaks. For the same one-up, one-down play without the wrap, read Golf without Kings. Look up any unfamiliar term in the glossary, and see how to play for the full rules.