How to Play Solitaire

Overview & Objective

Klondike Solitaire is a one-player game with a standard 52-card deck. The whole deck is shuffled and dealt into a layout, and your job is to sort every card onto four foundation piles, one per suit, each running from Ace up to King. There are no opponents — the challenge is the shuffle itself, and how cleverly you dig out the cards you need.

Setup: Tableau, Stock & Foundations

• Players: One.
• Deck: A standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Tableau: Seven columns. The first column has 1 card, the second 2, and so on up to 7 in the last — 28 cards in total. Only the top card of each column is face up; the rest are face down.
• Stock: The remaining 24 cards, face down, in a single pile.
• Waste: The face-up pile where cards drawn from the stock go. Only its top card is playable.
• Foundations: Four empty spaces, one for each suit, that start empty and end holding all the cards.

Building the Foundations

Each foundation is built up in a single suit: Ace first, then 2, 3, and so on through the King. Whenever an Ace becomes available, move it to its foundation right away — it can do nothing useful anywhere else. Cards go up one at a time; you can't move a whole run onto a foundation.

Moving Cards on the Tableau

1. Tableau columns build down in alternating colours: a red Ten goes on a black Jack, a black Nine on a red Ten, and so on.
2. You can move a single face-up card or an entire face-up run (a sequence that already alternates and descends) as one unit, as long as the bottom card of the run fits on its new column.
3. When a move uncovers a face-down card at the top of a column, flip it face up. Uncovering cards is how you make progress.
4. Empty columns accept only a King (or a run that starts with a King).
5. The top card of a foundation may be moved back to the tableau if it helps.

The Stock & Waste

When there are no useful moves on the tableau, draw from the stock. By default our game turns a single card each time ("draw-1") and places it face up on the waste; set Draw to 3 for the harder draw-three game, where three cards are turned at once and only the top one is playable. You may play the top waste card to a foundation or to the tableau — or draw again. When the stock is empty, tap it to turn the waste back over (in the same order) and go through it again. There is no limit on passes through the stock on CardCouch; some traditional rule sets allow only one or three.

Winning the Game

You win the moment all four foundations are complete, Ace through King — every one of the 52 cards is home. Not every deal can be won: sometimes a card you need is trapped beneath the only card that could free it. There is no score in standard Klondike; fewer moves and a faster time are the badges of a well-played game, and CardCouch keeps your bests for each draw setting.

Beginner Tips

• Flip face-down cards first. Prefer any move that uncovers a new card over one that merely shuffles face-up cards around.
• Aces and Twos go up immediately. They will never help you on the tableau.
• Don't rush other cards to the foundation. A black Five on a foundation can't hold a red Four you may need to move later. A card is safe to send up once both opposite-colour cards one rank below it are already home.
• Work the columns with the most face-down cards. At the start those are the columns on the right — freeing them opens the game up.
• Empty a column when you have a King for it. Only a King can fill the space, so a gap with no King to play is not worth breaking up other columns for.
• Use Undo freely while learning. Seeing why a move didn't work is the fastest way to improve.

Ready for more? Our Solitaire strategy guide goes deeper on winning more deals.

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