How to Play Patience (Solitaire)

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

Patience is a single-player card game played with a standard 52-card deck. The player arranges cards across a tableau according to fixed rules, working to release all four suits onto foundation piles in sequence from Ace to King. The game demands both methodical thinking and a measure of luck, since the initial shuffle determines whether a winning layout is even possible.

Its appeal is immediate and enduring: a game takes between ten and thirty minutes, needs nothing more than a flat surface and a deck of cards, and can be abandoned and restarted without ceremony. It is played at kitchen tables, on long journeys, and, in its digital forms, on screens worldwide. The rules below describe Klondike, the version universally understood as standard Patience in the UK.

A little history

The origins of Patience are unclear. Card games of this type appear in northern European sources from the late eighteenth century, and the name "Patience" is well established in French and German literature of that period. The game became widely popular in Britain during the nineteenth century. The particular layout now known as Klondike is traditionally associated with the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, though firm documentary evidence for that connection is thin. By the twentieth century Patience had become the most widely played single-player card game in the English-speaking world.

Setting up

1. Shuffle the deck thoroughly.
2. Deal seven columns of cards left to right: one card in column 1, two in column 2, three in column 3, and so on up to seven cards in column 7. Only the top card of each column is face up; all others are face down. This section of the table is called the tableau.
3. Place the remaining 24 cards face down in a single pile above and to the left of the tableau. This is the stock.
4. Leave four empty spaces above the tableau to the right of the stock. These will become the foundation piles, one per suit.
5. The game is now ready to play.

How to play

1. On your turn you may make as many moves as you wish in any order before drawing from the stock.
2. Foundations: whenever an Ace is available, move it to an empty foundation space. Build each foundation upward in suit sequence: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King. You may only add the next card in sequence to a foundation.
3. Tableau moves: you may move a face-up card (or an ordered sequence of face-up cards) from the top of one column onto another column. The card or sequence you are moving must be placed on a card of opposite colour and the next rank higher. For example, a red 6 may be placed on a black 7.
4. Only a King (or a sequence headed by a King) may be placed into an empty column created by removing all cards from that column.
5. Whenever a face-down card is left as the top card of a column after you move the card above it, turn that face-down card face up. It is now available for play.
6. Drawing from the stock: when you choose to draw, take cards from the top of the stock. The standard draw-one rule means you turn over one card at a time; the draw-three rule means you turn over three at a time but may only play the top card of those three. The turned cards form a face-up waste pile.
7. The top card of the waste pile is always available to move to the tableau or a foundation.
8. When the stock is empty, pick up the waste pile, turn it over without shuffling, and it becomes the new stock. You may do this as many times as you wish under the unlimited-pass rule, or only once under the strict single-pass rule.
9. Continue making tableau moves and drawing from the stock until all cards are on the foundations (you win), no further moves are possible (the game is lost), or you judge the position unwinnable and choose to restart.

Winning and scoring

You win when all 52 cards have been moved to the four foundation piles, each complete from Ace up to King in its suit. There is no partial score in the traditional game. In timed or scored variants sometimes used for competition, a point is awarded for each card successfully placed on a foundation, giving a maximum score of 52.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns redeal limits. The standard casual rule allows unlimited passes through the stock; the stricter rule allows only one pass. Agree on the rule before you start, as it dramatically affects both the difficulty of the game and the likelihood of winning. Under draw-three with a single pass, a large proportion of deals are unwinnable; under draw-one with unlimited passes, most deals can be completed if played carefully.

A second common question is whether you must move a card to a foundation as soon as it is available. The answer is no: you are never obliged to move a card to a foundation. It is often better to keep lower cards in the tableau to help build sequences. Similarly, you are never obliged to fill an empty column with a King if no useful King is available. Both decisions are entirely at the player's discretion.

How to win more often

• Prioritise uncovering face-down cards over moving cards to the foundations early on. The more face-down cards you flip, the more options you open up.
• Think carefully before filling an empty column. An empty column is a powerful resource. Only fill it with a King that is heading a long, useful sequence.
• Do not automatically play a card to the foundation the moment it becomes available. A low card left in the tableau can be useful for building sequences; moving it too early can block plays.
• When you have a choice of which card to move onto a tableau pile, prefer the move that uncovers a face-down card over one that does not.
• Under the draw-three rule, count the cards in the stock before you run through it. Knowing which card will land on top after a full pass lets you plan which moves to make before drawing, so the card you need appears when you want it.

Variations

Draw Three

Instead of turning one card at a time from the stock, you turn three. Only the top card of the three is available to play. This is considered the traditional rule in many households and significantly increases difficulty, as a large proportion of the stock is often inaccessible on any given pass.

Single Pass (Vegas Rules)

You are permitted only one pass through the stock. Once the stock is exhausted it is not turned over. Combined with draw-three, this is the most demanding common form of the game and is the basis of scored competitive play, where you "buy" the deck and score points per card reaching the foundations.

Spider Patience

Spider uses two standard 52-card decks and ten tableau columns. The aim is to build complete suit sequences from King down to Ace within the tableau, then remove them. It is played without foundations until a sequence is complete. Spider is widely regarded as the most challenging mainstream Patience variant.

Freecell

All 52 cards are dealt face up across eight columns, with four extra "free cells" that can each hold one card temporarily. There is no stock. Nearly all Freecell deals are theoretically winnable, which makes it a game of skill far more than luck. Cards are built onto tableau columns in descending rank and alternating colour, and moved to foundations in ascending suit order from Ace to King.

Patience (Solitaire): frequently asked questions