Play Portuguese Solitaire Online
Portuguese Solitaire sits between the strict Baker's Dozen and the more open Spanish Patience. Tableau builds down by rank without suit or color restrictions, but empty columns are reserved for Kings. A cleared column can be used again, but only once a King is ready to move into it.
There is no stock and no free cell storage. All 52 cards are visible from the deal. The players who do well are the ones who spot which King should take the next empty column before they clear it.
The Opening Shape
Thirteen short tableau columns keep the board readable. Every card is face up, so the challenge is the order of play. You decide which cards go home, which cards move down by rank and which King gets the next empty column.
Build Down by Rank
Tableau suits do not have to match and colors do not have to alternate. A Queen can move onto any King, a 5 onto any 6 and so on. Foundations are still suit-specific.
Refill With Kings
A blank column accepts a King only. If the Kings are trapped, an empty space may do nothing for several moves. That makes the timing of low foundation cards more important than it first appears.
Think About the King Before the Column
A good Portuguese Solitaire sequence often starts with a buried King. Free it, clear a column, then use the King to collect a descending run. Clearing first and hoping a King appears later can leave the table cramped.
If you prefer the stricter no-refill version, play Baker's Dozen. If you want every open column to accept any card, Spanish Patience is the softer branch of the family.
Free a King Before You Clear a Column
An empty column does nothing until a King is ready to take it. Before you clear one, check where the 4 Kings sit and how many cards cover each of them.
A column that no King can reach just sits there while you lose a place to build. Clear one when a King is a move or two away, and the King can then collect a descending run of any suits. The Baker's Dozen guide places Portuguese Solitaire between its stricter and softer cousins and explains when each rule helps.
Quick Portuguese Answers
What can fill an empty column in Portuguese Solitaire?
A King, and only a King. That single restriction sets the game between Baker's Dozen, which never refills a column, and Spanish Patience, which accepts any card.
Do you build by suit or by color?
By neither. Cards stack down a rank at a time with no regard for suit or color, so a Queen sits on any King. The foundations are the only place suit matters here.
Is there any reserve or free cell?
No. Apart from the King-only spaces, there is nowhere off the tableau to hold a card, which is why reading the order of the columns counts for so much.
Is every Portuguese Solitaire deal winnable?
Winnable deals are. Each has a known solution, and Is it winnable? tells you whether your current position can still reach it. A Random deal is an ordinary shuffle and may have none. Win without hints or undo while signed in and the result goes on the Portuguese Solitaire leaderboard.