How to Play How They Run Solitaire

A single-deck variant of Three Blind Mice with two free cells instead of a reserve pile. The custom tableau layout mixes face-up and face-down cards, and you can move non-sequential face-up cards together.

Setup

1. Create 2 free cells; 2 cards are dealt to these cells initially
2. Deal 10 tableau piles with a custom pattern: first three piles get 5 cards with lower three face-down, remaining piles get 5 face-up cards
3. Create 4 foundation piles that accept only complete sequences (Ace through King) in suit

How to play

• Move only face-up cards from the tableau or cells
• Build tableau piles downward: place face-up cards one rank lower and same suit on top
• Move groups of face-up cards together, even if not in perfect descending order; only the bottom card must fit where it lands
• Use free cells to store single face-up cards temporarily
• When a face-down card becomes the top card, it flips face-up automatically
• Fill empty tableau piles only with a King or a sequence starting with a King
• Once a complete 13-card sequence (Ace to King) in suit is assembled on the tableau, move it to a foundation

How to win

Objective: Build four foundation piles by moving complete 13-card sequences (Ace to King) in suit

Build four foundation piles with all four suits from Ace to King. You lose if no more face-up moves are possible and incomplete sequences remain.

Tips

• Free cells hold single cards only—use them to expose face-down tableau cards
• The flexible move rule lets you move multiple face-up cards at once; plan sequences to expose buried cards
• Save empty tableau spaces for Kings to maintain access to buried cards

Play How They Run free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes How They Run 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 Scorpion family:

• Double Scorpion — A two-deck variant of Scorpion where you build down in suit within the tableau and move complete sequences to hidden foundations when a full suit from King to Ace is ready.
• Triple Scorpion — An extreme version of Scorpion where only complete 13-card runs move to foundations and foundations are hidden.
• Chelicera — A Scorpion-style solitaire where you arrange each tableau pile into a same-suit descending run starting from a King.