As the name implies, Solitaire is a game meant to be played alone (solo). It can be played with traditional playing cards, but once it was introduced to the computer, a whole new world was opened. This was a way for new computer users to help familiarize themselves with the motions of pointing, clicking, and moving things with the mouse. Today, solitaire is readily available to play online.
The standard version uses a 52-card deck of playing cards. This standard playing card deck contains 13 ranks of each of the suits: clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades. In each suit, there are 13 cards including a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, a jack, a queen, a king and an ace.
The first objective or goal of solitaire is to release and play certain cards into position to build up each foundation. You want to “grow” the cards in sequence and in suit, from the ace to the king. Ultimately, your goal is to build the whole pack into the foundations and once you’ve matched all suits in sequence, the game is won.
Playing Solitaire from the Computer
When you play Solitaire or cribbage on the computer, the cards will be automatically shuffled for you when you begin a new game. In some versions, you can choose to re-shuffle at the start, if you do not like the original flipped cards you’ve been given.
Once you’re ready to begin, you will create four organized piles of cards, one pile per each suit. So, to begin, you need to start building the layout. Using the cards you’ve been given, you will line up in sequence, cards in ascending order. If you have a 4, for example, you can place a 3 underneath it. However, you need to use the opposite color, unless you’re in the same suit.
Using that same example, you’d put a black 3 under a red 4. You can then place the remaining cards in a separate pile. On the computer version, this is done for you, off to the right side of your screen.
Strategies to Win Solitaire
Now, what kinds of strategies can you follow if you want to win at this popular game? Let’s take a look:
- Take time to learn the rules. You can’t win when you don’t know how to play the game.
- First, expose your larger stacks first. It’s recommended that you choose columns with larger stacks behind them first as you target the hidden cards. This means you have a better chance at revealing useful cards so you can start building up your stacks.
- Keep color in mind when filling a space. Once you open a space, before you put that king it in, it’s important to put some strategy into whether or not to use a red or black king. Look at the cards you currently have revealed. Which one makes sense to help you clear the most cards?
- You don’t have to build ace stacks. You don’t need to build your ace stacks first, and it can sometimes even cause you issues if you do. Save the aces for later and build out the rest of your stacks first. Once you move cards into an ace stack, they cannot be moved again so they are essentially locked in place.
- Only move cards when there is a clear reason to. You shouldn’t move cards for no reason. While it’s tempting to shuffle the cards from time to time and building them up slowly, you can lock valuable cards behind other cards and prevent yourself from victory or take much longer to reach your victory. Only move cards when there is a clear, obvious benefit to doing so.
And finally, if you’re playing timed solitaire, you need to move quickly. You have to make decisions on the spot and in quick manner, so as to get the best time. You should be fast with moving the cards in order to get a bigger bonus at the end. Knowing these strategies in advance can help you to move faster when you’re in the heat of it all.
As you can see, there is a lot to love about solitaire and more than one way to win. Learn more about it here if you want to practice for yourself and learn to play like a pro. Enjoy!
