What is One pass?
One pass is Pyramid Solitaire with no redeal. The deal, the pairs that make 13 and the goal are the same as in the standard game; only the stock changes.
You still draw whenever you like, and the face-up stock card and the top waste card can still be paired with free pyramid cards or with each other. But when the stock is empty, the waste stays where it is. Its top card can still be used, and the card under it comes free each time the top one is removed, yet no new cards will come up.
With every stock card seen only once, a card you let go past on the waste may be gone for good, buried under the cards you draw after it. Before you draw, check whether the stock card or the waste card can still make a pair you will need later. Most deals are lost, which makes a cleared pyramid a real achievement.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Pyramid Solitaire | One pass |
|---|---|---|
| Passes through the stock | Standard Pyramid SolitaireThree: the waste can be turned over twice. | One passOne: the waste is never turned over. |
| When the stock is empty | Standard Pyramid SolitaireTurn the waste over to make a new stock, in the same order, while a pass is left. | One passNothing more comes from the stock; you can only keep playing the top waste card. |
| End of the game | Standard Pyramid SolitaireWhen no pair or King can be removed and no pass is left, or as soon as no card to come can pair with a free card. | One passThe same rule, which with no redeal usually ends the game soon after the stock runs out. |
| Goal | Standard Pyramid SolitaireClear the 28 cards of the pyramid. | One passThe same; the stock and the waste need not be cleared. |
History
Early descriptions of Pyramid disagree about the stock. According to Michael Keller's Solitaire Laboratory, Johnson and Pope's 30 Games of Solitaire (1928) allowed one deal only, George A. Bonventure's book of 1930 let the waste be dealt once more, and Helen L. Coops's book of 1939 again allowed no redeal.
Albert H. Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith's The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games (1949) added Par Pyramid, in which the waste is dealt again twice. The three passes of the standard game here follow Par Pyramid; this page's setup goes back to the single deal.