How to play Klondike Solitaire: rules and strategy

How to play Klondike: the cards and the deal

Klondike is played with one 52-card deck, no jokers: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs; each suit has an Ace (A), the numbers 2 to 10, Jack (J), Queen (Q) and King (K). Spades and clubs are black, hearts and diamonds red.

• There are 7 columns. From left to right, the first column gets 1 card, the second 2, and so on up to 7: 28 cards in all.
• Only the front card of each column is face up; the others are face down.
• The remaining 24 cards are the stock (the pile at the top left).
• At the top right are four empty foundations; this is where the cards go during the game.

Building in the columns

In the columns cards are built downward in alternating red and black: a red 7 on a black 8, a black 6 on a red 7. Only the colour matters, not the suit; the 7 of hearts can go on the 8 of spades or the 8 of clubs.

If the face-up cards in a column form an ordered run, you can move the whole run, or any part of it, to another column. When a column has no face-up cards left, its front face-down card turns over by itself.

Empty columns: Kings only

When every card of a column has been moved, the column is empty. In Klondike only a King (K), or a run starting with a King, can go into an empty column. No other card can.

So an empty column only helps if there is a King to put there. Before you clear a column, think about which King you will place in it.

Stock and waste: draw 1 or draw 3

Tap the stock to turn cards face up onto the waste pile next to it. When you start a game you choose one of two options:

• Draw 1: one card is turned with each tap. This is easier.
• Draw 3: three cards are turned with each tap and only the top one is playable. Play it and the card below becomes playable.

When the stock runs out, the waste is turned over to become the stock again and is drawn in the same order. Some rule sets limit how many times you may go through the stock; our game has no limit on passes, you can turn it as often as you like.

Foundations and winning

Each of the four foundations holds one suit and starts with the Ace: first the Ace, then the 2 of the same suit, the 3 and so on up to the King. Only the end card of a column or the top card of the waste can go to a foundation, one card at a time.

If needed, you can bring the top card of a foundation back down to a column; this helps when you need a stepping stone to place another card.

When all 52 cards are on the foundations, you win.

Your chances of winning Klondike

Not every Klondike deal can be won. In some deals the cards fall so that there is no way out even with perfect play. And because you cannot see the face-down cards, a move that looks right may turn out wrong later, so there is always some luck in Klondike.

• Draw 3 is clearly harder than draw 1: on a pass through the stock you can reach only every third card directly.
• Rules that limit passes make the game harder; our game has no such limit.
• In our game, with Solvable deals only turned on, every deal has been checked by computer to have at least one solution. Wrong moves can still lead to a dead end; then undo.

Klondike strategy

1. Make uncovering face-down cards your priority. When torn between two moves, pick the one that turns a card in the column with the most face-down cards.
2. Send Aces and 2s to the foundations at once. They never make room for other cards in the columns.
3. Do not rush other cards to the foundations. If you put a red 5 up, for example, there may be nowhere left for the black 4s. Move it once the opposite-colour foundations have caught up.
4. Have a King ready before clearing a column. Without a King to place, an empty column just waits.
5. Know your stock. Especially with draw 3, keep in mind which cards are reachable on one pass; playing a card from the waste changes the next groups of three.
6. Red or black? When choosing between two cards of the same value, look at which one will free the better cards beneath it.

Klondike on CetinsGame

The rules are exactly as described above, plus a few things that make the game comfortable:

• Tap or drag: Tap a card and it goes to the best place it can; tap the same card again to try the next possible place. You can also drag and drop a card or a run.
• Auto-move to foundations: When on (the default), Aces, 2s and other cards that cannot hurt your game go to the foundations by themselves. You can turn it off in Settings.
• Finish: Once the stock and waste are empty and every card is face up, it sends the remaining cards to the foundations with one tap.
• Unlimited Undo and Hint: Hint highlights a good next move.
• Rescue: When you are stuck, it looks for a way out of the current position. If it finds one and you choose to watch a short ad, the next 5 moves are played for you. If there is no way out, no ad is shown.
• Solvable deals only and the deal number (1 to 999999; the same number gives everyone the same deal).
• Daily Deal: One of the three deals everyone gets each day is Klondike (draw 1). When you finish, you see how long other players took that day.

Common mistakes

• Trying to put cards of the same colour on each other: in the columns red and black must alternate.
• Trying to put a card other than a King into an empty column: in Klondike only a King, or a run starting with a King, goes there.
• Putting off moves that uncover face-down cards in order to clear a column when no King is ready to fill it.
• Sending every card to the foundations at the first chance: you lose the cards you need as stepping stones in the columns.
• Trying to play a lower card of the waste with draw 3: only the top card is playable.
• Flicking through the stock and missing chances on the waste: look at each new card before drawing again.