The setup: 28 cards in seven piles
Klondike uses one ordinary deck of 52 cards without jokers. Deal seven piles from left to right. The first pile gets one card, the second two, and so on up to seven cards in the last pile. Only the top card of each pile lies face up; the rest are face down underneath.
| Pile | Cards | Face down | Face up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| Total | 28 | 21 | 7 |
The remaining 24 cards go face down in one pile, the stock. Next to it is the waste, where cards from the stock are turned face up. Above the tableau leave room for four foundations, one per suit. They start empty. To deal a game in your browser instead, the solitaire game shuffles and lays out a numbered deal you can replay or share.
The goal
Move all 52 cards to the four foundations. Each foundation holds one suit and is built up in order: ace first, then 2, 3 and so on to the king. When all four foundations show a king, the game is won.
The legal moves
- Building in the tableau. A face-up card can go on a card one rank higher of the opposite color. A red 9 goes on a black 10, a black 4 on a red 5. Suits do not matter here, only colors.
- Moving runs. A face-up run that is already in order, like a black 8, red 7, black 6, moves as one unit, as long as its top card fits where it lands.
- Turning hidden cards. When a move leaves a face-down card on top of a pile, turn it face up. It is now in play.
- Empty columns. When a pile is gone, the space can only be filled by a king, or by a run that starts with a king.
- Playing to the foundations. An ace can always start a foundation. After that, the next card of the same suit goes on top: the 2 of hearts on the ace of hearts, and so on.
- Using the stock. When you are stuck in the tableau, turn cards from the stock onto the waste. The top waste card can be played to the tableau or a foundation. When the stock is empty, turn the waste over to make a new stock, if the rules you play allow another pass.
Draw one or draw three
The biggest rule choice is how the stock is turned. In draw one, each turn moves one card to the waste, and every stock card is playable on the first pass. In draw three, each turn moves three cards and only the top one is playable. With 24 cards in the stock that is 8 groups, so on the first pass only 8 cards come within reach unless you play some of them, which shifts the groups for the next pass.
Published rule sets also differ in how many passes through the stock you get: one pass, three passes, or unlimited. The table lists the five combinations in common use. Pick one before you start and keep it, since each changes how hard the game is.
| Variant | Cards per turn | Passes |
|---|---|---|
| Draw one, unlimited | 1 | Unlimited |
| Draw three, unlimited | 3 | Unlimited |
| Draw three, three passes | 3 | 3 |
| Draw one, three passes | 1 | 3 |
| Draw one, one pass | 1 | 1 |
Two things follow from the rules. With the same number of passes, draw one is easier than draw three, because every stock card can be reached. With the same draw, more passes are easier than fewer, because you get more looks at the stock. Draw one with unlimited passes is the most forgiving of the five, and draw one with a single pass gives you exactly one look at each stock card.
Standard scoring
Many players just count wins. If you want points, here is the scheme the classic Windows version used:
| Move | Points |
|---|---|
| Waste to tableau | +5 |
| Waste to foundation | +10 |
| Tableau to foundation | +10 |
| Turn over a tableau card | +5 |
| Foundation back to tableau | −15 |
| Recycle the waste (draw one) | −100 |
The score cannot drop below zero. Timed games also lose 2 points every 10 seconds and give a bonus of 700,000 divided by the seconds taken, for games of at least 30 seconds. A worked example: a won game where 30 cards reach the foundations from the tableau and 22 from the waste, all 21 hidden cards are turned over and 6 waste cards are first played to the tableau scores 655 points before any time adjustments. If several people play the same deal, the score keeper tracks the totals per round.
Tips that win more games
- Turn hidden cards first. Of the 21 face-down cards, every one you expose adds options. Prefer moves that free a card in the longest piles, since those hide the most.
- Do not empty a column without a king. An empty space can only take a king. If no king is free to fill it, the space can sit there unused.
- Choose the king's color. When two kings could fill a space, look at which queens are waiting. A red queen needs a black king.
- Play aces and twos at once. An ace can always go straight to a foundation, and a 2 in the tableau can only hold an ace. Higher cards can be worth keeping back as places to park lower cards.
- Use the stock to plan. In draw three, playing one card from the waste changes which cards show on the next pass. Sometimes a dull move unlocks a whole group later.
How often can you win?
Not every deal can be won. The cleanest number comes from the version where the player can see every card, called thoughtful solitaire. Charlie Blake and Ian Gent solved large samples of deals with a program and put the share of winnable deals at 81.945% plus or minus 0.084%. That is an upper limit for the normal game: with hidden cards you can make a choice that looks right and is not, so a real player wins fewer deals than that. For best play with hidden cards no exact figure is known.
If you like card and logic games that reward planning, the memory game is about remembering where cards lie, and the sudoku game deals puzzles with exactly one solution, so no deal is a lost cause.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards are dealt in solitaire?
Klondike deals 28 cards into seven piles of 1 to 7 cards, with only the top card of each pile face up. The other 24 cards form the stock. 21 cards start hidden in the tableau.
What can go on an empty column?
Only a king, or a run of cards headed by a king. You cannot put a queen or any lower card into an empty space, so it pays to think before emptying a column when no king is waiting.
What is the difference between draw one and draw three?
In draw one you turn the stock one card at a time, so every card becomes playable on the first pass. In draw three you turn three at a time and can only play the top one, so most cards stay out of reach until a later pass or until the cards above them are played. Draw three is the harder game.
Can every game of solitaire be won?
No. Some deals cannot be won however you play. For the version where the player can see every card, a 2019 study by Charlie Blake and Ian Gent put the share of winnable deals at about 82 percent. With hidden cards, as in a normal game, the share you can actually win is lower, and no exact figure for best play is known.
Do I have to move a card to the foundation as soon as I can?
No. Playing to the foundations is usually right for aces and twos, but a higher card can be more useful left in the tableau, where it holds a spot for a lower card of the other color. Under standard scoring, moving a card back from a foundation to the tableau costs 15 points, so do it only when it unlocks something.
Sources
- Bicycle: How to play Solitaire (seven piles, pile seven with six cards face down under one face-up card, the rest forms the stock; foundations by suit from ace to king; an empty space can only be filled with a king)
- Wikipedia: Klondike (solitaire) (tableau built down in alternating colors; any face-up run moves as a unit; draw one and draw three with limited or unlimited passes; the standard scoring of the Windows version; best-play odds unknown)
- Blake and Gent, The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games, arXiv:1906.12314 (81.945% ± 0.084% of deals winnable when the player knows every card)