Everyday Games

How to win at Solitaire: 10 Klondike tips

Win more games of Klondike Solitaire with ten practical tips: which cards to uncover first, when to empty a column, and how to use the stock.
Play Solitaire
Klondike is the classic Solitaire: seven columns, a stock pile and four foundations to build from Ace to King. Luck decides some deals, but good habits win far more of them. These tips work for Draw 1 and Draw 3.

Uncover face-down cards first

Every hidden card is a card you can’t plan around. When you have a choice of moves, pick the one that turns a face-down card over, and favor the columns with the most hidden cards: they’re the ones most likely to trap an Ace or a card you need.

Play Aces and Twos straight away

Aces and Twos can only go to the foundations, so there’s never a reason to hold them back. Send them up as soon as they appear.

Don’t rush other cards to the foundations

A card on a foundation can no longer hold anything in the columns. Moving a black 5 up too early can leave a red 4 with nowhere to go. As a rule, keep a card in play until the cards of the opposite color one rank lower are on their way up too.

Only empty a column when a King is ready

An empty column can only take a King (or a run starting with one). Clearing a column with no King to fill it just wastes a space. Get the King ready first, ideally one that frees something underneath it.

Choose which King to move with care

If you can move a red King or a black King into an empty column, look at what’s waiting: a black Queen is stuck without a red King, and vice versa. Pick the King whose Queen and Jack you can already see.

Make the stock work for you

  • Before turning over stock cards, make every useful move in the columns: it keeps your options open.
  • In Draw 3, only every third card is reachable on a pass. Playing a card from the draw pile shifts the order, so the next pass shows different cards.
  • Here, going back through the stock costs points: 100 in Draw 1, and 20 in Draw 3 after the first three passes. Fewer passes mean a better score.

Build evenly and keep runs flexible

Long runs in one column are hard to move if you need a card beneath them. Spread your building across columns and move runs when it uncovers something.

Use undo to learn

Undo takes back your last move, so try a line and step back if it goes nowhere. Once every card is face up and the stock is empty, the game finishes itself.