Solitaire strategy: how to win more deals

What you are actually optimising

Klondike looks like a game about building foundations. It is really a game about turning face-down cards over. Every hidden card is unknown information and a blocked pile; every card you expose is both a new option and a step towards the end.

The priority order that beats casual play almost every time:

1. Turn over a face-down card — always the best move, all else equal.
2. Empty a pile, if you have a king ready to fill it.
3. Play a card from the waste that unblocks something.
4. Send a card to the foundations — last, not first.

Level 1 — Basic: the five rules that raise your win rate

1. Do not rush cards to the foundations

The commonest beginner mistake. A five sent home early is a five that cannot accept a four, and suddenly a pile is stuck. Aces and twos always go up; everything else should stay available until you are sure you do not need it.

2. Prefer the move that turns a card over

If two moves are otherwise equal, take the one that exposes a face-down card — and prefer the pile with the most hidden cards, because that is where the longest blockage lives.

3. Only empty a pile if you have a king

An empty pile with no king to fill it is dead space. Before you clear the last card off a pile, find the king that is going into it.

4. Think about which king

Kings come in two colours, and the one you place determines which queens can follow. If you have a choice, place the king whose colour matches the queens you can actually reach.

5. Cycle the stock before committing

In draw-three, run through the stock once to see what is in it before you make irreversible tableau moves. Knowing where the aces are changes which moves are worth making.

Level 2 — Intermediate: sequencing and the stock cycle

Plan the order of the whole pile

Before moving a run, look at what will be underneath it. Moving a black seven onto a red eight is good only if the card it uncovers is useful. Strong play means reading two or three moves of consequence, not one.

Colour sequencing

Because tableau builds alternate colours, a long run needs the colours to alternate correctly all the way down. When you have a choice of where to place a card, ask which choice keeps your future sequence alive:

• Two black sevens are competing for the same red eights. Placing one blocks the other.
• If both red queens are buried, a black king in an empty column will sit there doing nothing.

Understand the draw-three cycle

With three-card draws, only every third card is initially reachable. Playing one card from the waste shifts the whole cycle, which makes previously buried cards available on the next pass. This is a genuine tactical resource:

• If a card you need is inaccessible, play any waste card at all to change the alignment.
• Count the stock: with 24 cards and three-card draws, each pass shows eight cards unless the alignment shifts.

When to take cards back off the foundation

If a foundation card can unblock a pile — typically a low card that lets you move a run and expose a face-down card — take it back. The foundation is not a one-way door unless the rules you are playing say so.

Level 3 — Advanced: playing the deal, not the move

Identify dead deals early

Strong players recognise within a couple of passes that a deal is lost — typically when several aces sit under long face-down stacks with no way to reach them. Recognising it early saves time and, in scored play, saves points. It is a real skill, not defeatism.

Count what is left

Keep track of:

• Where the aces and twos are. The entire game depends on reaching them.
• How many face-down cards remain in each pile. The pile with one hidden card is cheap progress; the pile with six is a project.
• Which cards are stuck in the stock under a draw-three alignment.

Work the expensive pile first

Counter-intuitively, the pile with the most face-down cards usually deserves attention early, while you still have flexibility. Leaving it until the end means needing exactly the right cards at the moment you have fewest options.

Delay irreversible moves

Every move that cannot be undone — filling an empty pile, sending a middle card home, committing a run — reduces your options. Where two lines look equal, take the one that keeps more possibilities open. This single habit is most of what separates an 80% thoughtful-play win rate from an ordinary one.

Play the version you want to beat

Draw-one with unlimited passes is a game of technique: most deals are winnable and losing usually means you made a mistake. Draw-three with three passes is a game of judgement: many deals are dead and the skill is in extracting the winnable ones. They reward genuinely different play.

The habits that lose winnable deals

1. Sending cards to the foundations automatically. The number one cause of lost deals.
2. Emptying a pile with no king to fill it.
3. Moving a run without looking at what is under it.
4. Ignoring the stock cycle in draw-three.
5. Leaving the deepest pile until last.
6. Refusing to take cards back from the foundation when the rules allow it.

Common questions