How To Play Solitaire

How to Play Solitaire

Solitaire is a game we all love to play; hundreds of hours can be spent in-front of the computer screen trying to work your way through a pack and the feeling of triumph when you finally succeed. There are many versions of Solitaire and the most popular ones are: Klondike, Spider, Freecell and Pyramid. There is sure to be even more names out there depending on where you are in the world and who you ask; however, these are the most common. With so many names for the same game, people often get confused as to how solitaire is played. Let this article serve as a guide.

The overall object of the game is to move all of the cards to four foundations that are in place. The cards must all be stacked in order (ace card first) and in their correct suits. This game is never easy, if it was it probably would not have stood the test of time and become as popular as it is. Let me tell you, there will be points when you become ever so slightly frustrated with solitaire, but through persistence you'll get there and when you do the reward of self-satisfaction makes all the agony worth it.

The good thing about playing solitaire on a computer is the fact that all the card dealing is done for you, this saves a lot of time and allows you to get right on with playing. Check out this tutorial video on how to play Solitaire and read further below.

The Table

The game is played with a single deck of 52 cards (no jokers) and begins with 28 of these cards arranged into seven different columns. The first column has one card; the second has to cards, and so on in ascending order. The top card in each column will be face up while the others are face down.

Playing The Game

If you don't already have an ace available to move, either from the deck or your columns, you must try and uncover one in order to start a home stack (foundation). As cards must be stacked on the home pile in ascending order you will need to shift cards between columns to seek the cards you need. For instance, you are able to stack an 8 on top of a 7 but not on top of a 2. The twist with moving cards is that columns must alternative between red and black at all times; this is what makes the game tough opposition. You are not limited to moves; however, if you run out of available moves you will need to draw cards from the deck.

Scoring

On the traditional version of the game, scoring will provide you with 5 points for every card moved from the deck to a column and 10 points for every card moved from a column to a home stack. If a game takes longer than thirty seconds (it will!), you are rewarded with bonus points based on how long the game takes to finish, this bonus formula is 700,000 divided by total game time in seconds. Now that you know the rules of the game, what are you waiting for? Get yourself involved!

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How To Play Solitaire