Klondike Solitaire

Deal seven tableau columns: one card in the first, two in the second, up through seven in the last. Only the top of each column starts face-up. The leftover 24 cards sit as the stock.

Build the tableau down in alternating colors (red on black, black on red). Build the four foundations up in suit from Ace to King. Turn the stock one card at a time onto the waste when you need a new option. Empty columns take Kings only.

• Goal: fill all four foundations Ace to King by suit.
• Tableau: build down, alternating colors. Move whole face-up runs when they stay in order.
• Stock: draw one card to the waste. When the stock is empty, recycle the waste face-down for another pass.
• Empty column: Kings only (or a King-led run).

Get every card onto the foundations. Each foundation is one suit, Ace at the bottom and King on top. Anything short of that is an unfinished deal.

1. Shuffle a standard 52-card deck. Remove jokers.
2. Deal seven piles left to right. Pile 1 gets 1 card, pile 2 gets 2, and so on through pile 7 with 7 cards (28 cards total).
3. Turn only the top card of each pile face-up.
4. Place the remaining 24 cards face-down as the stock.
5. Leave four empty foundation spaces above the tableau and a waste space beside the stock.

1. Move face-up tableau cards (or the waste top) onto other tableau piles when the move is one rank lower and the opposite color.
2. Move Aces to empty foundations, then continue that suit upward: 2, 3, … King.
3. When you clear the face-up cards from a tableau pile, flip the next face-down card.
4. Draw from the stock to the waste when you want another playable card.
5. If the stock is empty and cards remain in the waste, recycle the waste back into the stock for another pass (this version allows unlimited recycles).

In this browser version, tap a card to select it, then tap a legal destination. Tap the same card again to park it on a foundation when that move is available.

Classic Klondike is win or loss. This page tracks how many deals you finish and how many you start in this browser. Other digital clients use Microsoft-style points or Vegas stakes ($52 buy-in, $5 per foundation card); those are optional house rules, not required here.

You win when each foundation holds thirteen cards of one suit, Ace through King. If the stock and waste are exhausted and no tableau move remains, that deal is stuck. Deal again.

• Draw three: turn three stock cards at once; only the top waste card plays. Harder than draw one.
• Limited passes: allow only a few recycles through the stock, or none at all.
• Thoughtful Klondike: reveal every tableau card at the start so the deal plays like an open puzzle.
• Related solitaires such as FreeCell, Spider, and Yukon keep the foundation idea but change the tableau rules.

• Send Aces and twos up early. They rarely help on the tableau.
• Prefer moves that uncover face-down cards, especially in the longer right-hand piles.
• Hold empty columns for Kings that still have a useful queen or run ready to follow.
• Delay parking mid-rank cards on foundations if you still need them as landing spots in the tableau.
• Scan every tableau move before you draw. Stock order is fixed until you recycle.

Klondike

The seven-pile form of solitaire described on this page.

Tableau

The seven columns dealt at the start.

Foundation

The four suit piles built Ace to King. Completing them wins the deal.

Stock

The face-down reserve you turn into the waste.

Waste

Face-up cards turned from the stock; the top card is playable.

Build down / build up

Tableau builds down by alternating color. Foundations build up by suit.

Klondike shows up in print in the 1890s and takes its name from the Canadian gold rush. It became the default digital patience when Microsoft bundled it with Windows 3.0 in 1990. Office workers have been flipping that stock ever since.