How to Play Carlton Solitaire

A difficult two-deck variant similar to Klondike. Cards are dealt to the tableau in increasing numbers (1, 2, 3, 4...), with only the top card of each pile visible initially. You'll need skill and luck to build eight foundation piles from scratch.

Setup

1. Shuffle two standard decks together
2. Deal cards to the tableau: 1 card to the first pile, 2 to the second, 3 to the third, and so on, for a total of 8 piles
3. Each pile is placed with only its top card face up; the rest face down
4. Remaining cards form the stock

How to play

• Build foundation piles upward by rank in the same suit (A♠ → 2♠ → 3♠, etc.). Place Aces in the foundations as they become available.
• In the tableau, build downward in alternating colors (like 9♣ → 8♥ → 7♣ → 6♥). You can move sequences of properly ordered cards together.
• As cards move, face-down cards underneath turn face up and become playable
• An empty tableau pile accepts any card or sequence
• Click the stock to deal one card face up to each tableau pile. There's no redeal—you get one pass through the deck.
• 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 eight foundation piles complete to win

You win when all 104 cards reach the eight foundation piles. It's a tough game, so don't expect to win every deal.

Tips

• Expose face-down cards by clearing piles—this is often more valuable than building foundations
• Plan your stock deals carefully since you can't redeal
• Build tableau sequences flexibly to avoid getting stuck with buried cards

Play Carlton free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Carlton 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 Klondike family:

• Chinese Klondike — A three-suit adaptation of Klondike using four decks.
• Double Klondike — Double Klondike scales up the familiar Klondike shape to two shuffled-together decks, nine tableau piles, and eight foundations, with unlimited redeals to keep working through the stock.
• Endless Harp — A two-deck Klondike-like game with unlimited redeals.
• Insane Klondike — A Klondike-style solitaire pushed to an outrageous scale: 32 complete decks (1,664 cards) spread across 52 tableau piles and 128 foundation piles.
• Junction — Build long sequences in alternating colors on just seven tableau piles using a four-deck piquet deck (no ranks below 7).