How to Play Solitaire

Objective

Sort a shuffled deck into four piles, one for each suit, each running in order from ace up to king. You get there by uncovering cards in the seven columns and moving them around until the ones you need come free. If every card ends up on the foundations, you have won.

Hundreds of solitaire games exist, but most share the same parts and the same idea: lay out the cards, then sort them by rules that limit which moves you can make. Learn the classic game and the rest come quickly.

Setup

Deal seven columns from left to right. Put one card face up in the first column. Put one card face down in each of the other six columns. Then go back and deal one face-up card on the second column and face-down cards on columns three to seven. Keep going, one fewer column each round, until the seventh column has six face-down cards and one face-up card on top. That uses 28 cards.

Put the remaining 24 cards face down above the columns as the stock. Leave room for a waste pile beside it and for four foundation piles across the top.

How to play

Move any ace to its own foundation as soon as it is free, then build that foundation up in suit: two, three, four and on to king.

In the tableau, place a card on another card that is one rank higher and the opposite color: a red nine on a black ten, a black four on a red five. You may move a properly ordered run of face-up cards as a unit. When a move uncovers a face-down card, turn it face up. Only a king, or a run headed by a king, can fill an empty column.

When you run out of moves, turn cards from the stock onto the waste. The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or a foundation. When the stock is empty, turn the waste pile over to make a new stock, if the rules you are playing allow it.

1. 1Move aces to the foundations as they come free
2. 2Build down in the columns, alternating red and black
3. 3Turn up face-down cards as they are uncovered
4. 4Fill empty columns with kings only
5. 5Turn cards from the stock when you are stuck

Winning

You win by moving all 52 cards to the foundations. The game is lost when no moves remain and the stock is exhausted, or when you have used up your passes through the stock.

There is no score in the classic game, only won or lost. To keep track over time, count how many cards you get to the foundations each game and try to raise your average.

Variations

Turn three: turn three cards at a time from the stock and play only the top one. It hides more cards, so it is harder, which is why it usually comes with unlimited passes.

Vegas scoring: a casino-style way to score. You pay 52 units at the start and earn 5 units back for every card you move to a foundation, so you need eleven cards home to come out ahead.

Other solitaires: Accordion is played in a single row, Streets and Alleys deals every card face up, Spider uses two decks and builds within suits, Wish Solitaire pairs off a 32-card deck, and Devil’s Grip builds in steps of three. Each has its own page.

Tips from the table

Turn over face-down cards first. A move that uncovers a hidden card is almost always better than one that only shuffles face-up cards around.

Work on the tallest columns early. They hide the most cards, and freeing them opens up the whole game.

Do not empty a column unless you have a king ready to move into it. An empty space that only a king can fill is wasted until one appears.

Do not rush cards onto the foundations. A low black card may be just what you need later to hold a red card in the tableau.

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