How to Play Captive Queens Solitaire

A quick, luck-focused game where three different foundation piles build from different ranks. The Fives build downward, Sixes build upward, and Queens sit alone, creating a puzzle of managing three different sequences simultaneously.

Setup

1. Shuffle the deck and place all 52 cards in the stock
2. Leave the Fives, Sixes, and Queens foundation piles empty—you'll start each one as the right card turns up
3. Leave the waste pile empty, ready to receive cards from the stock

How to play

• Click the stock to reveal one card at a time to the waste pile. Only the top waste card is playable.
• Play a Five to start a Fives foundation pile, then build down in the same suit (5♠ → 4♠ → 3♠...); it wraps from Ace down to King and holds six cards in all
• Play a Six to start a Sixes foundation pile, then build up in the same suit (6♥ → 7♥ → 8♥...) up to Jack, six cards in all
• Play a Queen to start a Queens foundation pile—these piles hold just the Queen, with no further building
• When the stock is empty, turn the waste back over as the new stock (three total passes allowed)
• Cards automatically move to the foundations once no other card can be built on them. You can turn this off in Settings if you prefer to move them manually.

How to win

Objective: Build all three foundation types complete to win

You win when all 52 cards are on their respective foundations. You have three passes through the deck to get them all placed.

Tips

• The game is mostly luck—focus on clearing the waste pile and keeping your options open
• Don't waste redeals early if you're not ready to make progress
• Watch for cards blocked in the waste by bad draws

Play Captive Queens free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Captive Queens 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:

• Carousel — A complex two-deck game played with the Kings removed, so each suit runs Ace (low) through Queen.
• Even and Odd — Build two separate foundation groups where one foundation follows odd ranks (Ace, 3, 5, etc.) and the other follows even ranks (2, 4, 6, etc.).
• Racing Aces — A fast-paced game where four foundation types race in different directions—Aces up, Sixes down, Sevens up, and Kings down—while you feed them from a single-pass stock, a waste pile, and three long reserve piles.
• Royal Rendezvous — Two decks feed four different kinds of foundations at once: a full same-suit run, an odds-only ladder, an evens-only ladder, and four slots that each hold just a single King.