Overview
Solitaire references a series of card games that you can play by yourself or sometimes with another opponent using a scoring system. It is also known as “Patience” in some other parts of the world where “Solitaire” can also mean a peg and board version. There are many ways to play solitaire but the most common is known as “Klondike”

Game type: cards, solo, vs
Number of players: 1+
Suggested age: 8+

Game Pieces
Standard A-K 52 card deck.
Notepad/pen for score

Pregame Setup
In solitaire the card rankings start the sequence with ace (low) and end with king (high).

The player shuffles the deck and deals cards out into 7 piles called the “Tableau”. Start on the left and place one card face up to form the first pile, then deal the next 6 cards face down to form the next 6 piles. Place the next card face up on the second pile, and then place a face down card on the remaining 5 piles starting from the left. Continue this way until the last pile has a card face up (the 7th and right-most pile should have 6 cards face down, and 1 card facing up)

There are 4 “foundation” piles that will have no cards in them yet. These must be built up in sequence and matching suit starting with the lowest card (ace) first and building up to the highest card (king).

“the stock” or “hand” is formed with the remaining cards after the tableau is dealt. .

“the waste pile” or “talon” pile forms from the cards taken from the hand. This is the “draw pile” and represent playable cards.

Playing the Game

You must build up your foundation piles using the face up cards or cards drawn from the stack. Cards played into the stock must be played in sequence and with matching suit starting with the ace and ending with the king.

You may transfer cards between Tableau piles if they follow sequence counting down and alternating colors. For example: black jack may be placed on a red queen or a red 10 may be placed on the black jack but a black 10 cannot.

If a face down card is the top most card on a tableau pile then you must turn it face up.

When you cannot make, or do not wish to make, any further plays then you may draw from the stock pile. Draw 1 card for the easiest difficulty or up to 3 cards for a more difficult game (you can also draw 3 with the first two face down). You may play these cards normally, but you may only play the top most card in the draw pile. If you are playing with face down draws then turn the cards face up when they are the top most card on the draw pile.

If a tableau pile empties and is vacant of any other cards, then you may place a king and only a king in the empty spot, and then you may place cards on it as normal.

If you run out of plays to make then you lose the game. If you wish to further tweak the difficulty you can allow your discard to be shuffled and restocked a limited number of times.

If you wish to play against someone then you simply determine a scoring method, usually completion and time based – but both or all players play alone.

Winning the Game
You win the game if you manage to build up all 4 foundations ace to king with matching suit. You lose if you have no further plays to make and you failed to build up all 4 foundations.