Solitaire Strategy
Solitaire is one of the most popular if not the most popular card games out there. It is simple to learn, easy to play and super addictive because of it’s simplicity.
Ironically, it is not a new game. If you want to dazzle your friends with a neat little fact: the term Klondike as a game surfaces somewhere in the latter part of 1900s, and historians suggest that it evolved from miners in the Alaskan and Californian mountains to pass the time.
Klondike Solitaire. As previously mentioned Klondike is largely luck based. There are simple solitaire strategies that can be used in many different games to really improve your play! This first one, which I call “building under”, can be applied to any solitaire game where empty tableau piles can be filled with any card, and ordered stacks can be moved. Here is an example from one of our newest games, Topsy. Top 8 Solitaire Tips and Tricks. Even if at first sight solitaire might seem like a simple game where there is very little you can do in order to improve your chances of winning, there is always a handful of strategies that should allow you to increase your chances of winning. This page offers a few general tips and strategies to help you complete and win the game of freecell solitaire. 1) You need to think ahead when you play freecell. Plan multiple moves in advance. Winning at Klondike. Brought to you by Semicolon Software, makers of Solitaire Till Dawn. Before you start The Strategy Okay, before we're sued for false advertising let's admit up front that Klondike is a game where even the best strategy isn't going to help much.
However, since computers entered each and every household, classroom and office you don’t even need a deck of cards to play, and even if traditionally Solitaire is a single player game, nowadays you can even play with your friends or online with people all around the globe.
Solitaire Arena is a Facebook game that let’s you enjoy Solitaire with your friends or test your skills against other players like you all over the globe.
How To Play Solitaire?
This is not a difficult game to learn, but what’s good is that though you will get the hang of it quickly, its difficult to beat in an addictive way. Its not frustrating, but fun and invigorating.
One of the things you must learn is how the cards are laid out. Click here to log into Solitaire Arena. Once your game begins, your cards will automatically be shuffled and laid out for you:
You have 7 rows of cards, some facing up and some facing bottom and a stack of 24 cards in the top left corner which you will play with.
Now What?
What you have to try and do is place all the cards on the four different aces. These will appear whenever they do as you draw from your 24 card deck and you have to try and create the four suited sequence from the ace to the king.
The moment you see and ace, place it on the side and start adding the next card (eg: After an ace, place a two and then a three, after that a four and so forth).
Note that each suit must be according to color and type. By this I mean that the ace of diamond gets only diamonds, the ace of spades gets only spade cards and so on.
Likewise, you can create card sequences down on the base cards as well by placing the card lower than it of the opposite color. For instance, under a six of clubs, you can place either a five of diamonds or a five of hearts, but the five of clubs or the five of spades is out of the question.
Opening the Cards Facing Down
When you can use the cards facing up, then you can open the card that appears under it. And like in regular Solitaire, when you manage to open a base card and have only six or less bases, you can open a new base by placing a King there.
Moving Sequences
You can also move card sequences from one base to another and this doesn’t depend on the length of the sequence. All that matters is that the rules of sequence are kept.
To use the cards in your 24 card deck, take the top card and turn it over. Only if and when you use that card, you can use the next one under it. Continue revealing cards. Once done, pick up all the cards and start again.
Brought to you by SemicolonSoftware, makers of Solitaire TillDawn.
Okay, before we're sued for false advertising let's admit upfront that Klondike is a game where even the best strategy isn'tgoing to help much. Wins are rare no matter what you do; and evenwith casino scoring, you're going to lose money. But you can improveyour scores, and since Klondike is easily the most popular solitaire(in the United States, if not the world) we think it's worthyof study.
In this article we'll primarily be studying the 'casino'version of Klondike, the toughest variety there is. That's thegame you can expect to lose, both on average and on almost everygame. But the techniques are applicable to other variations, andwe'll add a few tips for the easier varieties before we're done.The 'familiar' variant included in Solitaire Till Dawnis tough enough that you'll still lose most games; but you canwin many more than the 'strict' variant, and with casinoscoring you can actually show a profit.
Before you start
You'll need a copy of the sample game; click hereto download it. You'll also need SolitaireTill Dawn to play the sample game; click hereto download it. Make sure you have version 2.1 or later becauseearlier versions don't have a move counter. The latest releaseis version 3.0. The upgrade is free to registered owners of anyearlier version.
If you don't know how to play Klondike, see the Rulesfor Klondike before going any further. If you don't know howto use the Undo and Redo commands to watch a sample game beingplayed, see Using the Sample Games.If you see a word that's unfamiliar to you, you can probably clickit to see its definition. Now you're ready to start!
The Strategy
We begin at the very start of the sample game, with the initiallayout complete and no cardsmoved yet. We're in luck: the A is availableand could be moved to the foundationsimmediately. There's never any reason to delay playing up an Ace(although we'll see that there may be reasons to delay playingother cards), but we have a habit: we always dealonce before moving any cards. That first deal shows us one morecard, and gives us a little more information to work from. Sometimesit can make a difference.
Tip 1: Deal once, immediately
The first card dealt is a 3. We could play itonto the 4, but we're in no hurry. There's a faint chancewe'll find and prefer the 3, and to preserve thatfaint hope we'll play the Ace first. That's a risk-free move,and we may find something to our advantage under the Ace.
What we find is a 4, and while it is playable we nolonger see any reason to procrastinate on the 3. A seriesof obvious moves follows, until move 7.
Tip 2: Play higher cards first
At move 7 we have a King that could be moved to an empty space,and we have two opportunities to create an empty space. Whichshall we choose? Although the difference is subtle this time,we choose to move the 5-4 rather than the 3 because the 5 is ahigher-ranking card than the3. Doing so helps preserve our ability to organize the buildsof low-ranking cards.
Tip 3: Don't mix suits(if you have a choice)
What do we mean by 'organizing the builds of low-rankingcards'? We mean that it's best if you have builds of onlySpades and Hearts, and other builds of only Clubs and Diamonds-- or the other way around: Spades with Diamonds, and Clubs withHearts. We think of it as 'braiding' the suits. Supposeyou have two builds that go from the 5 and 5down to the 2's, and that contain only Spades and Hearts. Thenwhen you get the A and A, you canbuild on them all the way up to the 5's. But if one build containsa 3 instead of a 3, you could get stuckat that 3.
How easy is it to braid your builds? Very difficult, becauseusually you don't get much choice. It's much more important tomove cards, any cards, than to obsess about keeping the suitsstraight. If you have only one black 3, and only one red 4 toplay it on, you should probably just play it without worryingabout the suits. But sometimes you get a choice, and then youshould be more careful.
How important is it to braid your builds? Not very, becauseeven if you do manage it, often it won't matter. But once in awhile, you'll find that it can save a game to be able to run sucha braid of suits up to the foundations in order to reach the cardshidden beneath them.
So, to recap: at move 7 we chose to play the 5-4 instead ofthe 3. We did this in order to delay the 'braiding'of the lower-ranked 3 until later, when we might have some choiceabout the suit we play it onto. All in all, it's a mighty slimhope, but if you want to improve your score at Klondike you haveto seek every tiny advantage -- and then play a lot of games,so that these tiny advantages have time to add up and become noticeable.
And after all that careful thought and explanation, a moveor two later another King appears, and we wind up moving the 3onto that 4 anyway. Oh, well!
Tip 4: Preserve your options
Another way to say this is 'Don't move a card until youcan gain something from it.' At move 12, the newly-revealed8 could be moved onto the 9. But wewon't do it yet. It doesn't gain us anything right now: the movewould create an empty space which is useful only if we have aKing to put in it, and we don't have a King. And delaying themove preserves an option: we may find the other black 8 in a while,and if the 9 is still free, we can choose to move either 8 ontoit.
Like our previous choices, later events may make our choicesworthless. The other black 8 may never appear; or perhaps theother red 9 will show up so that there's no shortage of destinationsfor black 8's. But sometimes, sometimes, leaving a choice openwill benefit you later on. It's worth doing.
Still if a homeless King comes along, we'll move that 8 likea shot. Placing a King in an empty pileis a pretty valuable thing to do, usually much more importantthan a little flexibility in placing 8's.
Tip 5: Reduce disorder and expose cards
At move 21, we have another interesting choice. There is anavailable red 7, and two black 6's that could be moved onto it.One is on the discard pile,one in the tableau. Whichshould we move?
This is a toughie. Every card left on the discard pile blocks the cards beneath it,and the pile can get quite full. (Remember, we're playing 'casino'or 'strict' Klondike, where we're not allowed to pickup the discard pile and redeal from it.) In this as in any solitaire,the more cards you have exposed, available, and ordered, the betteroff you are. A large discard pile means a lot of cards that areblocked and disordered, so playing from the discard pile is good.On the other hand, the 6 in the tableau is covering sixface-down cards. These cards are not only blocked and disordered,they are hidden: we don't even know what they are.
On the whole, we prefer to play from the tableau unless weknow there are important cards down in the discard pile. In thiscase, we remember (because we were paying attention!) that thereare only two cards under the 6 in the discard pile, and they arenot currently very important ones. So here we decide to play fromthe tableaus.
After that move, we again have no interesting choices untilmove 36, when we could play the black Queen onto the red King.We decide to procrastinate -- perhaps the other black Queen willappear later and prove more tempting.
Tip 6: Don't be greedy
At move 44, we have just played the 2 onto theAce, and we could follow it with the 3 -- butwe don't. This may seem surprising: under casino rules, everycard played to the foundations is worth $5. Why turn down easymoney?
But we might need that 3 later! The A and 2have not yet appeared. If the 2 appears in the discard pile beforewe find the Ace, the 2 could get buried. By keeping a black 3available, we have a storage space for the 2 that couldsave the entire game.
In general, you should never play any card to the foundationsunless you are guaranteed that you won't need it as a holdingplace for a lower-ranked card. The easiest way to remember thisis by a simple rule: don't play any 3's to the foundations untilall the Aces have been played. Don't play any 4's until all the2's have been played. Don't play any 5's until you have all the3's, and so on. That simple rule is too strict, and can be brokensafely in a number of different cases; but if you want an easy-to-remember,no-thought rule, that's a good one.
At move 49 the missing 2 does appear -- butwe don't move it onto the 3 that we have carefullysaved for it. There's nothing under the 2 and we have no homelessKings, so there's nothing to gain right now from moving the 2:that's Tip 4, preserve your options. We preserve the option ofplaying the 3 up to the foundations, to make money and to exposewhat's beneath it. Yet we won't play the 3 yet, becausea homeless King could still appear and then we'd want to movethe 2. That's Tip 4 again.
At move 51, we get a break: the 3 is dealt. Now we cango ahead and play up the 3, and replace it with the 3.All our options are still open, we've made a little money, andwe've found a temporary home for the 3 while wewait for the A to show up: a very useful move.
Tip 7: Strike while the iron is hot
At move 55, we deal the 4, and immediatelyplay it to the foundations. That seems to flout Tip 5 (don't begreedy). If we saved the 4 in the tableau, it might serveas a holding place for the missing 3. But of course wecan't save the 4 in the tableau, because we don'thave any red 5's to put it on. In this case, it's better to takethe money and run, because otherwise the 4 might simply get buriedin the discard pile.
At move 65, we have just played the A and 2to the foundations, and we have an opportunity to play the 3as well. This time we take it, even though the 2 still hasno other home. The reason is that we have only one homeless Kingleft (somewhere -- we haven't found it yet), and we also havean empty space to put it in when it shows up. We therefore willnever need to move the 2 to make room for a King, so wewill never need a 3 to move it onto. We can play up the 3safely.
The 4 goes up immediately afterward; since all black3's have already gone to the foundations, there is no reason forany red 4 to linger. But the 5 stays behind, incase the 4 shows up.
Tip 8: Late in the game, count cards
At this point (move 67), we have three cards left unseen andface-down in the tableau, and two left undealt in the hand.This is a pretty even distribution, and doesn't help us much.But in some games you'll find that you have two in the hand andsix in the tableau, or the other way around. From this you canmake some shrewd bets: that last Ace I need is probably in thediscard, or probably in the tableau. And with that informationyou can start bending the usual rules. Perhaps you shouldn't normallyplay that 3 up to the foundations, but that last Ace is probablyunder it, so you'd better go ahead.
This sample game doesn't illustrate the point, so we've hadto get a bit hypothetical. Sorry about that, but Klondike is hardenough to win without waiting for a game that will perfectly illustrateevery tip!
Tip 9: Very late in the game, go for the gold
And here's another tip that's unnecessary in the sample game:when there are only a couple of cards left in the hand, it's usuallybetter to play cards to the foundations than to continue to makenice builds. With only a couple of cards left to play, the chancesof getting a nice build that will enable further play may be veryslim. Time to grab every $5 bill you can reach.
But in our sample game, there's no need for tips 8 and 9. Atmove 68 we deal the A, and from there on out we haveno troubles at all. At move 82 the last card is revealed (we mighthave done it sooner, actually) and we have a guaranteed win.
Summary
We've seen nine tips for success at Klondike. Here they areagain:
Deal once, immediately -- Every revealed cardis a strength, giving you more information on which to base yourchoices. It never hurts and sometimes helps for your first moveto be to deal.
Play higher cards first -- It's more importantto organize your lower-ranked cards than your higher-ranked ones,because the lower ones block the higher ones. Playing the highercards first may give you more options for organizing the lowercards later on.
Don't mix suits -- It's best to 'braid'your builds in paired suits, because then you can send entirebuilds to the foundations together if you have to. But give thistip a low priority, and follow it only when you actually havea choice of suits.
Preserve your options -- Don't make a playunless there's an immediate benefit to doing so. Later on youmight find that you'd prefer a different play.
Reduce disorder and expose cards -- Good advicein all solitaires. Expose and make available as many cards asyou can, and minimize the number of cards that aren't in neat,orderly builds.
Don't be greedy -- Don't play a card to thefoundations if it still has a potential use in the tableaus.
Strike while the iron is hot -- But if a cardappears in the discard that can be played to the foundations,and can't be played to the tableaus, go ahead and playit up.
Solitaire Strategy Tips
Late in the game, count cards -- Countingcards can sometimes give you a strong hint on where to find themissing cards you need. Late in a game where this is true, ignorethe other tips and do what you need to do to expose those cards.
Very late in the game, go for the gold --When you're sure you have only another card or two to play, givein to your greed. You probably won't get much more useful buildingdone, and so you'll be better off just playing up every card youcan. This tip is useful for improving your score in a game youexpect to lose.
Tips for easier varieties of Klondike
We've been studying strict or 'casino' Klondike,where you deal one card at a time and are allowed no redeals;and where a red 3 on a black 4 can't be picked up and moved ontothe other black 4. Many people prefer an easier-going variation,in which such cards can be moved, or in which the deal is threecards at a time, and the discard can be picked up and turned backinto the hand whenever the hand is emptied. The strategy is differentfor such variants. Here are some useful tips for them:
Don't worry about braiding if your rules allowyou to move that red 3 back and forth between the two black 4's.Instead, look vigorously for chances to do exactly that. You maybe able to play the 4 to the foundations even thoughyou can't yet play the 4.
Prefer tableau plays to discard plays -- Ifyou have a choice between playing a card from the tableau or onefrom the discard, you're probably better off choosing the tableau.Remember, you'll get many more chances to play discarded cardsbecause you can pick up the discard pile and deal from it overand over.
Don't play three in a row from the discard pile-- It's important to see different cards every time you deal outthe hand. If you deal a packet of three cards and play only oneof those cards, then the next time you deal past that point you'llsee different cards. But if you play all three, the next timethrough the only difference you'll see is that one packet of threecards is missing; all the other exposed cards will be the same.That can easily leave you stuck. It's usually better to skip playinga card, even a valuable one, rather than play three in a row.
Play first from the end of the hand -- Eachtime you pick up the discard pile to begin dealing anew, dealonce all the way through the hand without playing anything. Noticewhich cards can be played, and remember what the last playablecard was. Then pick up the discard pile and deal again; this timeignore all playable cards except the last one that you noticed.That way all the earlier playable cards will still be there onthe next deal, ready to be played. This kind of careful, miserlydealing will get the most out of the cards in the hand.
Solitaire Strategy 3 Card Draw
All right, you've read the tips, studied the sample game, andyou're ready to take on Klondike -- congratulations! But don'tget your hopes too high. We find that by using these techniquesfor strict or 'casino' Klondike we can win about threetimes as many games as we can when we just play every playablecard without thinking about it. But (brace yourself) that meansthat instead of winning about one game in a hundred, we win aboutthree games in a hundred. Instead of losing almost $11 per gameon average, we lose a little more than $6. These tips won't turnyou into a Klondike wizard -- but they'll help.
If you have any new tips for our collection, please writeto us! We'll add your tips to this page and sign your nameto them.
Copyright 1996, 1997, 2000 by Semicolon Software.All rights reserved.