Types of Solitaire

Solitaire covers many card games with different layouts and goals. Some build suits onto foundations, some complete runs inside the tableau and others remove cards by matching ranks or totals. This guide compares those structures so you can choose a game for the kind of decision you enjoy.

How the types are sorted

The clearest way to group these games is by where the sorting actually happens. In some you build up to a set of foundations off to one side, and the columns on the table are only a staging ground on the way there. In others there are no foundations at all, and the entire job gets done down in the columns themselves. A third group throws out the long tableau and hands you a fixed shape to clear by matching cards instead. Ask where the cards finish in any solitaire game and the answer usually lands it in one of those 3 broad groups. The families below split those groups into the games you will actually meet.

Deck size and hidden information help narrow the choice. A 2-deck game usually involves more cards to sort, while an entirely face-up tableau lets you inspect future blockers before moving. Seeing every card does not make a game easy. It only means a loss can't be blamed on a card you never saw.

Klondike and the building games

When someone just says solitaire, with no other word in front of it, they almost always mean Klondike. It shipped on office computers for years, which is how a quiet parlor game became the face of the whole genre. You deal 7 columns, build them downward in alternating colors and feed 4 foundations up by suit, Ace through King. Only the last card dealt to each column starts face up, so much of the game is freeing the buried cards in an order that does not trap you.

The family is wider than that single game. Klondike Turn 3 deals the stock 3 cards at a time instead of one, the very same board under a stricter rule. Yukon keeps the Klondike shape but drops the stock and lets you pick up a whole group of cards at once, in order or not, which turns it into a heavier puzzle with almost everything on show from the first move. If all of this is new, start with the plain game. The how to play Klondike guide takes it one step at a time.

Canfield keeps the familiar stock, tableau and foundation idea but compresses the table into 4 columns and adds a 13-card reserve. Its foundations begin on a different rank from deal to deal, so the early search is for that rank rather than automatically for the Aces. The Canfield guide explains how the reserve feeds the table and how its Draw 3 stock returns for another pass.

Spider and the packing games

Spider looks like Klondike from across the room and plays nothing like it. It runs on 2 full decks across 10 columns, with no foundations anywhere. Instead you assemble 8 sequences from King down to Ace right inside the columns, and the instant one comes together it vanishes from the board, all 13 cards gone in a single sweep. What sets the family apart is the group move. A clump of cards travels as a unit only if it is already sorted into one suit, so a single off-suit card splits the stack into pieces that have to move separately.

Spider 1 Suit removes suit conflicts, so every descending sequence can move together. Spider 2 Suits and Spider 4 Suits add the need to separate mixed-suit groups before moving them. The Spider guide compares those rules. Related games change other parts of the table: Scorpion lets you move any face-up card along with everything on top of it, Spiderette reduces the deck to 52 cards and Simple Simon removes the stock and exposes every card. Their separate Scorpion, Spiderette and Simple Simon guides explain the different deals and legal moves.

Forty Thieves uses the same 2-deck, 10-column footprint without belonging to the packing branch. Its cards move singly, build down in suit and finish on 8 foundations. The shared table shape makes the contrast easy to see: Spider organizes packets inside the tableau, while Forty Thieves spends its limited spaces to feed cards upward. The Forty Thieves guide follows that single-card process through the stock and all 8 foundations.

Double Klondike moves to 2 decks without leaving the Klondike family. Its 9-column staircase builds down in alternating colors, with most of the cards dealt face down. The Double Klondike guide explains the 8 foundations, Draw 1 stock and single redeal.

FreeCell and the open-table games

FreeCell turns all 52 cards face up before you make a move, so none of the luck is hidden under the table. The aim is the same as Klondike, 4 foundations built up by suit, but you also get 4 free cells, and each one can park a single card while you work the rest of the board around it. With nothing concealed and that bit of room to breathe, nearly every deal can be won: a large computer study put the figure at 99.999%. If you want the result to rest on your own decisions, this is the type to try.

The open table is a whole shelf of games, each one shifting a single rule. Baker's Game builds in suit rather than alternating color. Eight Off hands you more cells to work with. Seahaven Towers spreads the cards across 10 narrow towers and tightens the squeeze. Penguin Solitaire goes further, replacing the usual cells with 7 flippers and letting ranks wrap between King and Ace. The FreeCell variants guide sets them side by side, and the FreeCell guide walks through the standard game from end to end. For table decisions rather than rules, the FreeCell strategy guide covers cells, empty columns and supermove planning.

Addiction Solitaire is open from the first deal too, but its empty positions travel instead of holding cards. Each gap accepts only one exact card, then reappears where that card came from. The Addiction guide explains how the 4 rows, dead spaces after Kings and 3 reshuffles fit together.

Baker's Dozen and the no-reserve games

A smaller family takes the open table and cuts the safety net away. Baker's Dozen spreads the whole pack into 13 short columns, gives you no stock to draw from and no cells to set a card aside, then asks you to build the foundations anyway. With nowhere to stash a card out of the way, the order you take the columns apart decides the deal.

Its cousins each loosen or swap one rule. In Spanish Patience a cleared column will take any card you like, which opens the game up. Portuguese Solitaire lets only a King into an empty column. Castles in Spain lets any card in but makes you build in alternating colors and deals 3 cards in each column face down. All three keep the 13-column frame and, like Baker's Dozen, give you no cells to fall back on. The Baker's Dozen guide lays out how each one plays.

Pyramid, TriPeaks, Golf and Black Hole

Pyramid, TriPeaks and Golf remove cards rather than build foundation suits. Pyramid pairs exposed cards totaling 13. TriPeaks and Golf remove cards onto a waste pile by adjacent rank, with different rules at Ace and King. Their moves are simple to learn, but the removal order still needs planning. Black Hole has no stock: its 51 surrounding cards sit in 17 visible fans, so later choices depend on each fan's order. The Black Hole guide covers that setup.

Which type should you start with

Start with Klondike if you want to learn tableau builds, foundations and stock play together. Try FreeCell for a fully visible table with temporary storage, or Spider for suited sequences and a longer 2-deck game. Golf has a simple rank rule but only 16 stock cards, and fewer than half its deals can be cleared. The winnability guide explains why solvability and difficulty are different questions.

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By Sam R., Solitaire.cx editor. Screenshots are from real games on this site. How these guides are written.