How to Set Up and Play Solitaire – Rules for Solitaire

Solitaire is a popular game. The reason for its popularity is that it is played by one person only. So, no need to depend on anyone for fun and a good pastime

Imporatnt Information for the Game

What are the requirements to Play Solitaire?

A 52 cards standard deck is required to play the game. Remove wild cards(Jokers) from the Deck.

What is the Ranking Order of cards in Solitaire?

The ranking order of the cards in solitaire from Lowest to Highest: Ace (A), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K).

How to Set Up Solitaire

• Place one card face-up on the table.
• After that place 6 cards side by side, face-down next to the first card.
• Afterward, place one card face-up slightly lower on the first face-down card and place one card face-down slightly lower on each of the remaining face-down cards.
• Repeat the above step until the last pile has a face-up card.

• Place remaining cards on top of these 7 piles in the left corner. It is called the “Stock Pile”.
• Four “Foundation Piles” will be created during the game in the right corner.
• Also, one “Waste Pile” will be created on the right side of the stockpile during the game.
• After the complete Set-Up, the table should look like this:-

• Pile with the Blue rectangle is “Stock Pile”.
• Pile with the Green rectangle is “Waste Pile”. The waste pile has no cards at the beginning of the game.
• Four blank spaces for Piles with the Yellow Rectangle are for 4 “Foundation Piles”.
• Seven Piles at the bottom combined are called “Tableau”.

What is the main object of Solitaire?

The main object of Solitaire is to create 4 Foundation Piles, one for each suit in a sequence starting from Ace(A) and ending with King(K). In the end, King(K) of each suit should be on the top of the foundation pile of that suit.

How to Play Solitaire

Solitaire is all about moving and transferring cards from one pile to another by following certain rules. In the end, the objective should be achieved.

Rules for moving and transferring cards are mentioned below:

Rules for Moving Cards with in Tableau Area:

• Cards can also be transferred from one pile to another within tableau area.
• Only top cards of each pile are allowed to be transferred. All cards below the top card are locked from transferring.
• After transferring the top card from a pile, the second card becomes the top card. Thus, it is allowed to be transferred.
• If the top card of any pile is face-down then make that card face-up.
• While transferring a card to another pile, the top card of that pile and the card to be transferred should be of different colors.
• The card being transferred should be of one rank lower than the top card of the pile where it is being transferred. Example: In image-2, We can place either 8 of spades or 8 of clubs on top of 9 of diamonds.
• In the Tableau area, while moving the cards, if a blank space is created, it can be filled by moving King(K) to that blank space. The player can move King(K) from any pile in the Tableau area to that space to unlock the card which is below the King(K).

Rules for Drawing a card from the Stockpile:

• During the game, at any point, the player can draw a card from the stockpile.
• If the drawn card can be placed on top of any pile in the Tableau area by following the above-mentioned rules and the player wishes to transfer that card to the top of the relevant pile, he can transfer the card.
• However, if the card could not be transferred by following the above-mentioned rules or the player does not want to transfer the card, he can discard it to the waste pile by placing it face-up on top of the wastepile.
• If the stockpile runs out of cards, the player can make a new stockpile by placing the wastepile face-down in the place of the stockpile. Now, the wastepile becomes the new stockpile and new wastepile will be created when the player draws and discards the card from that new stockpile
• The player can also draw the top card of the wastepile.

Rules for transferring cards to the foundation piles:

• The player can transfer the cards to the Foundation Piles during the game.
• A foundation pile must be in a sequence starting from Ace(A) and ending with King(K). Also, all the cards in the sequence should be of the same suit. It means one pile for each suit.
• While transferring the cards to the Foundation pile, the sequence of the foundation file should not break.

When all the Foundation Piles completes the sequence, The game comes to the end and you win the game.

Solitaire can be played by following any of the Two Approaches

(A) From the beginning of the game, the player transfers as many cards as he can to the Foundation Piles and wins the game by completing the sequences.

(B) Focus to create 4 sequences starting from the kings of each suit in the Tableau area. As soon as all the cards become unlocked and all cards of the stockpile are used to form the sequences, start transferring them to the Foundation Piles.

Here is a video guide on How to Play Solitaire

There are also some variations available of this game like Freecell Solitaire, Pyramid Solitaire, and Wish Solitaire. Check out them by clicking on the names.

Play and have fun. Thank you for visiting.