How to Play Solo Solitaire

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The classic game of cards known as Solitaire has so many different variations that the original and most recognizable variant is now referred to as Solo Solitaire. This is game that uses the “tableaux” format of seven spaces, four foundation rows, a draw pile and a discard pile.

How to Play Solo Solitaire

To begin playing in the traditional way, the player places seven cards in a horizontal line across the tableaux. The first card on the left is face up, and the remaining cards are all face down. The player now moves their dealing to the second pile from the left, laying this card face up on top of the single, face-down card and then places cards in the face-down position on the five remaining stacks. This process proceeds until 28 cards have been dealt, and each of the seven stacks is topped with a single face-up card. The stack farthest to the right will have the most cards, while the one farthest to the left has a single card.

The remaining cards become the draw pile, and are turned face down nearest the tableaux. The player can then examine their cards to see if any Aces are on the top of the stacks. If this is the case, they can begin creating foundation rows.

There are four foundation rows in any game of Solo Solitaire, and they are for each of the four suits. The first card is always the Ace, which is followed by the two and then ascends all of the way up to the King. A player can move a card on the top of any of the seven horizontal stacks along the tableaux to its rightful foundation row whenever the proper cards appear. For example, if a foundation row has been built up to the five of hearts and a six of hearts is revealed as the top card of a stack, that six can be moved over to the foundation row.

Of course, the other part of Solo Solitaire is building the seven rows of the tableaux as well. These are not developed by suit, but instead by color. Each stack must alternate between black and red cards, and must also descend from the King card and downward. For example, a stack that has a black queen can only have a red Jack laid on top of it.

Players begin to play after assessing the seven rows, making the necessary moves, and turning over the top card of the draw pile. If this cannot be used, it is turned face down to become the discard pile and the next card is turned over. As the game progresses an entire column of cards might need to be shifted from one row to another, and this is allowed as long as the color and rank rules are followed.

As rows disappear up to the foundation rows and into neighboring columns, only the Kings can be placed in the empty spaces. To win a game of Solo Solitaire, the player must use the entire draw pile and shift all seven rows up into the foundation rows above. Another great site for solitaire games is Pagat.com. This page lists all of the card games in alphabetical order, including a page specific for playing solitaire on your computer or at home.