Solitaire Rules: How to Play Solitaire
When people say "Solitaire" they almost always mean Klondike — the seven-column game that shipped with Windows and taught a generation to drag cards with a mouse. This page gives you the complete Klondike rules first, then the rules for the other three games worth knowing.
Everything below uses one standard 52-card deck with the jokers removed.
The goal
Move all 52 cards onto four foundation piles, one per suit, each built upward from Ace to King. Clear all four and you have won.
How to set up Solitaire
- Deal seven columns. Deal 28 cards into seven columns left to right: one card in the first column, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the last. Deal them one row at a time so the columns build up evenly.
- Turn up the last card of each column. Flip the final card of every column face up. You end with 7 face-up cards and 21 face-down cards in the tableau.
- Set the remaining 24 cards aside as the stock. The 24 cards you did not deal become the stock, placed face down off to one side. The space next to it is the waste pile.
- Leave room for four foundations. Reserve four spaces above the tableau. These start empty and are filled with Aces as they become available.
- Start with 52 cards. Jokers removed, shuffled, face down.
- Deal 28 cards into seven columns — one into the first, two into the second, up to seven in the last.
- Turn up the last card of each column. That leaves 7 cards face up and 21 face down.
- The remaining 24 cards become the stock. The four spaces at the top right are the foundations.
The finished layout has four areas, and the rules use these names throughout:
| Area | Cards | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tableau | 28, in 7 columns | The main playing area where you rearrange cards |
| Foundations | 0 to start, 52 to win | Four piles built up by suit, Ace to King |
| Stock | 24 | The face-down draw pile |
| Waste | Varies | Cards turned up from the stock; the top one is playable |
The rules of play
Building in the tableau
Cards are stacked downward in rank and in alternating colours. A red 8 goes onto a black 9; a black 5 goes onto a red 6. Colour is what matters, not suit — the 8 of hearts and the 8 of diamonds are interchangeable here.
A correctly sequenced run moves as a single unit. If you have a black 9, red 8, black 7 in order, you can pick up all three and drop them on a red 10.
- In the tableau, cards go down in rank and alternate colour.
- Red 8 onto black 9 — legal. One rank lower, opposite colour.
- Red 8 onto red 9 — illegal. The rank is right but the colours match.
- Only the colour changes the answer. Suit itself never matters here.
Building on the foundations
Foundations are built upward in rank and strictly by suit, starting with the Ace: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K. An Ace may be played to a foundation the moment it becomes available.
- Each foundation starts empty and takes one suit.
- The Ace goes up first. Nothing can be placed before it.
- Then the 2 of the same suit, and so on.
- Up by suit, Ace to King. All four foundations full wins the game.
You may pull a card back off a foundation and into the tableau if it helps — most versions permit this, though scoring penalises it.
Empty columns
Only a King may fill an empty column, either alone or at the head of a sequenced run. If you empty a column and have no King to put there, it stays empty and does nothing for you.
Turning over face-down cards
Whenever you move the last face-up card off a column, turn the face-down card beneath it up immediately. It is now in play. Exposing these hidden cards is the real work of the game — the 21 face-down cards are the only thing standing between you and the win.
Drawing from the stock
When you run out of moves, draw from the stock. There are two common variants and they play very differently:
- Draw 1 — turn up one card at a time. Every card in the deck becomes playable eventually, which makes this much the easier version. Play draw-1 Solitaire.
- Draw 3 — turn up three cards at a time, of which only the top one is playable. Cards buried in the middle of a triple may never surface, which is what makes draw-3 the standard tournament version. Play draw-3 Solitaire.
When the stock is exhausted, flip the waste pile over to form a new stock and carry on. Most digital versions allow unlimited passes at draw-3 and either unlimited or three passes at draw-1; casino rules are stricter, as below.
How Solitaire scoring works
Scoring is not part of the core rules — you can play perfectly happily without it — but two systems are near-universal in digital Solitaire.
Standard scoring
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Waste to tableau | +5 |
| Waste to foundation | +10 |
| Tableau to foundation | +10 |
| Turn over a face-down tableau card | +5 |
| Foundation back to tableau | −15 |
| Recycling the waste pile (draw-1) | −100 after the first pass |
Timed games usually add a completion bonus that scales inversely with elapsed time, so a fast win is worth considerably more than a slow one.
Vegas scoring
Vegas scoring treats the deck as a purchase. You pay $52 to start — a dollar a card — and earn $5 for every card you move to a foundation. Clearing all 52 returns $260, for a net profit of $208. You need 11 cards banked simply to break even, and most deals do not get there, which is the point: Vegas Solitaire is designed to lose money slowly.
Vegas rules normally allow only a single pass through the stock at draw-1, or three at draw-3. In cumulative Vegas the bankroll carries across games rather than resetting.
How to win more often
- Uncover face-down cards first. Given a choice of moves, take the one that flips a hidden card. Information beats tidiness.
- Do not rush cards to the foundations. A 6 left in the tableau can still accept a 5; once banked it is inert. Send cards up only when they can no longer help below.
- Prefer the column with the most hidden cards. Digging into the seven-card column pays off more than tidying the two-card one.
- Empty a column only when you hold a King. An empty column with no King to fill it is a wasted asset.
- Play the Ace and 2 immediately. These are the only cards that genuinely never help you in the tableau.
More detail in our Solitaire strategy guide, and the honest answer on how often this is even possible is in is every Solitaire game winnable?
Frequently Asked Questions
How many columns are there in Solitaire?
Seven. The columns hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 cards respectively — 28 cards in total. Above them sit four foundation piles, and the remaining 24 cards form the stock, which gives 11 piles on the table once play begins.
How many cards do you flip in Solitaire?
One at a time in draw-1 Solitaire, or three at a time in draw-3. In draw-3 only the top card of the three is playable; take it and the card beneath becomes available. Draw-1 is significantly easier and is the version most people play casually.
What is the foundation in Solitaire?
The foundations are the four piles you are trying to fill, one per suit. Each is built upward starting with the Ace, then 2, 3, and so on to the King. Moving all 52 cards to the foundations wins the game.
Can you put any card in an empty column?
No — in standard Klondike only a King, or a properly sequenced run headed by a King, may move into an empty column. This is why emptying a column with no King available to fill it is usually a wasted move.
How does Solitaire scoring work?
Standard scoring awards 10 points for each card sent to a foundation, 5 for moving a card from the waste to the tableau, and 5 for turning over a face-down tableau card; pulling a card back off a foundation costs 15. Vegas scoring is different: you pay $52 to start and earn $5 per card banked, so you need 11 cards on the foundations just to break even.
Can every game of Solitaire be won?
No. Around 80% of Klondike deals are solvable if you could see every face-down card, but you cannot, so real win rates are far lower — commonly 10-15% at draw-3 and much higher at draw-1. Some deals are unwinnable from the moment they are dealt.
What is the difference between Solitaire and Patience?
Nothing — they are the same thing. "Patience" is the British name for single-player card games and "Solitaire" is the American one. Both are umbrella terms covering hundreds of games, of which Klondike is the best known.
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