The term Three Peaks mentioned in this article refers to the solitaire game. The term also refers to the Three Peaks Challenge

Three Peaks Challenge

Three Peaks may refer to:* National Three Peaks Challenge, a mountain endurance challenge in Great Britain* Three Peaks yacht race, a yacht race in the United Kingdom...

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Tri Peaks (also known as Three Peaks, Tri Towers or Triple Peaks) is a solitaire

Solitaire

Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself or with other people. The solitaire card game Klondike is often known as simply Solitaire....

 card game that is akin to the solitaire games Golf

Golf (Patience)

Golf is a Patience game where players try to earn the lowest number of points over the course of nine deals . It has a tableau of 35 face-up cards and a higher ratio of skill to luck than most other solitaire card games.-Setup:From a standard 52-card pack, deal 3 cards to each player...

 and Black Hole

Black Hole (solitaire)

Black Hole is a solitaire card game that is akin to Golf and Tri Peaks, but its tableau is somewhat like that of La Belle Lucie. Invented by David Parlett, this game's objective is to compress the entire deck into one foundation....

. The game uses one deck and the object is to clear three peaks made up of cards.

The game starts with eighteen cards dealt face-down on the tableau to form three pyramids with three overlapping tiers each. Over these three pyramids are ten face-up cards. The arrangement is illustrated as follows:

     O     O     O

    O O   O O   O O

   O O O O O O O O O

  A A A A A A A A A A

The "O"s in this illustration are the face-down cards and the "A"s are the face-up cards.

The twenty-four remaining cards make up the stock. The first card from the stock is put in the waste pile. For a card in the tableau to be moved to the waste pile, it must be a rank higher or lower regardless of suit. This card becomes the new top card and the process is repeated several times (e.g. 7-8-9-10-9-10-J-10-9-8, etc.) until the sequence stops. Along the way, any face-down cards that are no longer overlapping are turned up.

In case the sequence is stopped, i.e. no card on the tableau can be put over the top card of the waste pile, a card is placed on the waste pile from the stock to see if it can start a new sequence. Cards are transferred from the stock to the waste pile one at a time as long as it does not begin a new sequence with the cards on the tableau.

The game is won if all three peaks are cleared before or after the last card from the stock is discarded to the waste pile. However, the game is lost if there are still cards that cannot be placed on the waste pile after the stock has run out.

TriPeaks was invented in 1989 by Robert Hogue. He still maintains an updated version of the original at http://www.rhogue.com/tripeaks/tripeaks.htm. The original game shipped in Windows Entertainment Pack 3 and Best of Windows Entertainment Pack is also available at his site. Tripeaks has been modified numerous times, and shipped in many different card packs. TriPeaks can be found on the smallest devices like cellphones, computers with operating systems such as Windows or Mac, and casino electronic games found in Las Vegas.

TriPeaks can also be played with a wild card. This variation makes it easier to clear all three peaks. An online version of this variant can be found at http://www.solitaireparadise.com/games_list/tri_towers_solitaire.html.