Solo card games
kit

The whole deck goes face down into thirteen piles of four — twelve in a clock face, one in the middle. Then the game plays itself.

1. Deal 13 piles of 4 cards face down: 12 in a circle like a clock face, the 13th in the middle.
2. Turn the top card of the middle pile and slide it face up under the pile matching its number. Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12.
3. Take the top face-down card off the pile you just fed and send it to its own position. Kings go back to the middle.
4. All 13 piles face up = you win. The fourth King before that = you lose. Expect to win about 1 game in 13.

Seven columns, one foundation, one move. The fastest game on the list and the only one with a real scorecard.

1. Deal 7 columns of 5 cards, face up and overlapping. The other 17 are the stock; turn one over as the foundation.
2. Play the bottom card of any column onto the foundation if it is one rank higher or lower. Suit does not matter.
3. Out of moves? Flip the next stock card — that becomes the new foundation. Nothing goes on a King.
4. Your score is the number of cards still stuck on the table when the stock runs out. Zero is a hole in one.

Twenty-eight cards in a pyramid and one number that runs everything: thirteen.

1. Deal 28 cards face up in rows of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The remaining 24 are the stock.
2. Remove pairs of uncovered cards that add up to 13. Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13.
3. A King is 13 on its own, so a King always comes off alone.
4. Stuck? Flip a stock card to the waste — it pairs with the pyramid or with the next flip. Clear all 28 to win.

One row, one deck, and the shortest goal in card games: finish with all 52 cards in a single pile.

1. Deal cards one at a time face up in a single long row, wrapping onto more lines but read as one continuous row.
2. A pile may move onto the pile immediately to its left, or the pile three to its left.
3. It may only move if the top cards match in suit, or match in rank. The whole pile travels and lands on top.
4. Everything to the right slides over to close the gap. Prefer the suit match; fear the three-step jump.

Every card face up from the first second, which means there is no luck left in it anywhere. Learn this one if you only learn one.

1. Deal all 52 cards face up into 8 columns — four of seven, four of six. Keep 4 free cells and 4 foundations empty above them.
2. Move a bottom card into a free cell, onto a column card one rank lower and the opposite colour, or up to its foundation from the Ace.
3. You move one card at a time, so in practice a run of (free cells + 1) cards. An empty column doubles that.
4. Of the 32,000 numbered deals in the original computer version, all but one are solvable — only #11982 is not.