7 Different Variants Of Solitaire To Try

Solitaire is unlike many other card games in that it can be played alone. This has helped it to become hugely popular. But what many people don’t realise is that there are many different variants of solitaire. Possibly over 400 variants! Below are some of the most well-known and most popular versions of solitaire and how to play them. 

Klondike

The most classic version of solitaire is often referred to as ‘klondike’ (having been popularised during the Klondike gold rush in the late 1800s). It is played with a single deck of cards. 28 cards are dealt onto the tableau and are sorted into 7 piles. The first pile on the left contains 1 card, the second pile contains 2 cards, the third pile contains 3 cards… and so on up until the seventh pile, which contains 7 cards. The top card of each pile is face up and the others are face down. By moving cards between piles, you must sort all the cards into ascending sequences (ace to king) by suit. It is the most popular version played with physical cards because it only requires one deck. 

Spider

Spider solitaire uses two decks. In this version, 52 cards are dealt onto the tableau into 10 piles. Starting from the right, the first four piles each contain 6 cards, and the remaining six piles each contain 5 cards. The aim is to sort all the cards into sequences – traditionally in descending order from king to ace. This doesn’t have to be by suit. In the end, there should be eight complete sequences (the same amount of legs that a spider has, hence the name ‘spider solitaire’). Spider is the default version of solitaire on Windows computers and is therefore one of the most popular versions of this game played digitally. 

Freecell

In freecell, cards are arranged on the tableau much like in spider. However, only one deck is used so that all cards in play are already on the tableau (there are no remaining cards to draw the deck). Cards must be sorted by suit into four sequences in ascending order like klondike. What makes freecell really different from other versions of solitaire is the use of 4 free cells where you can temporarily place cards. There are many online sites where you can try freecell. 

Pyramid

Pyramid is so-called because the tableau consists of 28 cards arranged into a pyramid shape. The aim is to remove all the cards from the pyramid by creating pairs equal to 13 (or by removing a single king, which in this game is worth 13). Pyramid is played with a single deck of cards. The remaining cards that aren’t in the pyramid are placed in a stockpile, which you can draw from if there are no moves left to make.

Trefoil

Trefoil is a simpler version of a solitaire game called La Belle Lucie. It uses a single deck of 52 cards. In this game, the four aces are extracted from the deck and placed onto four foundation piles. The remaining 48 cards are arranged on the tableau into 16 piles of three cards. The aim is to then stack cards onto the four foundation piles by suit in ascending order using only the top card from each of the 16 tableau piles. It’s worth noting that only 40% of trefoil games are solvable. 

Yukon

Yukon is a variant of klondike in which there is no stockpile. Instead, all 52 cards in a deck are arranged on the tableau. The cards are arranged into 7 piles. From left to right, the amount of cards in each pile is like so: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11. The top five cards of each pile are face-up and the rest are face-down. Any of the face-up cards can be moved between piles. There are many sites where you can play this version of solitaire for free. 

Golf

This version of solitaire is a little more complex than variants listed above. 35 cards are arranged on the tableau into 7 piles of 5 cards. They are all face-up. You must remove all the cards on the tableau by throwing one card at a time into the waste pile. You can only use the bottom cards from each column and must play a card either one value higher or one value lower than the last card in the waste pile. If no cards can be thrown away from the tableau, you can draw a card from the stockpile and reset the sequence. You can play this game online for free on several sites.