Solitaire: Klondike, Draw One, Endless Deals 🃏

The rules

Seven tableau piles, four foundations, a stock. Build the foundations up from ace to king by suit. Build the tableau down in alternating colours. Only a king can move into an empty column. Turn cards from the stock when you're stuck.

Two rules that decide most games

1. Always uncover from the biggest pile first. Every face-down card is information you don't have. The seven-card pile hides six of them; the two-card pile hides one. When you have a choice of moves, take the one that turns over a card in the deepest pile — the payoff compounds, because the cards you reveal open further moves.

2. Don't send cards to the foundation too early. This is the counter-intuitive one. A 5 sitting in the tableau can accept a black 4, which might unlock a column. The same 5 on the foundation is inert. Send aces and twos up immediately, since nothing builds on them — but hold mid-range cards in the tableau while they're still doing work.

Two smaller ones: empty a column only if you have a king ready to fill it, since an empty column with no king is a wasted asset; and when moving a stack to expose a card, check whether the same card is available more cheaply elsewhere.

Are all deals winnable?

No. In draw-one Klondike roughly 80% of random deals are winnable by a player with perfect information — that is, if you could see every face-down card. Playing blind, as you actually do, real win rates for good players sit considerably lower, somewhere in the 40–50% range depending on how much you're willing to undo.

So losing a hand doesn't mean you played it badly. Some deals genuinely cannot be won.

About our version

Klondike with draw one — the more forgiving variant — unlimited undo, endless deals, and a running win count. No ads, no timer unless you want one.

It runs in your browser, works offline once loaded, needs no account, and costs nothing.

Questions people actually ask

Are all solitaire games winnable?
No. With draw one, around 80% of deals are theoretically winnable if you could see every hidden card, and real win rates playing blind are well below that. Some hands are simply lost from the deal.

Should I move cards to the foundation as soon as I can?
Not always. Aces and twos, yes. Mid-range cards are often more useful in the tableau, where they can accept a card of the opposite colour and unlock a column.

Which pile should I work on first?
The biggest one. Face-down cards are hidden information, and the deepest pile hides the most — uncovering there opens up more of the board than anywhere else.

Keep reading

• Casual Puzzle & Card Games: Pour, Block Fit, Solitaire 🃏 — Water sort, an 8×8 block fitter and Klondike solitaire — three games for when you want your hands busy and your brain mostly idle.
• Pour: The Water Sort Puzzle, and When to Use Your Spare Tube 🧪 — Sort the colours tube by tube. Every level is solvable, undo is unlimited, and the only real decision is when to spend your empty tube.
• All 33 Games in Go Brain: The Complete List 🧠 — Thirty-three games, one hub. Sorted by what each one actually asks of your brain — so you can find the right one for the ten minutes you have.