You’re staring at a screen or a felt tabletop with a deck of cards that feels slightly too thick in your hands. We’ve all been there. Maybe the Wi-Fi went out, or you’re just killing time in a waiting room, and suddenly, that familiar grid of cards is calling your name. But honestly, most people just click around until they get stuck. They treat it like a game of pure luck. It isn't.
If you want to know how to play solitaire—specifically Klondike, which is the version everyone actually means when they say "solitaire"—you have to understand that it’s a puzzle of resource management. It’s not just about moving cards because you can. It’s about moving cards because you should.
Most players fail because they rush. They see a Red 7 and a Black 8 and snap them together instantly. Sometimes, that’s the worst move you could possibly make.
The Setup: Getting the Table Ready
You need a standard 52-card deck. No jokers. Toss those aside.
First, you deal the tableau. This is the "main" area of the game. You lay out seven columns. The first column on your left gets one card, face up. The second gets two cards, but only the top one is face up. The third gets three, and so on, until the seventh column has seven cards with only the top one showing.
Basically, you’ve got a staircase of mystery.
The remaining cards go into the "stock" pile. You’ll draw from this later. Above the tableau, you need space for four "foundations." These are where the cards go to die—or rather, where they go so you can actually win the game. These must be built by suit, starting with the Ace and ending with the King.
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What You're Actually Trying to Do
The goal is simple: Move every single card from the tableau and the stock into those four foundation piles. You have to do this in order. $Ace \rightarrow 2 \rightarrow 3 ... \rightarrow King$.
If you get all four suits up there, you win. If you run out of moves and the stock is empty, the game wins. And let me tell you, the game wins a lot more often than you’d think. According to statistical analysis by mathematicians like Irving Kaplansky, about 80% to 90% of Klondike games are theoretically winnable, but humans usually only win about 10-15% of the time because we make "wrong" moves early on.
Moving the Cards: The Rules of the Road
In the tableau, you can move cards between columns, but there’s a catch. You have to alternate colors and go in descending order.
If you have a Red 10, you can only put a Black 9 on it. You can’t put a Red 9 on a Red 10. That’s the law. If you have a sequence—say, a Red 6 on a Black 7 on a Red 8—you can move that whole chunk together onto a Black 9.
Empty spaces are precious. Only a King can go into an empty spot. If you move a card and reveal a face-down card underneath it, flip it over immediately. That’s your new objective.
The Stock and the Waste
When you’re stuck on the board, you turn to the stock pile. There are two main ways to play this, and you should decide before you start:
- Draw 1: You flip one card at a time. It’s "easy mode."
- Draw 3: You flip three cards, but you can only use the top one. This is the "real" way people play in tournaments or high-stakes digital versions.
If you use the top card of the three, the one underneath it becomes available. If you can’t use it, you flip the next three. You keep cycling through until you’re either finished or totally blocked.
Strategies That Actually Work (and Why You're Losing)
Let’s talk about why you’re hitting a wall. Most people treat how to play solitaire as a "see a move, make a move" situation. Stop that.
Expose the face-down cards first. This is the golden rule. If you have a choice between moving a card from the stock or moving a card within the tableau to reveal a hidden card, choose the tableau every single time. Those hidden cards are the ones that kill your game. If you can't see them, you can't play them.
Don't empty a spot just because you can. An empty spot is useless unless you have a King ready to sit in it. If you clear a column and don't have a King, you've actually just reduced your playing space. It's a rookie mistake.
Think twice about the Foundations. It feels great to shove an Ace and a 2 up into the foundation pile. But wait. If you put that Black 2 up there, and later you need it to hold a Red Ace in the tableau so you can move a bigger stack, you’re in trouble. Generally, keep your low cards in the tableau until you absolutely have to move them, or until you have both cards of that rank and color ready (like both Red 3s).
The "Big Column" Strategy
The seventh column—the one with six face-down cards—is your biggest enemy. It’s the hardest to clear. Always look for ways to chip away at the biggest columns first. The little columns on the left are easy to clear later.
Common Misconceptions and Variations
Is it luck? Sorta. But not entirely.
Microsoft Solitaire, which basically introduced the world to digital cards back in the Windows 3.0 days, actually uses algorithms to ensure a certain "winnability" in some modes. But in a physical deck? You’re at the mercy of the shuffle. If all four Aces are at the very bottom of the stock pile, you’re probably going to lose. That’s just life.
There are also different versions of the game.
- Spider Solitaire: Uses two decks and focuses on clearing columns of the same suit.
- FreeCell: Almost 100% of games are winnable because all cards are dealt face-up. It's less about luck and more about pure logic.
- Pyramid: You pair cards that add up to 13.
But Klondike remains the king. It's the one that feels the most balanced between skill and the "gambler's high" of flipping a card and getting exactly what you need.
Essential Nuances: Drawing 3 vs. Drawing 1
If you really want to master how to play solitaire, you have to get comfortable with the Draw 3 cycle. When you flip three cards, you’re seeing the 3rd, 6th, 9th card, and so on. If you take one card, the entire "rotation" of the deck shifts for the next pass.
Expert players will sometimes not take a card they need from the stock pile on the first pass. They do this to ensure that on the second pass, the cards they really need will fall into the right position in the three-card flip. It’s like counting cards, but for bored people.
The King Dilemma
When you have an empty space and two Kings—one Red, one Black—which one do you pick? Look at the cards you have available. If you have a Red Queen waiting to be placed, you better pick the Black King. If you pick the Red King, that Red Queen is going to sit there blocking your progress for the rest of the game.
Check your tableau. Look at the colors. Plan two steps ahead.
Actionable Steps to Improve Your Game
If you want to stop losing and start winning, follow these specific steps during your next game:
- Immediate Ace Check: As soon as the cards are dealt, move any available Aces to the foundation. There is zero benefit to keeping an Ace in the tableau.
- Tableau Priority: Always prioritize moves that reveal hidden cards in the largest piles.
- Hold the Kings: Do not vacate a column unless you have a King (and ideally, a Queen of the opposite color) ready to move into it.
- The "6 and 8" Rule: Be very careful about burying 5s, 6s, and 7s. These are the transition cards that often get stuck when you're trying to build long sequences.
- Scan the Stock: If playing Draw 3, scan the cards you can't reach yet. It helps you decide which cards in the tableau are safe to move and which ones need to stay put to receive a card from the stock later.
Solitaire is a game of patience—it's right there in the name. Slow down. The cards aren't going anywhere. By managing your empty spaces and focusing on uncovering the hidden cards in your longest columns, you’ll turn a game of "luck" into a game of strategy.
Don't just flip cards. Play them.
Resources for further study:
- The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games by Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith.
- The International Solitaire Union (for competitive rules and scoring).
- Mathematical proofs on Klondike winnability by Persi Diaconis.
Grab a deck. Deal the staircase. Now you actually know what you're doing.