How to Play Clock Patience

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Clock Patience is a single-player card game played with a standard 52-card deck. Cards are arranged in 13 piles to mimic a clock face, with one pile at each hour position and a thirteenth pile in the centre. Play is entirely mechanical: there are no decisions to make, so the outcome is determined purely by how the deck was shuffled. That simplicity is precisely the appeal.

Because a game takes only a few minutes and needs nothing more than a flat surface and a pack of cards, Clock Patience is a perennial favourite on kitchen tables, in hospital waiting rooms, and on long journeys. The suspense builds naturally as the four Kings inch towards being revealed, and the rare win feels genuinely satisfying.

A little history

Clock Patience is widely documented in 19th-century card-game anthologies under various names including Hidden Cards and Sun Dial. Its origins are unclear and no single inventor is recorded. The clock-face arrangement appears consistently across British and European sources from at least the 1880s, suggesting it became standardised relatively early, but earlier forms may have existed under different layouts. It remains one of the most widely known patience games in the English-speaking world.

Setting up

1. Shuffle the deck thoroughly.
2. Deal the cards one at a time, face down, into 13 piles. Place 12 piles in a circle corresponding to the 1-through-12 positions on a clock face. Place the 13th pile in the centre to represent the King position.
3. Each pile receives exactly 4 cards, so all 52 cards are used.
4. Do not look at any card during the deal.

How to play

1. Take the top card from the centre (King) pile and turn it face up.
2. Slide that card face up under the pile that matches its rank: Ace goes under the 1 o'clock pile, 2 under the 2 o'clock pile, and so on up to Queen under the 12 o'clock pile. Kings go face up under the centre pile.
3. Take the top card from the pile you just added to, turn it face up, and place it under the pile matching its rank in the same way.
4. Continue in this fashion, always taking the top card from the pile you most recently completed, turning it face up, and sending it to its matching position.
5. When all four cards of a rank are face up, that pile is complete and you will no longer need to draw from it (it has no face-down cards remaining).
6. Play continues until either all 48 non-King cards are face up (you win) or the fourth King is turned face up (you lose, because there is no legal pile to send it to and the game cannot continue).

Winning and scoring

You win if all 52 cards are face up before the fourth King is revealed. Because the fourth King turning up ends the game immediately, the only winning condition is completing every other rank first. Statistically, you win roughly 1 in 13 deals, approximately 7.7% of the time, making a successful game a genuine event worth marking.

The fine points

The most common point of confusion is what counts as the centre pile. The centre represents Kings specifically: when a King is drawn, it goes face up under the centre pile regardless of which pile it was drawn from. If the fourth King comes from any pile other than the centre, the game ends immediately at that moment, even if other piles still have face-down cards beneath them. There is no reprieve or continuation.

A second dispute arises over reshuffling during the deal. The standard ruling is that once the deal begins, no reshuffle is permitted, and the layout must be completed exactly as dealt. Some players allow themselves one look at the bottom card of each pile before play starts; this is a recognised variation but is not standard play, and any house rule should be agreed before the deal.

How to win more often

• There is no true strategy in Clock Patience: the result is fixed the moment the deck is shuffled. Accepting this removes frustration and lets you enjoy the game as pure suspense.
• Shuffle thoroughly and randomly. A poor shuffle, such as only one riffle, can create clusters that make the result predictable early, which reduces the entertainment.
• Keep your piles tidy and evenly spaced. Sloppy piles lead to accidentally revealing a card or losing track of which pile you last added to, both of which can invalidate a game.
• If you are playing repeatedly, track your wins over a session. Over 13 games you should expect roughly one win; this gives you a personal benchmark against the true odds.

Variations

Cheating Clock (Peek Variation)

Before play begins, each player is allowed to look at the bottom card of every pile. No cards are moved or rearranged; it is purely an information-gathering step. This does not change the outcome but creates an extra layer of suspense as you watch specific cards work their way to the top.

Three-Deck Clock

Use three shuffled decks combined (156 cards). Deal into 13 piles of 12 cards each and play by the same rules, with a pile completing only when all 12 cards of its rank are face up. The game takes considerably longer and wins are far rarer, making it a more demanding version for experienced players.

Competitive Clock (Two Players)

Each player deals their own separate clock layout from their own deck, and both begin simultaneously. The first player to win a game outright wins the match. If neither player wins, the player who completes the most rank piles before their fourth King appears is the winner. This turns a solitary game into a simple race.

Relaxed Clock (One Save)

When the fourth King is turned up, the player may set it aside once per game and draw instead from any incomplete pile of their choice. If that substitute draw allows play to continue to a win, the game counts as a success. This variant substantially increases the win rate and is popular as an introduction for younger players.

Clock Patience: frequently asked questions