Overview
Solitaire is a classic card game that has been around for quite a while. So many variations of the game have evolved such that the original version is now known as Solo Solitaire to create a sort of distinction between this version and the several modifications that are played all over the world. The game is played by a single player with just a standard card deck required.
Objective
The objective is to create four piles of card, one for each suit in ascending order. Each pile starts with an Ace at the bottom and ends with a King on top.
Solo Solitaire Rules
Cards are stacked in the foundation pile in ascending order, with Ace at the bottom and King at the top of the pile.
Cards are stacked face-up in the tableau piles based on colour and in descending order. The colours of the stacked cards must be alternated (a red card must be followed by a black card and vice-versa) and the cards must also be placed in descending order with King at the bottom and Ace at the top.
Number of Players Needed
1
Equipment
A single 52 card pack is needed to play Solo Solitaire.
Setting Up
The objective of the game is to create a pile for each card suit in ascending order so it is important to list the ranking of the cards.
Card Rank: K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A (In descending order)
To set up the game, there are four different types of piles in Solitaire:
- The Tableau which has 7 piles of card.
- The Foundation piles which consist of 4 piles. Each pile stands for one card suit. A foundation pile is started with an Ace.
- A draw pile.
- A discard pile.
To start the setup, the tableau is formed first. The first round of dealing involves placing seven cards horizontally on the playing surface, with the first card to the left of the player placed face-up while the remaining six cards are faced down. For the second round of dealing, the player moves to the second pile from the left and lays a card face-up on top of the single face-down card in the pile. A card is laid face-down on each of the remaining five piles to complete the second round of dealing.
The third round of dealing starts with the third pile from the left of the player. A card is placed face-up on this pile, while a card is placed face-down on each of the remaining four piles. Dealing continues in this manner until a total of 28 cards have been dealt and each of the seven piles is topped by a single face-up card.
The first pile to the left of the player will have only one card, the second pile will have two cards, the third pile will have three cards, the fourth pile will have four cards, the fifth pile will have five cards, the sixth pile will have six cards, while the pile farthest to the right of the player (the seventh pile) will have seven cards.
The remaining undealt cards become the draw pile and are placed face-down close to the tableaux. The player then checks to see if any Aces are on top of any of the seven piles of the tableau. If so, they can create a foundation pile for any of the four suits. Foundation piles can only start with an Ace. Remember that each suit is stacked in ascending order, starting with an Ace and ending with a King.
Note that at the start of the game, it is not necessary to place a card to start the discard pile which is the case for some popular card games. The discard pile here only has cards discarded by the player during the game.
How to Play Solo Solitaire
The objective of the game is to stack cards belonging to a suit in ascending order from Ace at the bottom, to King at the top. The four card suits are Hearts, Spades, Clubs, and Diamonds. For example, cards of the Hearts suit must be stacked in the foundation pile starting with an Ace of Hearts, followed by a 2 of Hearts, a 3 of Hearts, with the last card of the stack being a King of Hearts. This must be replicated for the other three suits for the game to be won.
To achieve this objective, the player transfers the face-up cards in the tableau and builds sequences. There are two aspects to playing the game. The first is by stacking cards in the foundation piles in ascending order for each suit which is the objective of the game.
The other aspect of the game helps the player to achieve the game’s objective. This second aspect involves stacking cards in the tableau. This is done not by suit but by colour and in descending order. A red face-up card must be followed by a black face-up card and vice-versa in each of the seven piles of the tableau. The cards must also be stacked in descending order, from King at the bottom to Ace at the top.
So you can transfer a black 6 face-up card on any of the piles and place it on top of a red 7 face-up card on another pile of the tableau. Any time you transfer a card and the top card of the pile from which the card was transferred is a face-down card, you are allowed to flip the face-down card over and face it up and the card becomes activated and is now in play.
In the process of building up sequences, if an Ace turns up as the face-up card in any of the seven piles of the tableau, the Ace is immediately transferred to form a foundation pile. The player continues to make moves with the top cards of tableau piles, transferring them either to the foundation piles or between piles of the tableau.
A player can draw a card from the draw pile if the need arises. A card drawn from the draw pile can be played directly on any of the foundation piles if it continues the sequence or it can be played on the tableau piles. The card can also be discarded straight away on the discard pile if it cannot be played on the tableau piles or the foundation rows. The player then draws another card from the draw pile.
If space opens up in the tableau (one of the piles becomes depleted) as a result of transferring the cards elsewhere, only kings can fill the space. Moving a king to fill a space in the tableau could unlock a face-down card in another pile of the tableau.
The player continues to transfer cards, build sequences and draw cards from the draw pile as described above.
Winning the Game
To win a game of Solo Solitaire, the player must complete card sequences in ascending order for all four card suits in the foundation piles. Once all four suits are stacked completely in the foundation piles, the game ends.