How to Play Kings Corner

Objective

Empty your hand before anyone else by playing cards onto the eight piles around the stock. Kings Corner plays like a shared game of solitaire: everyone builds on the same layout, and everyone is racing to go out first. Players left holding cards collect penalty points.

Setup

Deal seven cards to each player, one at a time. Place the rest of the deck face down in the middle as the stock. Turn four cards face up and set one on each side of the stock, north, south, east and west, to make a cross.

The four corner spaces between the arms of the cross start empty. Only kings can go there.

How to play

The player to the left of the dealer starts. Begin your turn by drawing one card from the stock. Then make as many plays as you can, or as many as you want, in any order.

You can play a card from your hand onto any pile if it is one rank lower and the opposite color: a red six on a black seven, a black jack on a red queen. You can play a king into an empty corner to start a new pile. You can move an entire pile onto another pile when the bottom card of the pile you move fits on the top card of the other: a pile with a black nine at its base can go onto a red ten. And when a side space is empty, you can play any card from your hand into it.

When you have made all the plays you want, your turn ends. There is no discard. Play passes to the left, and the hand ends the moment someone plays their last card.

1. 1Draw one card from the stock
2. 2Play cards one rank lower, opposite color
3. 3Put kings in the empty corners
4. 4Move whole piles to open up side spaces

Scoring

The first player out of cards wins the hand. Everyone else takes penalty points for the cards still in their hand. Kings cost the most because they can only be played into a corner.

Add up penalty points over several hands until someone reaches a target agreed at the start, such as 25 or 50. The player with the lowest total at that point wins the game.

Variations

Quick game: skip the scoring and simply play for first out. This is how most families play with young children.

Kings first: some tables require you to play a king into a corner at the first chance you get. Holding one back when you could have played it costs a penalty, usually three points.

Longer match: raise the penalty target to 100 for a game that lasts the whole evening.

Tips from the table

Empty side spaces are the most valuable spots on the table. Moving one pile onto another to free a space lets you dump any card from your hand, even an awkward one.

Think before you put a king in a corner. It saves you ten points, but it also opens a new pile where other players can unload their queens.

Before you end your turn, look at every pile one more time. A move that frees a space often makes a second or third play possible.

Frequently asked