If you want to play solitaire, it is important to understand the game’s rules. While you are not playing against other players, there are still a few things to remember.

A Short Guide How to Play Solitaire

It doesn’t matter if you’re playing with a real deck of cards or online for free – the method and layout of classic solitaire are the same.

There are a couple of terms you’ll need to know before you begin:

• Tableau: Seven columns of cards – this is where you build the game.
• Foundation: Four piles of cards – these are the piles you are trying to build from your tableau in the ascending order, from ace to king.
• Stock: A deck of cards you can draw from if you’re stuck or need help.
• Waste: A pile of discarded cards that are no longer in play.

Your main goal when playing solitaire is to build up your foundation piles by suit, starting with the ace and ending with the king. You can move cards from the tableau to the foundation by matching them by rank and color in ascending order.

Here is the order in which sequences of cards must be built on the tableau:

• King (highest)
• Queen
• Jack
• 10
• 9
• 8
• 7
• 6
• 5
• 4
• 3
• 2
• Ace (lowest)

The cards are moved to the foundation piles in the reverse order. This way, the aces go first and then you stack up the cards on them up to the kings.

If you remove a face-up card from the tableau, you can reveal the face-down card underneath it and use it in the game. If you have an empty column and no corresponding card to fill it with, you can fill it with a king card or a stack of cards with a king at the base.

You can also stack columns within the tableau on top of each other if they follow the correct pattern (alternating colors and descending order). For example, if you have one column that ends with a red 5 card, and another that starts with a black 4 card, you can move the black 4 card (together with any lower cards connected to it) over to the red 5 card to free up space.

Aces can only be used at the bottom of columns, so you’ll want to keep these in your foundation. While playing, you should hopefully build sequences of cards in order, from ace to king, for each suit (traditionally, spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs).

The aim is to pull the cards from your tableau to your four foundation piles – if you manage to do this successfully, you will have won the game!

If you are stuck and cannot move any more cards, draw from your stockpile until you have something you can use in your tableau. If no more cards are available, the game ends, and you have lost.

What Is a Solitaire Score?

As you are playing against yourself, there isn’t really a ‘winner’ in solitaire. Instead, your score is based on how many moves you took to complete the game and the time it takes. It is fun to challenge yourself by trying to beat your own score every time.

Let’s take a look at the standard solitaire scoring system:

• Move a card from tableau to foundation: gain 10 points
• Move a card from the foundation back to tableau: lose 15 points
• Move a card from the stockpile to tableau: gain 5 points
• Turn over a tableau card: gain 5 points
• Every 10 seconds of play: lose 2 points
• Bonus points for timed games: Calculated at 700,000 divided by the number of seconds to win the game.

Rules to Set Up Solitaire

Setting your game up correctly is essential when playing solitaire. If you’re playing online this is made simple, as the software will automatically arrange the tableau and cards for you. But if you are playing with a physical deck, it’s essential you do it right.

Setting up your game of solitaire step by step

1. Shuffle the deck and remove any Jokers.
2. Lay out seven columns of cards from left to right, with one card in the first column and seven cards in the seventh column. The cards should not be piled on top of each other; they should cascade down.
3. Each column should have one more card than the one before it – with the last card always facing up and the cards below facing down. Here is how it should look:
   • Column 1: 1 card, facing up.
   • Column 2: 2 cards, bottom card facing down and top card facing up
   • Column 3: 3 cards, bottom two facing down and top card facing up
   • Column 4: 4 cards, bottom three facing down and top card facing up
   • Column 5: 5 cards, bottom four facing down and top card facing up
   • Column 6: 6 cards, bottom five facing down and top card facing up
   • Column 7: 7 cards, bottom six facing down and top card facing up
4. Place the remaining 24 cards in a pile face down, known as the stockpile.
5. The waste pile and foundation should be empty to start – these only begin to fill as you play the game.

How Many Rows Are There in Classic Solitaire?

As we now know from learning how to set up a game of classic solitaire, the tableau should have seven rows of cards. Each column should contain one more card than the one before it, with the last card always facing up.

As you work through the game, you want to create four complete foundation piles, from ace to king. This means that for each of the four suits, you will need to build up 13 cards in total – making 52 cards.