Everyday Games

How to Play Yukon Solitaire

Learn Yukon Solitaire: how the deal works, how to move unordered groups of face-up cards, the Russian variant, and strategy tips for winning more games.
Play Yukon
Yukon looks like Klondike, but there is no stock and you can move any face-up card together with everything on top of it, even if those cards are out of order. That one change makes it a game of digging rather than drawing.

The deal

All 52 cards are dealt to seven columns. The first column has a single face-up card. Each of the other six has face-down cards (one in the second column, up to six in the seventh) with five face-up cards on top.
Above the columns are four foundations, one per suit. Your goal is to build each from Ace up to King.

Moving cards

  • In the columns, build down in alternating colors: a red 6 goes on a black 7.
  • You can pick up any face-up card along with every card on top of it. Only the card you pick up has to fit where it lands; the cards riding on it can be in any order.
  • Only a King, with whatever is on it, can move into an empty column.
  • When you uncover a face-down card, it turns face up.
  • Cards go to the foundations one at a time, in suit order from Ace to King.

Russian Solitaire

Choose Russian from New game for the classic harder variant. The deal and the group moves are the same, but columns build down in the same suit, so a 6 of hearts only goes on the 7 of hearts. Records are kept separately for each mode.

Controls

  • Drag a card to move it and everything on top of it.
  • Double-tap a card to send it to the best spot, with the foundations first.
  • Undo takes back your last move.
  • Once every card is face up and each column runs in order from high to low, the rest of the game plays itself.

Tips for winning

  • Face-down cards are the real obstacle. Work on the deepest columns (on the right) early.
  • Do not be afraid to move a large, messy stack just to free the card underneath it.
  • Save empty columns for a King that is sitting on top of face-down cards.
  • Get Aces and twos to the foundations quickly, but keep mid-ranked cards in play if they are needed as places to build.