Solitaire Rules: How to Play Klondike

Klondike is the game most people simply call "Solitaire." It is a one-player patience game played with a single deck, and the version that shipped with early home computers made it the most-played card game in the world. This page is a complete reference to the rules: how the cards are dealt, what you are trying to do, exactly which moves are legal, how the stock and scoring work, and how a game ends. If you would rather learn by doing, you can play a hand right away.

The setup

Klondike uses one standard 52-card deck (no Jokers). After shuffling, the cards are dealt into four areas of the table:

• The tableau — seven columns dealt left to right. The first column gets one card, the second two, the third three, and so on up to seven in the last column — 28 cards in all. In every column, only the top (last-dealt) card is face-up; all the cards beneath it are face-down.
• The foundations — four empty spaces, one for each suit. They start the game with no cards and are built up over the course of play.
• The stock — the 24 cards left over after the deal, placed face-down as a draw pile.
• The waste — an empty pile next to the stock that receives the cards you turn over from it.

The objective

You win by building all four foundations. Each foundation holds one suit and is built up in sequence, starting with the Ace: Ace, then Two, Three, and so on through Jack, Queen, and finally King. When all four foundations are complete — 13 cards each, 52 in total — the game is won.

Legal moves

On your turn you may make any move that the rules allow, in any order, for as long as legal moves exist. There are five kinds:

Building on the tableau

You build the tableau columns downward in rank and in alternating colours. A card may be placed on a tableau card that is one rank higher and the opposite colour — for example, a red Nine goes on a black Ten, and a black Queen goes on a red King. (Red suits are Hearts and Diamonds; black suits are Clubs and Spades.)

Moving runs as a unit

A sequence of face-up cards that is already in correct order (descending, alternating colour) is called a run, and you may move the whole run at once. The card at the bottom of the run still has to follow the alternating-colour rule for wherever it lands. Face-down cards can never be moved.

Filling an empty column

When a tableau column is emptied, only a King — alone, or as the top of a run led by a King — may be moved into the empty space. No other card can start a new column.

Playing to the foundations

The top card of any tableau column, or the top card of the waste, can be moved to a foundation whenever it is the next card that foundation needs (the matching suit and the next rank up). Only one card at a time may go to a foundation. You may also move a card back off a foundation onto the tableau if it helps, though this is rarely useful and costs points (see scoring).

Flipping an exposed card

Whenever a move uncovers a face-down card at the bottom of a tableau column, that card is turned face-up and becomes available to play. On CardHearth this happens automatically.

Drawing and recycling the stock

When you run out of useful tableau moves, you turn cards from the stock into the waste. In Draw 1 you turn one card at a time; in Draw 3 you turn three at a time, and only the top card of those three is immediately playable. The top of the waste is always available to play onto the tableau or a foundation.

When the stock is empty, you can recycle: the waste is turned face-down and becomes the stock again, so you can pass through the cards once more. Draw 1 allows unlimited recycles, and so does Draw 3 — though, as the scoring below shows, recycling is not free.

Scoring

CardHearth uses the standard Klondike scoring system. Points are awarded and deducted as follows:

• +10 for every card moved to a foundation.
• +5 for moving a card from the waste to a tableau column.
• +5 for flipping a face-down tableau card face-up.
• −15 for moving a card back from a foundation to the tableau.
• Recycling the waste: in Draw 1, every recycle costs −100 points. In Draw 3, the first two recycles are free; from the third recycle onward, each one costs −20. Your score never drops below zero from a recycle.

Moving a card from one tableau column to another scores nothing in itself — but if it uncovers a face-down card, you collect the +5 for the flip.

How you win — and when a game ends

You win the moment all 52 cards sit on the four foundations, each suit complete from Ace to King. Often the game reaches a point where every card is face-up and the stock and waste are empty; from there the outcome is decided, and CardHearth can auto-finish the deal for you.

A game ends without a win when no legal move remains — no card can go to a foundation, no tableau move helps, and cycling the stock turns up nothing playable. Not every Klondike deal is solvable, so a dead end is part of the game. On CardHearth you can use unlimited Undo to back out of a wrong turn, or start a fresh deal.

Common variations

Draw 1 vs Draw 3 — both playable on CardHearth — changes how many stock cards you turn at once: Draw 1 is the gentler, higher-winning game, while Draw 3 demands you plan your stock passes. The other variation you'll meet elsewhere is Vegas scoring, a money-style system in which you "buy" the deck for 52 points and earn 5 points per card sent to a foundation, aiming to finish ahead. CardHearth sticks with the standard cumulative scoring described above — but the rules of play are identical either way.

Frequently asked questions

Keep going

Now that you know the rules, the next step is playing better. Read how to win Klondike Solitaire for the habits that lift your win rate, brush up on terms in the Solitaire glossary, or just play Klondike Solitaire now. Our guides hub covers the rest of the CardHearth library.