How to Play Acey and Kingsley Solitaire

A variant of Aces and Kings where foundation base cards (Aces and Kings) are dealt to you at the start instead of appearing as you draw them. This gives you more control from the beginning.

Setup

1. Four Ace foundations (dealt one card each at start)
2. Four King foundations (dealt one card each at start)
3. A reserve with two piles of 13 cards each (top card only playable)
4. A tableau with four piles (one card each, no building allowed)
5. A stock and waste pile

How to play

• Start with Aces and Kings already in the foundation piles
• Click the stock to deal one card to the waste pile
• Play the top card from the waste or reserve to a foundation or empty tableau space
• Build Ace foundations upward (any suit) and King foundations downward (any suit)
• Empty tableau spaces are automatically refilled with the top stock card when you make a move; once the stock runs out, an empty tableau space can be filled with any card
• Only the top card of each reserve pile can be played
• Work through the stock once—no redeal

How to win

Objective: Build all cards to the foundations: Aces ascending to Kings and Kings descending to Aces (wrapping around), all ignoring suit.

You win when all 104 cards (two full decks) are on the eight foundations. You're stuck when the stock is empty and no more moves are possible.

Tips

• With bases already set, focus on exposing reserve cards early
• Use tableau spaces for temporarily blocking cards that don't fit yet
• Track which ranks are building on each foundation to make the best plays

Play Acey and Kingsley free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Acey and Kingsley alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the Foundations family:

• Alexander the Great — A fan-layout game with four foundations split between Aces (red suits) and Kings (black suits), each building in opposite directions.
• Alternate — Alternate uses a single deck with four foundations that build in opposite directions: two ascending in alternating colors and two descending in alternating colors.
• Bisley — All 52 cards are laid out face up at once.
• Box Kite — A two-deck game with eight foundations divided into two groups—four climbing from Aces and four descending from Kings—offering multiple strategic paths to victory.
• Caprice — An unusual two-deck game where you build two sets of foundation piles simultaneously—four ascending (Ace to King) and four descending (King to Ace), all within their respective suits.