Solitaire Rules
The different piles
Built by Klondike Solitaire lovers for Klondike Solitaire lovers, this free online version of the classic game is sure to become your new favorite. No downloads or installs. Play classic solitaire. What is classic solitaire? Well, when generally when someone says the word 'solitaire', this version of the game is the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe you're old school enough that you were taught how to play this awesome game with an actual card deck.
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There are four different types of piles in Solitaire. They are:
- The Stock: The pile of facedown cards in the upper left corner.
- The Waste: The faceup pile next to the Stock in the upper left corner.
- The Foundations: The four piles in the upper right corner.
- The Tableau: The seven piles that make up the main table.
The setup
The Tableau piles are numbered from 1 to 7, pile 1 has 1 card, pile 2 has 2 cards and so on. The top card on each Tableau pile is turned face up, the cards below are turned face down. The cards that are left after setting up the Tableau are placed in the Stock, face down. The Waste and the Foundations start off empty.
The objective
To win Solitaire, you must get all the cards onto the Foundation piles. The Foundations are ordered by suit and rank, each Foundation has one suit and you must put the cards onto them in the order Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack Queen King. To get there, you can use the moves described below.
Allowed moves
- Flip cards from the Stock onto the Waste. You can flip either 1 or 3 cards from the Stock onto the Waste. The number can be configured in Options.
- Move a card from the Waste onto the Foundations. If the top card of the Waste can go onto one of the Foundations then you can drag it there.
- Move a card from the Waste onto the Tableau. You can move the top card of the Waste onto one of the Tableau piles.
- Move a card from a Foundation back onto the Tableau. You can move the top card of a Foundation back onto the Tableau. This isn't allowed in all Solitaire versions, but we allow it here :)
- Move one or more cards from one Tableau pile to another. You can move a face up card on the Tableau onto another Tableau pile, if that pile's top card is one higher than the moved card and in a different color. For example, you could move a red 6 onto a black 7. Or, if you have red 6, black 5, red 4 face up on one tableau, you can move all of them at the same time onto a Tableau with a black 7. If you have an empty Tableau pile then you can only place a king there.
- You can flip a face down Tableau card. If you have moved a face up card from a Tableau pile so now the top card is face down, then you can click the face down card and it will be flipped and shown face up.
- You can move a Tableau card onto the Foundations. You can do this manually if you need to clear some space on the Tableau. You can either drag the cards onto the Foundation, or just double click it and then it will go there by itself. When all cards on the Tableau are turned up, and all cards from the stock are finished then the game will automatically move all the Tableau cards onto the Foundations, since at that point you are guaranteed to win the game.
- You can Undo as many times as you like. The game offers unlimited undos. Each Undo counts as a new move though, so if you're trying to win the game in as few moves as possible you should be careful about how many undos you use.
Time and Moves
The game counts the moves you make, and measures the time it takes to finish the game, so you can compete against your previous best games if you want. Currently there is no scoring like in the Windows Solitaire, if someone is interested in this then contact me at admin@cardgames.io and I'll see what I can do.
Cats + Cards = AWW Solitaire.
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Classic Solitaire Overview
Classic Solitaire (known only as simply “Solitaire” by some, and “Klondike Solitaire” by others) is a crazy popular card game that is won by moving all cards in a single deck from the tableau to the foundation piles.
Classic Solitaire Rules
So how do you play this game?
The layout of the card game table is fairly straightforward. Though you might not have heard these terms before, a game of classic is composed of the following items:
- the tableau
- the foundations
- the stock pile
- the discard pile (also known as the talon)
Initially, the foundation piles and the discard pile will be empty.
If you are playing by hand, you start by shuffling your deck of cards fully, then start building the tableau. For the tableau, begin by dealing the first card up then place 6 more cards face down (for a grand total of 7 stacks on the main playing area (the tableau)). On the next go round, you place a face-up card on tableau stack #2, then 5 more face down cards on the remaining stacks. You repeat this process until you’ve placed your last face up card on the 7th tableau stack. Of course, if you’re playing on the Classic Solitaire site, all of this is taken care of for you automatically when you start a new game.
If you are playing by hand, after you have placed the appropriate number of cards on the tableau piles, you will have cards left over. These cards will be used for the stock pile. The traditional rules of classic solitaire generally have you deal 3 cards at a time from the stock, where only the top most card is playable at any given time. However, many (and possibly even most) online solitaire games let you deal 1 card at a time, making the game friendlier and easier to win. On the Classic Solitaire site, you can choose to deal 1 card at a time or 3, whatever you want. Also, in some versions of classic/klondike, the number of times you can go through the stock pile is limited. Most games give you an unlimited number of redeals which is the default in this game, though you can configure the number of redeals in the game preferences.
So now that everything is laid out on the game board appropriately, you can begin playing.
In Classic Solitaire, there are 2 main sets of rules:
- the rules for the foundations
- the rules for the tableau
On the tableau, cards are arranged in descending order (meaning King, Queen, Jack, 10, etc) in alternating color (e.g. a black 7 can be placed on a red 8).
There are 4 foundation piles (initially empty), one for each suit of Ace. As soon as you find an Ace, you immediately move it to a foundation pile. Unlike the tableau, foundation piles are built in ascending order (i.e., Ace, 2, 3, etc) and by the same suit (so for example, only diamonds are allowed in one of the 4 foundation piles).
The basic strategy in this classic card game is to uncover your turned over cards as soon as possible. If you have the option of using a card from the tableau or a card form the stock pile, you will almost always want to use the tableau card.
One additional strategy that is often overlooked is that you can strategically move cards from the foundation piles back to the tableau. However, some online games do not allow this. Basically, for those versions of the game, once a card is in one of the foundation piles, it is locked into place. But assuming you’re playing a game that allows this type of move, let me give you a simple scenario where this move could come in handy. You’ve got a black 4 and a black 2, both on the tableau. The black 2 has facedown cards underneath it, so obviously, it would be advantageous if you were able to move the black 2. You’ve already been through the stock pile and you know that there’s no red 3 in sight. But wait! There’s a shiny red 3 in one of the foundation piles. So you move that red 3 onto the black 4 et voilà, you can now move that black 2 onto the red 3, thus uncovering whatever was underneath the black 2.
Solitaire Game Download
Sometimes moves like these are the difference between winning and losing a game.
When you are able to empty a tableau pile, you have a few options. The classic rules for Klondike say that only Kings can be placed in empty tableau spots. So this means you can either transfer an individual King card to the empty spot or a valid sequence of cards starting with a King to the empty spot (e.g. black King, red Queen, black Jack, etc). On the Solitaire Classic site, the default option is that only Kings can be placed in empty tableau piles. But you can choose this option or the option of allowing any card to go on a blank spot. Feel free to play however you want. Or hey, if you run into a dead end in a game, and your only option is to move a non-King card onto an empty space, feel free to change the rules on the fly. Is this cheating? That’s up to you. We feel you should have the freedom to play solitaire in whatever way makes it the most fun.
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