How to Play Odessa Solitaire

Odessa is a Russian solitaire variant with a tableau of seven piles containing a mix of face-down and face-up cards. You build on the tableau in the same suit (rather than alternating colors), and any group of face-up cards can move together.

Setup

1. Seven tableau piles are dealt in a custom pattern: the first pile has 3 face-down cards and 3 face-up; the second through sixth piles each have 3 face-down and 5 face-up cards; the seventh has 3 face-down and 3 face-up.
2. Four foundation piles build from Ace (base) to King, one suit per pile.
3. There is no stock or waste pile—the entire deck is already on the tableau, with the face-down cards revealed as you uncover them.

How to play

• Play Aces to start the foundations.
• Build on tableau piles by placing cards one rank lower in the same suit (for example, a 5♠ on a 6♠).
• Move any group of face-up cards together to another tableau pile—they don't need to be in order among themselves, as long as the bottom card of the group fits (one rank lower, same suit).
• When a face-up card is moved, the face-down card below it is turned over.
• Empty a tableau pile and fill it only with a King, or with a group of face-up cards whose bottom card is a King.
• Matching cards move to the foundations automatically once no other card could be built on them; you can adjust this behavior in Settings.

How to win

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

You win when all 52 cards reach the four foundation piles in their correct sequences. You're stuck when no cards can move and some cards remain on the tableau.

Tips

• Expose face-down cards by moving face-up cards to the foundations or other tableau piles.
• Empty tableau piles are valuable for holding Kings; preserve them for key moves.
• Pay attention to same-suit sequences available on the tableau—unlike alternating-color games, same suit offers different strategic opportunities.

Play Odessa free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Odessa 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 Yukon family:

• Queenie — Queenie mixes alternating-color tableau building with the freedom to move cards out of strict order, and a stock that deals a card onto every pile at once.
• Russian Cell — Russian Cell combines FreeCell-style cells with a tableau containing hidden cards.
• Ten Across — A tableau where every pile mixes face-down and face-up cards, plus two temporary cells where you can park single cards.
• Tvete's Grandfather — This tough one-deck game deals every card straight into seven uneven tableau piles, some far deeper than others.
• Ukrainian — Ukrainian only lets you send a full run of 13 cards, Ace to King in one suit, to the foundations at once, so you'll need to build the whole sequence in the tableau before it counts.