Types of Solitaire: A Field Guide

Card game historians have catalogued hundreds of distinct patience games, and most of them are obscure for good reason. This page covers the branch this site is built around, the Klondike family, one variant at a time, with honest notes on what each one is actually like to play. Then a quick tour of the other families you'll run into.

If you just want to play the classic version, it's on the homepage. Everything below is a variation on that theme.

The Klondike family

All of these share the same skeleton: a dealt tableau with face-down cards, building down in some fashion, four foundations built up by suit from ace to king. What changes is the draw rule, the deck count, or how strict the building rules are. Small rule changes, surprisingly different games.

Klondike turn 1

The classic game with the friendliest stock rule: one card flipped at a time, so every stock card eventually becomes playable. This is the version most people picture as "solitaire" and the right entry point if any of this is new to you. Play turn 1, or read how to play first.

Klondike turn 3

Identical to turn 1 except the stock flips three cards at once and only the top one is playable. That single rule roughly triples the difficulty and adds a genuine planning layer around which cards surface on each pass. Play turn 3, or see the full comparison before choosing.

Vegas solitaire

Klondike scored like a casino table: you pay a buy-in per deal, earn a fixed amount per foundation card, and get strictly limited passes through the stock. The limited redeals are the real difficulty change; the money framing just makes losing sting properly. Play Vegas solitaire, and see the scoring guide for the exact payout math.

Double Klondike

Two full decks, nine tableau columns, eight foundations. Games run much longer than classic Klondike and feel more forgiving move to move, since duplicate cards mean a buried card isn't always a disaster. A good pick when one deck starts feeling small. Play Double Klondike.

Triple Klondike

Three decks, thirteen columns, twelve foundations, and games that can eat half an hour. It's more marathon than sprint, and honestly it's for a specific mood: when you want solitaire as a long, unhurried project rather than a quick puzzle.

Yukon solitaire

Yukon deals almost the whole deck face up into the tableau and has no stock at all. The twist: you can move any face-up card and everything piled on top of it, even if the pile isn't in sequence. All the information is visible from the start, which makes it more a pure planning puzzle than a luck ride.

Russian solitaire

Yukon with one brutal change: tableau building must be same suit instead of alternating colors. That single tightening makes it one of the hardest commonly played solitaires, with win rates a fraction of Yukon's. Recommended only once Yukon feels comfortable, and even then, brace yourself.

Easthaven solitaire

Klondike's tableau rules with a Spider-style deal: seven columns of three cards, and each stock draw deals a new card onto every column at once. Those forced deals can wreck a carefully built board, so the skill is preparing for each wave before you trigger it. Underplayed and genuinely good.

Whitehead solitaire

A gentler-looking Klondike where every card is dealt face up, but with two twists: you build down in matching color rather than alternating, and only same-suit runs move together. Any card can fill an empty column, not just kings. Full information, tighter movement. It plays chewier than it sounds.

Westcliff solitaire

Ten columns of three cards each, one pass through the stock, no redeals. Faster and lighter than Klondike, with a decent win rate, which made it a favorite in old card game collections. Think of it as Klondike's quick-coffee-break cousin.

Agnes solitaire

A Klondike relative named, by tradition, in Victorian-era game books. The base card is dealt to the foundations at the start (so foundations might build from, say, the 6s upward, wrapping around), and the stock deals in waves onto reserve piles. It's Klondike with the furniture rearranged, and the shifting base rank keeps it fresh.

Thumb and Pouch

Klondike where a card can be placed on any card one rank higher that isn't its own suit, loosening the alternating-color rule. More moves are legal, so win rates jump well above classic Klondike. A nice confidence-builder, and a good illustration of how much the color rule does to make Klondike hard.

The other big families

The Klondike family is one continent. Three others are big enough that you should know their names, even though this site doesn't currently host them.

Spider

Two decks, ten columns, and no foundations to build during play: you assemble complete king-to-ace runs of a single suit directly in the tableau, and completed runs fly off the board. The one-suit version is a relaxing shuffle; the four-suit version is one of the hardest popular solitaires in existence. Spider people are a whole subculture, and fair enough.

FreeCell

Every card dealt face up into eight columns, plus four free cells that each hold any single card. Almost every deal is winnable (the famous exception, deal #11982 from the original Microsoft numbering, is part of its lore), so FreeCell is nearly pure skill. If losing to the shuffle in Klondike annoys you philosophically, FreeCell is your answer.

Pyramid

Twenty-eight cards dealt in a pyramid shape; you remove exposed pairs that total thirteen. It barely resembles Klondike, plays fast, and scratches an arithmetic itch rather than a planning one. Good phone-queue game. The related games Golf and TriPeaks work similar territory.

How to pick your variant

A rough matching of moods to games. Learning the ropes: turn 1, with the how to play guide open. Comfortable and wanting a real test: turn 3, or Russian if you enjoy suffering with dignity. Want stakes: Vegas with cumulative bankroll on. Want a long sit: Double or Triple Klondike. Want zero luck: Yukon now, FreeCell someday. And if you want one shared deal to argue about, the daily challenge gives everyone the same board every day.

One habit worth stealing from experienced players: when a variant starts feeling stale, don't quit solitaire, switch branches. The skills transfer more than you'd expect, and coming back to classic Klondike after a Russian solitaire phase feels like taking weights off your ankles.