Steal These 10 Tips and Tricks to Ace Solitaire

Solitaire is easy to learn but hard to master.

The rules are straight-forward but being able to consistently win… well, that’s another story. In fact, new players can go through several games without a single win!

But when you do? That feeling of creating 4 neat stacks from piles of randomly ordered cards is uniquely rewarding. You’ll even get some fun animations if you are playing a digital version!

So to help you experience more rewarding feelings and see fun animations we’ve got 10 tips and strategies you can steal right now.

1. First Move: Draw from Stock

No matter what happens you’ll have to draw from the Stock. That’s just a fact. But doing it first means you’ll have more information and ways to transfer Table cards that can create space for a King or uncover more cards.

But don’t do it too soon because that will start the game timer. Instead, take a bit of time to study the board and see what options you definitely have and what cards from the Stock would be nice to have.

Once you’re ready, draw from the Stock.

2. Prefer Table Cards Over Waste Cards

If there’s a Waste card that can be moved into the Table but there’s still more Table cards that can be transferred to uncover cards or create an empty space then you are almost always better off moving the Table cards first.

There could be times where you don’t want to do this so that’s why it should be preferred. Use your best judgment.

3. Move Ace’s and Two’s to Foundation ASAP

All Ace’s and Two’s can be moved up to their respective Foundations as soon as possible. You’ll never get into a situation where you’ll need them to help unblock a Column.

Unlike the tip #2 above, this one is a no-brainer. You can prefer not doing it but that will only result in cards staying covered for longer.

4. Keep Foundations Fairly Even

You’ll generally want to keep the Ranks of the cards in each Foundation pretty close to each other. Having 1 or 2 Foundations with a 10 or Jack while the other two have a 3 or 4 can lead to cards in the Table getting stuck.

Imagine you revealed a red 5 covering a column of cards but both black 6’s are already in their Foundations. There’s nowhere to move the red 5 to so you’re basically forked.

There is something you can do that this that we talk about at the end of this list.

5. Always Move Kings to Empty Spaces

If you have a King and there’s an empty space on the Table then always move the King there. No other cards can be placed there and the King cannot be placed on any other card.

This is another no-brainer move.

6. Run Through the Stock

This one is potentially controversial. But there’s 2 potential benefits. The idea is to purposely go through the Stock once without necessarily using any of the cards.

Benefit 1: you can uncover all the Ace’s and Two’s that are just sitting in the Stock and move them to the Foundation as suggested in Tip #3—it’s a no-brainer.

Benefit 2: you can memorize the cards in the Stock and then know which are covered in the Table and play accordingly.*

*Mileage may vary depending on how well you can memorize and how much information you can hold in your mind at once.

7. Prefer Moving Cards that Cover Many Face-down Cards

You’ll usually want to move cards from Columns with the most face-down cards because they have the most cards to reveal. If you can flip over every card on the Table then you basically can’t lose.

So it logically makes sense to go after Columns with the most opportunity for cards to flip over. But this tip is not a no-brainer. We can’t know which cards are hidden. face-down in which Column so you’ll have to use your best judgment—another word for this might be guessing.

There is 1 scenario where you’ll want to do the exact opposite which is the next tip.

8. If There’s a King Handy…

If you have a King on the Table or on top of the Waste Pile then you’ll want to clear an empty space ASAP. This is especially true if the King is covering face-down cards on the Table.

The surest way to get an empty space is to move cards from a Column with the least number of face-down cards but, just as with the tip above, we can’t know which cards are face-down so you’ll have to use your own judgment.

9. Turn off Auto Help

Sunday Solitaire, like most online solitaire games, comes with a feature to automatically move cards into the Foundation. It is there to make sure you don’t miss the opportunity and it’s fun to watch but it is not always helpful if you want to play more conservatively.

Some online games are also much too aggressive and move cards to the Foundation at every opportunity. They disregard Tip #4 to your detriment.

Sunday Solitaire takes a more balanced approach but you might still want to turn it off from the settings.

10. Move Cards from the Foundation

In the event that the Auto Help AI got too eager and moved a card to the Foundation that you still needed then you can just move it back down. Be sure to turn off Auto Help or the AI will eagerly try to move the card back into the Foundation.

Computers are only so smart.

You can also employ this tip if it was you who got too eager! Moving cards from the Foundation back to the Table is a potential remedy for when you get stuck like the scenario described in Tip #4.

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These 10 tips, tricks, and strategies are a great starting point but you’ll likely discover or invent a few of your own as you continue playing!

For a quick and hassle-free way to practice these strategies, play our online version of solitaire here!