How to Play Klondike Solitaire: Setup and Rules

How to set up a game of solitaire

Shuffle one standard 52-card deck with the Jokers taken out. Deal seven columns in a row from left to right; together they are called the tableau. The first column gets 1 card, the second 2, and so on up to 7 cards in the seventh column, 28 cards in all. Only the top card of each column, the one nearest you, is face up. The 21 cards beneath them are face down.

The traditional way to deal is by rows. Deal one card face up to the first column and one face down to each of the other six. Then deal a face-up card to the second column and a face-down card to each column to its right, and carry on until the seventh column gets its face-up card. Each column ends with exactly one face-up card on top.

Put the other 24 cards face down above the columns as the stock. Leave room beside it for the waste pile, where the cards you turn over go, and room for four foundations, one for each suit, which start empty. In Porch Swing Solitaire the stock sits at the top left with the waste beside it, and the four foundation places are on the right, each marked with an A.

Klondike rules and the goal

The goal is to move all 52 cards to the four foundations. Each foundation holds one suit, built up in order from Ace to King: the Ace of hearts first, then the 2 of hearts, and so on. When all four foundations reach their Kings, you have won.

In the columns, you build down in alternating colors. A card can go on the face-up card at the bottom of a column if it is one rank lower and the opposite color: a red 7 (hearts or diamonds) on a black 8 (spades or clubs), or a black Jack on a red Queen. A face-up run that is already in order can move as a group, as long as its first card fits where it lands. When the last face-up card leaves a column, turn over the face-down card under it. In Porch Swing Solitaire that happens by itself.

Only a King, or a run headed by a King, can go into an empty column. An Ace can go to an empty foundation, and any card that is next in its suit can go up from the waste or from a column. Most rule books also let you bring a foundation’s top card back down onto a column when you need it as a stepping stone, and Porch Swing allows it.

When the table has no useful moves left, turn cards from the stock onto the waste. The top card of the waste can be played to a column or a foundation. When the stock runs out, turn the waste pile over to make a new stock and go through it again.

Draw 1 or Draw 3, and how many passes

There are two common ways to turn the stock. In Draw 1 you turn one card at a time, so every stock card can be reached on every pass. In Draw 3 you turn three at a time, fanned so you can see them, but only the top one plays; the two under it wait until it is played. Draw 3 is the traditional game and the harder one, because some cards stay out of reach for a whole pass.

Rules for passes through the stock vary. Some versions allow only three passes with Draw 3, or a single pass with Draw 1, and the Vegas scoring found in many computer versions starts each deal 52 dollars down and pays back 5 for each card sent home. Porch Swing Solitaire allows as many passes as you like with either draw and does not score points. It counts your moves and keeps your fewest for a win, and it has a timer only if you turn one on.

How often can you win at Klondike?

Not every deal can be won, however well you play. We ran Porch Swing’s solver on 1,000 shuffled deals for each draw. The solver plays through the game’s real rules with every card visible, the face-down cards and the stock order included, so every win it finds is a real one. Within the search the game gives it, it proved 593 of 1,000 Draw 1 deals and 496 of 1,000 Draw 3 deals winnable. It could not settle most of the others either way, so the true share is higher.

Published research puts it much higher. Charlie Blake and Ian Gent, in The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games, used a far stronger solver on a large sample of deals and found that about 90.5% of Draw 1 deals and about 81.9% of Draw 3 deals can be won by a player who may look at every card, a version called thoughtful solitaire. A player who cannot see the face-down cards wins less often, because some winning lines depend on knowing what lies underneath.

Porch Swing deals winnable games by default. Before a deal reaches the table, the solver must win it, or the game tries the next shuffle. A way through always exists, but it can depend on cards you have not seen yet. Our scripted player that follows the game’s hint, which sees only what you see, won 139 of 200 winnable Draw 1 deals and 59 of 200 winnable Draw 3 deals. On plain shuffles it won 98 of 200 with Draw 1 and 37 of 200 with Draw 3. Plain shuffles are one setting away if you prefer the cards to fall as they may.

Controls in Porch Swing Solitaire

Drag a card or a run to its new place, or tap it and then tap where it should go; the places it can go glow. Double-tap or double-click a card to send it to its foundation, or to its best column when it cannot go home yet. Tap the stock to turn cards, and tap it again once it is empty to turn the waste back over. Undo, Hint and Menu sit on a wooden bench below the table, or beside it on a wide screen.

On a keyboard, the arrow keys move between the stock, the waste, the foundations and the columns, and in a column Up and Down choose how many face-up cards to pick up. Enter or Space picks up and puts down, the number keys 1 to 7 pick up from or drop onto a column, D turns the stock, F sends a card home, U undoes, H shows a hint and Escape puts a card back.

Undo is unlimited. The hint uses only what you can see, never a face-down card or the order of the stock. Once every card in the columns is face up, the game plays the rest home by itself, and if no move can change anything, it tells you and offers to undo, replay the deal or start a new one. Menu holds the settings (Draw 1 or Draw 3, winnable deals or any shuffle, and a timer that stays off unless you turn it on), today’s deal and your statistics. The deal in progress is saved on your device as you play.

Beginner strategy

Turn over face-down cards first. Each face-down card is one you cannot use yet, so when you have a choice, make the move that uncovers one. Work on the columns with the most face-down cards, usually the ones on the right, because they hide the cards you will wait for longest.

Play the table before the stock. Look at every move among the columns before you turn a card, including runs that could move as a group, and use the waste card when it frees something. A stock card comes around again on the next pass; a card buried in a column stays buried until you dig it out.

Send Aces and 2s home as soon as they appear, because nothing else can use them. Be slower with the middle ranks: a black 6 on its foundation can no longer hold a red 5 that is still in a column. A good rule of thumb is to keep the foundations roughly level, so no suit runs far ahead of the cards of the other color that build on it.

Plan your empty columns. An empty column takes only a King, so it is worth most when a King is ready to move into it, best of all a King sitting on face-down cards. When you can choose between Kings, pick the one the waiting cards fit: a red King if a black Queen needs a place.

Common mistakes

Clearing a column just to clear it. If no King is ready to move in, the empty column does nothing for you, and the cards you moved to empty it may now be in the way.

Rushing cards to the foundations. Sending a 5 or a 6 home early can strand a card of the other color that needed it as a place to land. You can bring a foundation card back down in Porch Swing, but it is easier not to need to.

Turning the stock too soon. A move on the table that uncovers a card is almost always worth more than a fresh card from the stock, so check every column first.

Moving cards without a purpose. Shifting a run from one column to another when it frees nothing only adds moves. Each move should uncover a card, free a card you need, or make room for a King.

Forgetting the order in Draw 3. Every waste card you play shifts each later group of three by one card on the next pass, so a card that kept landing in the middle of a group can come to the top. If a card you need is stuck out of reach, playing a waste card earlier in the pass can bring it up.

Tips for winning more deals

Use undo to explore. Undo never changes your result in Porch Swing, so try a line and take it back if it goes nowhere. It is the quickest way to learn which choices matter.

Learn on Draw 1. With every stock card in reach on each pass, the planning is easier to see. The gap is large: the hint-following player won 139 of 200 winnable deals with Draw 1 but 59 of 200 with Draw 3.

Let the hint teach you. A scripted player with simple habits, which sent a card home whenever it could, otherwise uncovered a face-down card, otherwise played the waste card and otherwise turned the stock, won only 23 of the same 200 winnable Draw 1 deals and 5 of 200 with Draw 3. When you are stuck, ask for a hint and work out why it chose that move.

Play today’s deal. Each day brings one winnable Draw 1 deal, the same for everyone, and the game keeps your best try, so you can come back to the same cards and do better.