How to Play Gold Mine Solitaire

A Klondike variant where your seven tableau piles begin empty, forcing you to build them from scratch. Only one pass through the stock is allowed.

Setup

1. The seven tableau piles start empty.
2. Four foundation piles are set up, one per suit.
3. Keep all 52 cards in the stock.

How to play

• Click the stock to deal three cards to the waste pile.
• Playable cards automatically move to the foundations when they can't be built elsewhere, though you can disable this in Settings. You can also manually move cards earlier if you prefer.
• Move cards from the waste or tableau to the tableau, building downward in opposite color (red on black, black on red).
• Move sequences of tableau cards together when each card is one rank lower and opposite color from the card it covers.
• Any card or sequence can start a new tableau pile in an empty space.
• The top card of a foundation pile can also be moved back onto the tableau if it helps you keep playing.
• When the stock runs out, the game ends—there is no redeal.

How to win

Objective: Move all 52 cards to four foundation piles, building each suit from Ace to King

Win by moving all 52 cards to the four foundations before the stock runs out. The starting empty tableau means early moves must use the waste pile strategically.

Tips

• Use the empty tableau spaces wisely—they're your only way to rearrange buried cards early in the game.
• Try to create long sequences in the tableau to make room for waste pile cards.
• Plan to get foundations started before too many cards pile up in the waste.

Play Gold Mine free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Gold Mine 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:

• Gold Rush — A Klondike variant where you get three passes through the stock, but each pass deals fewer cards.
• Harp — A two-deck Klondike variant with a nine-pile pyramid tableau where you build downward in opposite colors.
• Hypotenuse — A two-deck solitaire where you build tableau piles downward by alternating color and move all cards to foundations arranged by suit.
• Interchange — A challenging two-deck solitaire where you build tableau piles downward by suit and work through a single-card stock.
• Kingsley — Reverse Klondike where foundations start with Kings and build downward instead of upward.