How to play solitaire
Solitaire with a real deck takes about two minutes to set up and five minutes to learn. Below are the Klondike rules (the game most people mean by "solitaire"), a sketch of the layout, the difference between drawing one card and three, how often a deal can actually be won, and the habits that win more games. Thirteen other one-player games follow, each with its own setup and odds.
Klondike solitaire in 30 seconds
- Deal seven piles: one card in the first, two in the second, up to seven in the last. Only the top card of each pile is face up. The other 24 cards are the stock.
- Goal: move all 52 cards to four foundation piles at the top, one per suit, from Ace up to King.
- On the table, build piles down in alternating colors (a red 6 on a black 7). Move a whole run at once if it is in order.
- When a face-down card is uncovered, turn it up. Only a King (or a run starting with a King) may go into an empty pile space.
- Stuck? Turn cards from the stock one at a time (or three at a time) onto a waste pile and play the top one if you can.
Setting up the cards
- Shuffle one standard 52-card deck with the jokers removed.
- Deal a row of seven cards from left to right: the first face up, the other six face down.
- Deal the next row starting on pile two: face up on pile two, face down on piles three to seven. Keep going, one pile shorter each row, until pile seven gets its face-up card. That is 28 cards: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7.
- Put the remaining 24 cards face down at the top left. This is the stock. Leave space beside it for the waste pile and room across the top for four foundations.
Dealing row by row is the traditional way, as Bicycle describes it. Dealing one whole pile at a time gives you the same shape.
The moves
To the foundations
Any Ace that becomes available starts a foundation. After that, each foundation takes the next card of the same suit: 2, 3, 4 and so on up to the King. Cards can come from the end of a tableau pile or the top of the waste pile.
On the tableau (the seven piles)
Place a card on another that is one rank higher and the opposite color: a black 9 on a red 10, a red Jack on a black Queen. You can move one card or a run that is already in order, such as 8-7-6 in alternating colors, in a single move. Moving part of a run is fine too: take the 7-6 and leave the 8 behind.
When you uncover a face-down card, turn it face up; it is now in play. When a pile is completely empty, only a King can go there, either alone or with a run hanging from it.
The stock and waste
Turn cards from the stock face up onto the waste pile. The top waste card is always available to play onto the tableau or a foundation. When the stock is empty, turn the waste pile over (without shuffling) to make a new stock. How often you may do that is a rule to agree on; the next section covers it.
Winning
You win when all four foundations run Ace to King. If no move is left and the stock is spent, the deal is lost: shuffle and deal again.
Draw one or draw three, and how many passes
| Version | Turn from the stock | Passes through the stock | Feels like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draw 1, unlimited | 1 card | No limit | The friendliest game; good for learning |
| Draw 3, unlimited | 3 cards, play the top one | No limit | The usual computer default; some cards stay buried |
| Draw 1, one pass | 1 card | 1 | Each stock card is seen once; very tense |
| Draw 3, three passes | 3 cards | 3 | The limit used with Vegas scoring |
In draw three you take three cards off the stock together, keep them in the same order, and fan them onto the waste so only the top one shows. Only that top card can be played. If you play it, the one under it becomes available. When fewer than three cards remain in the stock, turn over what is left.
The catch with draw three: on a pass where you play nothing from the waste, you see exactly the same cards as last time, because the triples never change. Playing even one waste card shifts every later triple by one, which is how buried cards come loose. If a pass shows you nothing new and you made no other move, the game is over.
Want to keep score across several deals? Vegas scoring charges a pretend $52 a deal and pays $5 per foundation card: our Vegas solitaire scoring tracker does the math and keeps a running total.
How often can you win?
Less often than you might think, and nobody knows the exact figure for real play. What researchers can measure is the "thoughtful" version, where you are allowed to know what every face-down card is. Charlie Blake and Ian Gent's solver study (arXiv 1906.12314, published in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research in 2026) found:
- Draw three, unlimited passes: about 81.9% of deals can be won with perfect play and every card known.
- Draw one, unlimited passes: about 90.5%.
Those are ceilings. You cannot see under the face-down cards, so you will sometimes make a choice that looks right and turns out wrong, and one-pass or three-pass limits lower the ceiling further. Losing a deal you played sensibly is normal, not a sign you did something wrong.
Strategy that wins more Klondike deals
- Free the hidden cards first. Every face-down card is a card you cannot use. When you have a choice of moves, pick the one that turns a card face up, and favor the tall piles on the right: pile seven hides six cards, pile two hides one.
- Do not empty a pile without a King to fill it. An empty space only takes a King, so clearing one early can strand cards. Clear it when a King is ready to move in, ideally one that frees a face-down card when it leaves.
- Pick the right King. If two Kings could take an empty space, look at the Queens. A red Queen waiting to be played wants a black King, and vice versa.
- Hold back middle cards from the foundations. Aces and 2s always go up right away. With a 6 or a 7, check first: if both opposite-color 5s are already on the foundations, nothing will ever need your 6 on the tableau, so send it up. Otherwise it may be the only place to park a 5.
- In draw three, play from the waste on purpose. Taking a single card off the waste reshuffles which cards you will see next pass. If a card you need is stuck second or third in a triple, a waste play can bring it to the top.
Play Klondike online or at home
Play at home: one deck of cards and a table about two feet wide. Lay the foundations above the piles so you can see all four at once. If you play Vegas style, track the money with the free tracker linked above.
Other solitaire games, compared
Klondike is one of hundreds of one-player card games. These are the ones people ask about most. "Chance" is what the cited sources say about winning; each game's page has the details and the source.
| Game | Decks | Time | Skill | Chance of winning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Klondike | 1 | 5 to 15 min | Some | Up to about 82% (draw 3) or 90% (draw 1) with perfect play and every card known |
| Spider | 2 | 15 to 40 min | High | Most deals solvable in theory; players win far less, especially with 4 suits |
| FreeCell | 1 | 5 to 15 min | High | About 99.999% of deals can be won |
| Eight Off | 1 | 5 to 15 min | High | About 99.9% of deals can be won |
| Golf | 1 | 3 to 5 min | Some | About 45% with every card known; far lower in real play |
| Yukon | 1 | 10 to 20 min | High | No solver figure we trust; one big site's players win about 12% |
| Russian | 1 | 10 to 20 min | High | No published figure we trust; harder than Yukon |
| Scorpion | 1 | 10 to 20 min | High | No published figure we trust |
| Forty Thieves | 2 | 15 to 30 min | High | Hard: often quoted near 1 in 10; one site's players win about 5% |
| Canfield | 1 | 5 to 15 min | Some | About 71% with every card known; real players far fewer |
| Pyramid | 1 | 3 to 8 min | Some | Strict one-pass rules: often quoted near 1 in 50 |
| TriPeaks | 1 | 3 to 6 min | Some | Over 90% of deals solvable in theory; one site's players win about 16% |
| Accordion | 1 | 10 to 20 min | High | Nearly every deal solvable with perfect look-ahead; estimated near 1 in 100 in real play |
| Clock | 1 | 2 to 5 min | None | Exactly 1 in 13 |
- SpiderTwo decks, ten columns; build full King-to-Ace runs in one suit. Played with 1, 2 or 4 suits.
- FreeCellEvery card face up from the start, plus four free cells. Almost every deal can be won.
- GolfClear seven face-up columns onto one pile, one rank up or down. Scored like golf over nine holes.
- YukonKlondike without a stock: move any face-up card along with everything on top of it.
- ScorpionOne-deck cousin of Spider: build King-to-Ace suit runs inside seven columns.
- Forty ThievesTwo decks, forty cards face up in ten columns, one card moved at a time, one pass through the stock.
- CanfieldA 13-card reserve to dig out, foundations that start on a random rank, and corners that wrap from Ace to King.
- PyramidRemove pairs that add up to 13 from a 28-card pyramid. Kings go alone.
- TriPeaksThree peaks of cards; play one rank up or down onto the waste and keep a run going.
- AccordionDeal the whole deck in a line and squeeze it into one pile by matching suit or rank.
Clock solitaire
Clock is pure luck: once the cards are dealt, the result is already decided. It is still a nice two-minute game for a child learning numbers, and a classic for "telling your fortune".
- Deal the deck face down into 13 piles of four: twelve in a circle where the hours would be, and one in the middle.
- Turn up the top card of the middle pile. Slide it face up under the pile at its hour: Ace is 1 o'clock, 2 to 10 match their numbers, Jack is 11, Queen is 12. A King goes under the middle pile.
- Turn up the top face-down card of the pile you just added to, and place it the same way. Keep going.
- You win if every card ends face up. You lose if the fourth King turns up while any card is still face down.
How winnable: exactly 1 deal in 13 comes out, as Wolfram MathWorld records (see also the Wikipedia article). That is about 7.7%, and no skill can change it.
Tips: there are no moves to choose, so the only "strategy" is care. Tuck each card fully under its pile so you never turn one up twice, and count the Kings out loud so you know when the end is near.
Solitaire questions
Is solitaire the same as patience?
Yes. Patience is the older British name for any card game you play alone, and Americans say solitaire. When people say "solitaire" with no other name they nearly always mean Klondike, the seven-pile game that came with Windows.
Should I draw one card or three?
Draw one if you want to win more often or are learning. Draw three is the traditional harder version: you see only every third card on each trip through the stock, so cards get stuck behind others.
How many times can I go through the stock?
In a friendly game, as many times as you like. Some rule books allow only one pass (or three when drawing three), and Vegas scoring uses those limits. Pick one before you start and stick to it.
Can I move a card back down from a foundation?
Most computer versions let you, and Windows Solitaire allowed it with a 15-point penalty in standard scoring. Printed rules usually do not mention it. With real cards, agree on it at the start.
Can every game of solitaire be won?
No. Even a player who could see every hidden card would lose about 18% of draw-three deals and about 10% of draw-one deals, according to a 2019 solver study. Real players, who cannot see under the face-down cards, lose more often than that.
When have I won for sure?
As soon as the stock and waste are used up and every tableau card is face up. Each pile is then a tidy run, so the lowest card left is always on the end of a pile and can go up next. Many apps finish the game for you at this point.