Yukon takes the familiar Klondike layout and removes the stockpile, then hands you a much freer way to move cards. There is nothing to draw and nothing left to chance once the down cards are turned: the whole deal is in front of you, and the puzzle is figuring out the order to unpack it. This page is a complete reference to how Yukon is played — the deal, the objective, and the one rule that makes it distinct. If you'd rather learn by doing, you can play Yukon straight away.
What is Yukon Solitaire?
Yukon is a solitaire game played with a single standard 52-card deck and just two kinds of pile: seven tableau columns on the table and four foundations that you build up to win. There is no stock and no waste pile — every card is dealt into the columns at the start, so each move you make comes from what is already on the table. That small change has a big effect: instead of waiting on the draw, you spend the whole game rearranging what you can already see.
The deal
All 52 cards go into the seven tableau columns. The first column gets a single face-up card. Columns two through seven get 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 cards respectively. In each of those longer columns the cards at the bottom are dealt face down and the top five are turned face up. That works out to 1 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 = 52 cards, the whole deck. The four foundations start empty. Because five cards are showing on every long column from the outset, you have plenty to work with on the very first move.
The objective
You win by building all four foundations up by suit, each running from Ace to King. Each foundation takes one suit: start it with that suit's Ace, then add the Two, the Three and so on up to the King. When all four foundations hold a complete Ace-to-King suit — 13 cards each, 52 in total — the game is won.
Moving cards — Yukon's twist
On the tableau, columns are built down in alternating colours: a card lands on a column only if it is one rank lower than the top card and the opposite colour — a red Six on a black Seven, a black Four on a red Five. So far that is ordinary solitaire. Here is what makes Yukon different:
You may move any face-up card together with every card sitting on top of it — even if that group is not in sequence. Only the card you grab has to land legally. The cards riding on top of it can be in any order, any suit, any colour. This is the rule that sets Yukon apart from Klondike, where a group has to be a clean descending, alternating-colour run before you can move it.
For example, suppose a column ends in a face-up red Eight, and stacked above that Eight is a jumbled pile — say a black King, a red Two, a black Nine, in no particular order. If you have a black Nine showing at the foot of another column, you can pick up that red Eight and the whole jumble on top of it and drop the lot onto the black Nine, because the Eight is one lower and the opposite colour. The cards above it just come along for the ride. This lets you relocate big, untidy stacks to dig out the buried and face-down cards underneath — the heart of Yukon strategy.
Empty columns
When you clear a tableau column completely, it can only be filled by a King — along with whatever cards happen to be stacked on top of that King. No other card may start an empty column. Empty columns are precious for exactly this reason: they give you somewhere to park a King-led group, which in turn frees up the cards that King was blocking.
How you win
The game is won the moment every card sits on a foundation — all four suits built cleanly from Ace to King, the tableau emptied out. Each time you move the cards above a face-down card, the newly exposed card flips face up, so steady progress keeps turning over fresh material to work with. Yukon is a game of skill, not luck: with no hidden stock and everything eventually in view, strong play wins a large share of deals, and undo lets you back up and find a better line when you get stuck.
Yukon vs Klondike
Yukon and Klondike share the same tableau shape, but they play very differently. Klondike has a stock and waste pile you draw from; Yukon has neither — every card is on the table from the start. And where Klondike only lets you move a group if it is already a perfect descending, alternating-colour run, Yukon lets you move any face-up card with everything piled on top of it, in order or not. That single freedom is why Yukon feels so much more tactical: you are constantly shifting messy stacks to expose what is hiding beneath them.
Frequently asked questions
Can you really move a group of cards that is out of order in Yukon?
Yes — this is Yukon's signature rule. You may pick up any face-up card along with every card stacked on top of it and move the whole group, even if those cards are not in sequence or alternating colour. Only the card you actually grab has to land legally: one rank lower and the opposite colour of its destination. The cards riding along on top can be anything.
Is there a stock or waste pile in Yukon?
No. Every card is on the table from the start, and there is nothing left to draw. All moves are made between the seven tableau columns and the four foundations, so the whole game is open information once the down cards are turned over.
What can go on an empty column?
Only a King, together with whatever cards sit on top of it. Empty columns are valuable because a King (and its group) is the one thing that can fill them, so freeing a column lets you relocate a King-led stack and unblock the rest of the board.
Keep going
Now that you know the rules, play a hand of Yukon and put them to use. If you like the all-face-up, move-any-group style, try Scorpion next, or switch gears with a game of FreeCell. You can also browse everything in our guides hub.