The study
Every patience game is built from the same few pieces. Learn the words once and any rulebook makes sense.
Guides
- Reading a deal before your first moveWhat to look at before you touch a card.
- Empty columns and free cellsThe most valuable space on the table, and how to spend it.
- Which patience to playThe seven games compared, with the solver's results.
The words of patience
- Column
- A pile on the table where cards are built, usually overlapping so you can see them. Also called the tableau.
- Foundation
- A pile where a suit is collected, usually from Ace up to King. Filling all the foundations wins most games.
- Stock
- The face-down cards not yet in play. Tapping the stock turns or deals new cards.
- Waste
- The face-up pile next to the stock. Its top card can be played.
- Pass
- One trip through the whole stock. Some games allow unlimited passes, Forty Thieves only one.
- Free cell
- A space that holds one card of any kind, as in FreeCell.
- Reserve
- A pile of cards dealt aside at the start, as in Canfield. Its top card is available.
- Building down
- Placing a card on the next higher card: a 6 on a 7.
- Alternating colours
- Red on black and black on red, as in Klondike and FreeCell.
- In suit
- Building with cards of the same suit only, as in Forty Thieves and Scorpion.
- Run
- A sequence of cards in order in one column. Some games let a run move as one unit.
- Base rank
- The rank every foundation starts from in Canfield, set by the first card dealt.
Rules of each game
- How to play Klondike The patience most people mean: seven columns, a stock, and twenty-one cards to uncover.
- How to play FreeCell Every card face up from the first moment, four free cells, and almost every deal can be won.
- How to play Yukon No stock at all. Move any face-up card with everything on top of it.
- How to play Forty Thieves Two packs, one card at a time, a single pass through the stock. The stern one.
- How to play Canfield A reserve of thirteen cards and foundations that start wherever the first card says.
- How to play Scorpion Same-suit building, Kings to empty columns, and loose groups that move together.
- How to play Spider Two packs in ten columns. Build runs of one suit from King down to Ace.