Klondike Solitaire Rules

The Layout

A game has four areas, and only the tableau is dealt at the start.

Dealing the Cards

1. Shuffle one standard 52-card deck.
2. Deal seven columns from left to right: 1 card in the first, 2 in the second, and so on to 7 in the seventh.
3. Turn the last card of each column face up. The other 21 stay face down.
4. Put the 24 cards left over face down as the stock.

28 in the tableau plus 24 in the stock makes 52. The 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games, the oldest known printed rules, deals the same shape in rows, one face-up card and then face-down cards to its right, each row starting one pile further along. The main page shows a real deal from our game.

Legal Moves

Apart from turning the stock, every move takes a face-up card to a place the rules allow. There is no limit on how many moves you make or in what order.

A red card never goes on a red card, even one rank higher: the 6 of hearts cannot go on the 7 of diamonds. And a card always goes down exactly one rank, so a 5 cannot go on a 7.

The Stock and the Waste

When you want more cards, turn the stock onto the waste. In turn one you turn one card at a time, and each can be played as it shows. In turn 3 you turn three at a time and only the top one of the three can be played; when fewer than three are left, you turn what remains. Either way, only the top waste card is ever in play.

When the stock is empty, turn the whole waste back over to make a new stock, without shuffling, and go through it again. The cards come back in the same order, so in turn 3 the same cards show on every pass until you take one out of the waste. Our game allows as many passes as you like in both modes.

Winning and Losing

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations, each running from Ace to King in one suit. Once the stock and waste are empty and every tableau card is face up, the deal is as good as won, and our game offers an Auto Complete button that plays the rest for you.

There is no formal loss. A deal is lost when no move you can make will ever turn over another card, usually because a card you need lies trapped under another. Our game does not announce it, so undo to an earlier choice or deal again. Not every deal can be won: with every card known, a solver study found 90.2% of turn one deals and 81.5% of turn 3 deals winnable under these rules.

Scoring

Scoring is optional in the rules and varies between programs. Our standard scoring gives 10 points for each card reaching a foundation, 5 for each face-down card turned up, and 5 for moving a waste card to the tableau, and takes 20 points each time you turn the waste over after the first. Vegas scoring charges $52 per deal and pays $5 per foundation card. The points table and the Vegas break-even are on the main Klondike page.

Rules That Change Between Versions

Books and programs agree on the deal and the building rules but differ on the stock, on moving piles, and on the foundations. Here is how the common versions compare with ours.

Klondike Variants

Vegas Solitaire is Klondike played for money. The house charges for the deal and pays for every card on a foundation, and casino-style rules turn one card at a time and allow a single pass. The 1907 Hoyle already describes a banker selling the pack for $52 and paying $5 a card, in the betting game that then went by the name Klondike and is now called Canfield. Our game offers Vegas scoring as an option, with unlimited passes.

Thoughtful Klondike deals the usual layout with every card visible from the start. It is the version solvers measure: under our rules, 90.2% of turn one deals and 81.5% of turn 3 deals can be won when you can see everything.

Somerset deals the whole deck into ten columns, so there is no stock at all, and keeps the Klondike building rule. With every card known, only about 54% of Somerset deals can be won.

Changing one rule changes the odds a lot. Letting any card fill an empty column lifts turn 3 winnability from about 82% to 95%, while building in suit instead of alternating colors drops it below 7%. For the other solitaire games we host, from Yukon to FreeCell, see the comparison on the main Klondike page.

Klondike Glossary

Tableau

The seven columns of cards in the middle of the table, dealt with 1 to 7 cards each.

Stock

The 24 face-down cards left after the deal, turned onto the waste one or three at a time.

Waste

The face-up pile of cards turned from the stock. Only its top card can be played. Also called the talon.

Foundation

One of four piles built up by suit from Ace to King. Filling all four wins the game.

Build

To place a card on another: down one rank in alternating colors on the tableau, up one rank in the same suit on a foundation.

Alternating colors

The tableau rule that a red card goes on a black one and a black card on a red one, such as the 9 of clubs on the 10 of hearts.

Pile

A column of cards on the tableau, or the face-up cards at its end that move together as a unit.

Space

An empty tableau column. In Klondike only a King, or a King-led pile, can fill it.

Turn 1

Turning the stock one card at a time, also called draw one or one-card solitaire. Every stock card shows on every pass.

Turn 3

Turning the stock three cards at a time with only the top one playable, also called draw three, three-card solitaire, or Klondike by Threes.

Pass

One trip through the stock. Turning the waste back over to start the next pass is also called a redeal.

Worrying back

Moving a card from a foundation back onto the tableau. Some programs allow it; ours does not.

Thoughtful Klondike

Klondike played with every card visible from the start. Solver studies use it to measure how many deals can be won at all.

Vegas scoring

Money scoring: the deal costs $52 and every card on a foundation pays $5, so a won game nets $208.

Patience

The British name for solitaire card games in general, and often for Klondike in particular.

Quick Reference

Play Klondike Solitaire with these rules, or go straight to Klondike Turn 3.