How to Play Kings in the Corner

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

Kings in the Corner is a card game for two to four players built on a simple but satisfying structure: a shared tableau, alternating-colour sequences, and the constant pressure of a hand that must shrink before your opponents' hands do. It plays quickly, the rules are easy to teach, and a single round rarely outstays its welcome.

The game is popular as a family kitchen-table game precisely because it rewards both luck and a little planning without demanding deep concentration. It is commonly played at home with a standard deck, needs no special equipment, and is comfortable at a range of ages from around six upwards.

A little history

The origins of Kings in the Corner are not clearly documented. It is traditionally described as an American family card game that became widely popular during the twentieth century, and it shares obvious structural roots with Solitaire variants, particularly Klondike, adapted for multiple players. Beyond that common-sense lineage, the record is thin and a precise origin cannot be confirmed.

Setting up

1. Shuffle the deck thoroughly.
2. Deal seven cards face down to each player. Players look at their own cards and keep them hidden from others.
3. Place the remaining cards face down in the centre of the table as the stock pile.
4. Turn the top four cards of the stock face up and place one on each side of the stock pile: north, south, east, and west. These are the starting foundation piles.
5. Leave the four corner positions (north-east, north-west, south-east, south-west) empty. These are the corner spaces, reserved for Kings.
6. The player to the left of the dealer takes the first turn.

How to play

1. 1. The player to the left of the dealer goes first, then play passes clockwise.
2. 2. At the start of your turn, draw one card from the stock pile. You must draw before doing anything else.
3. 3. You may now make as many valid plays as you wish, in any order, before ending your turn.
4. 4. You may play a card from your hand onto any active foundation pile if it is one rank lower and of the opposite colour to the top card. For example, a black 6 may be played onto a red 7.
5. 5. You may play a King from your hand into any vacant corner position. This opens a new foundation pile that other players may also build on.
6. 6. You may move an entire foundation pile onto another foundation pile, provided the bottom card of the moving pile would validly play onto the top card of the receiving pile. This can free up corner spaces.
7. 7. You may play any single card from your hand onto an empty non-corner foundation space that has been cleared during play.
8. 8. You may not play onto a corner pile unless it has been started by a King.
9. 9. When you have no more plays you wish to make, or can make, your turn ends and play passes to the left.
10. 10. If the stock is exhausted, players continue playing from their hands only until the round ends.
11. 11. A round ends the moment any player plays their last card. Scoring then takes place.

Winning and scoring

The player who plays all the cards from their hand first wins the round and scores zero points for that round. All other players count the cards remaining in their hands: each card scores one point against them, except Kings which score ten points each. Running totals are kept across rounds. Agree a target score before play begins; a common target is twenty-five points. The player whose cumulative score stays below the target the longest, or who has the lowest total when another player reaches or exceeds the target, wins the game overall.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns moving piles: a player may only move an entire pile as a unit, never split a pile partway up. If a player inadvertently moves only part of a pile, the cards should be returned to their original positions and the player replays the turn correctly. A second frequent point of confusion is the corner rule: a corner space can only be filled by a King played directly from a player's hand, not by moving an existing pile into a corner, even if that pile's bottom card happens to be a King. Standard practice holds that if a player forgets to draw at the start of their turn and makes plays first, they must draw before their turn can officially close, but any plays already made stand.

When the stock runs out mid-round, play continues without drawing. A player whose turn arrives simply proceeds straight to the play phase. Some groups house-rule that the discard cards from completed piles can be reshuffled into a new stock, but the standard game does not include this: once the stock is gone, it is gone.

How to win more often

• Prioritise getting Kings out of your hand early. A King left at the end of a round costs ten points, so look for opportunities to play one into a corner on almost every turn.
• Use pile-moving to open corner spaces rather than waiting for them to appear naturally. Stacking one foundation pile onto another can free a corner for a King you are already holding.
• Watch your opponents' hand sizes. If someone is running low, shift from your usual play pattern and concentrate on releasing as many cards as possible rather than setting up tidy sequences.
• Do not hold back playable cards hoping for a better opportunity later. The game rewards action: a card played is a card you no longer score.
• Keep an eye on which colours and ranks are buried in the tableau. If all the red eights are already played, a black nine becomes temporarily harder to unload, and you may need to work around that.

Variations

Scoring by pip value

Instead of scoring one point per card, each card scores its face value: numbered cards score their number, Jacks score eleven, Queens score twelve, Kings score thirteen (or still ten, depending on local preference), and Aces score one. This version extends the meaningful range of penalty scores and makes a hand containing high court cards significantly more dangerous to be caught with.

Pay into the pot

Each player places an agreed number of counters or small coins into a central pot at the start of the game. At the end of each round, every player except the winner pays one counter into the pot for each card remaining in their hand, plus ten counters per King. The player who wins the game overall takes the pot. This variant adds a light staking element without requiring any special equipment.

Two-card draw

Players draw two cards from the stock at the start of their turn rather than one. This speeds up the game considerably, increases hand sizes more quickly, and places greater pressure on the shared tableau. It works particularly well with only two players, where the standard game can otherwise feel slow to resolve.

No-corner restriction lifted

In this relaxed variant, any card may be played into a corner space, not just Kings. A corner pile started by a non-King card builds in the same alternating-colour descending sequence as any other pile. This reduces the premium on Kings and suits younger or more casual players who find the standard corner rule confusing at first.

Kings in the Corner: frequently asked questions