How to play Klondike Solitaire

The layout

Shuffle a 52-card pack without jokers and lay out the tableau, seven piles in a row:

• Deal one card to each pile, left to right. Deal again from the second pile, then from the third, and so on, until the last pass puts one card on the seventh pile.
• The first pile now has 1 card and the seventh has 7. Only the top card of each pile, the last one dealt to it, is face up.
• That uses 28 cards, 21 of them face down. The other 24 form the stock, face down.

Leave room for a waste pile beside the stock and for four foundations, one per suit. Both start empty.

Building on the tableau

Piles on the tableau are built downwards in alternating colours: a red 9 on a black 10, a black 8 on that red 9, and so on.

• Move a face-up card onto a card one rank higher and of the other colour.
• A face-up card takes everything on top of it along, as long as those cards run down in order, alternating in colour. You may move a whole sequence or only part of it.
• When a move leaves a face-down card on top of a pile, turn it face up.
• Only a King, or a sequence headed by a King, may fill an empty pile.

The stock and the waste

When you need new cards, turn them from the stock onto the waste.

• Draw 1: turn one card at a time.
• Draw 3: turn three at a time, keeping their order. Only the top one can be played; once it is, the card beneath becomes available. If fewer than three are left, turn them all.

Draw 3 is the classic game. Draw 1 is easier, because every stock card comes within reach sooner or later.

The top waste card can go onto a tableau pile or a foundation, wherever it fits. When the stock runs out, turn the waste pile over without shuffling to make a new stock. You may go through it as often as you like.

With Draw 3, a pass in which you play nothing from the waste brings up exactly the same cards next time, in the same groups of three. Only playing waste cards changes what comes up.

The foundations

Each foundation holds one suit, built upwards in order.

• Start with an Ace. Any Ace can go into any empty foundation space.
• Then add the 2 of that suit, the 3, and so on up to the King.
• Cards come one at a time, from the top of the waste or the top of a tableau pile.
• You may also move a foundation’s top card back down to the tableau, wherever it fits. This can free a stuck game, and it matters more in Draw 3 than in Draw 1.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations, each suit running from Ace to King. If you have been through the stock and no move changes anything, the game is lost, so deal again.

Not every deal can be won. Computer analysis shows that even a player who could see every face-down card would win only about 90 percent of Draw 1 deals and about 82 percent of Draw 3 deals. With the cards hidden, as in a real game, the share is lower still.

Keeping score

Scoring is optional. The usual system is:

Move	Points
Waste to tableau	+5
Waste to foundation	+10
Tableau to foundation	+10
Turning a tableau card face up	+5
Foundation back to tableau	-15
Tableau to tableau	0
Turning the waste over, Draw 1	-100 each time
Turning the waste over, Draw 3	-20 each time, from the third time on

The score never drops below zero. A stock card played to the tableau first and to a foundation later earns 15 points instead of 10.

Variants

• Limited passes. Some allow only three passes through the stock. The strictest form is Draw 1 with a single pass, and by an old estimate only about one deal in thirty comes out that way.
• Whole sequences only. Some move face-up cards from pile to pile only as a complete sequence, never split.
• Any card in a space. Some let any card or sequence fill an empty pile, not only a King.
• No moving back. Some forbid moving cards from a foundation back to the tableau.
• All face up. An easier version, known as thoughtful Klondike, deals every card face up.
• Other scores. Score sheets differ most on the penalty for turning the waste over, so agree on it first.

Quick reference

• Seven piles of 1 to 7 cards, top cards face up, and 24 cards in the stock.
• Build down on the tableau in alternating colours.
• Only a King fills an empty pile.
• Foundations: one per suit, from Ace up to King.
• Turn stock cards onto the waste one or three at a time, and turn the waste over when the stock runs out.
• You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations.