Actually it's all math. A friend told me how to beat it:
1) From the row with 6 pearls - take 4 away (giving a total of 222).
2) He'll take a bunch away, so you have to add up again (ex: rows of 2, 5, 4, 1 which is equal to 212 so you need to change the middle integer to an even one).
3) Take away the two pearls in the row which has only two.
4) The rows should be something like 2, 4, 1.
5) Take away one pearl from the row with 4, so that you now have rows of 3, 2, & 1.
6) Take away one pearl from the row with 3 so that you have 2 rows of 2.
7) Take away both pearls in the row with two pearls so that there is only one left.