How to Play Solitaire with Cards: Rules for Beginners

The game most people mean by "solitaire" is Klondike, the one that came free with every computer for twenty years. It plays just as well with a real deck on a kitchen table — better, many would say.

Setting up

Shuffle a standard 52-card deck (no jokers) and deal seven piles in a row, left to right — the tableau:

• Pile 1 has one card, pile 2 has two, and so on up to seven cards in pile 7.
• Only the top card of each pile is face up. The rest are face down.

That uses 28 cards. The remaining 24 go face down in a pile — the stock. Leave room above the tableau for four foundation piles, one per suit.

The goal

Build all four foundations from Ace up to King, each in a single suit. Get all 52 cards there and you have won.

How cards move

• On the tableau, build downwards in alternating colours: a red 6 can go on a black 7, a black Queen on a red King.
• You can move a whole run of face-up cards together, as long as the run is in order — say a black 9, red 8, black 7 onto a red 10.
• When you move the face-up cards off a pile, turn up the face-down card beneath.
• Only a King (or a run starting with a King) can fill an empty pile.
• Aces go up to the foundations as soon as they appear, then the 2 of the same suit, then the 3, and so on.

Using the stock

When you run out of moves, turn cards from the stock onto a face-up waste pile. The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or a foundation.

• Turn one at a time for an easier game.
• Turn three at a time — only the top card of each three is playable — for the classic, harder game.

When the stock runs out, turn the waste over to make a new stock. Some players allow unlimited passes; strict rules allow three passes when turning three, or a single pass when turning one. Agree with yourself before you start.

Tips for winning more often

1. Play from the tableau before the stock. Uncovering face-down cards is what opens the game up.
2. Work on the biggest piles first — they hide the most cards.
3. Do not empty a pile unless you have a King ready to move into it.
4. Hold back on the foundations. Sending a low card up too early can leave you with nowhere to put the next card down.

Even played well, not every deal can be won, especially turning three. That is part of its appeal.

Other solitaires worth knowing

Once Klondike is easy, try Spider (two decks, build in suit), FreeCell (almost every deal is winnable) or Clock Patience (pure luck, two minutes a game). All need nothing more than a deck and a table. A large-index deck is easier on the eyes for a long session, and a plastic one survives being laid out and swept up night after night.