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How to Play Klondike Solitaire with a Deck of Cards by Yourself

Set up seven tableau columns, move cards in descending alternating colors, and build each suit from ace to king to play Klondike Solitaire alone.
Length3 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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To play Solitaire by yourself with a physical deck, use the familiar seven-column game called Klondike Solitaire. You need one standard 52-card deck: deal seven tableau columns, then move cards in descending order and alternating colors while building four suit foundations from ace to king. The rules below use a three-card stock draw, as described by Bicycle Cards’ Klondike rules.

What you need to play Solitaire alone

Use one standard 52-card deck with the jokers removed. You do not need a board or other accessories. Klondike is one game in the broader Solitaire family, so these instructions cover this particular version rather than every one-player card game. Bicycle Cards also provides a general overview of Solitaire.

How to set up Klondike Solitaire

  1. Shuffle the deck.
  2. Deal seven piles from left to right. Put one card in the first pile, two in the second, and continue adding one card per pile until the seventh pile has seven cards. This uses 28 cards.
  3. Keep the cards face down as you deal, then turn face up only the top card of each pile. These seven piles are the tableau.
  4. Place the remaining 24 cards face down as the stock. Leave space beside it for a waste pile, where drawn cards go if you cannot play them.
  5. Leave room for four foundations, one for each suit. They begin empty.

How to move cards

Build the tableau in descending order

In the tableau, place a card on a card that is one rank higher and the opposite color. For example, put a black five on a red six. A valid face-up sequence can be moved together as a run. When you move cards away and expose a face-down card at the top of a column, turn that card face up.

Build the foundations by suit

Move an ace to start a foundation. Add cards of the same suit in ascending order: ace, two, three, and onward through king. Each foundation is built separately for one suit.

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Fill an empty tableau column

Under these rules, only a king can be moved into an empty tableau column. A king may be moved alone or as the start of a valid descending, alternating-color run.

How to use the stock and waste

When no useful tableau move is available, draw from the stock in groups of three. The top card of the drawn group is available to play: move it to the tableau if it fits, or to a foundation if it is the next card of that suit. If you cannot use it, leave the drawn cards face up on the waste pile and draw the next group. Continue checking the exposed waste card for legal moves.

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How to win Klondike Solitaire

You win when all cards have been moved to the four foundations, with each suit built from ace through king. If no legal moves remain and the stock and waste offer no playable card, the game has stalled; shuffle and deal again if you want another round.

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Solitaire rules can vary

Klondike rules are not universal across every Solitaire game, and players may use house rules for stock draws or recycling the waste. This guide follows the three-card draw in Bicycle Cards’ Klondike instructions. Drawing one card at a time is a variant, not the draw method used here; it makes each stock card accessible in turn rather than exposing only the top card of a three-card group. Bicycle Cards’ cited rules do not establish a universal limit for recycling the waste into the stock, so agree on that rule before playing if it matters to your game.

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