How to Play Old Carlton Solitaire

Old Carlton is a two-deck adaptation of Klondike with eight tableau piles and eight foundation piles. Its key difference: any face-up card can move within the tableau, not just sequences, making it more flexible than standard Klondike.

Setup

1. Eight tableau piles are dealt: 1 card to the first pile, 2 to the second, continuing up to 8 cards in the final pile. Only the top card of each pile is face up; the rest face down.
2. Eight foundation piles build from Ace (bottom) to King (top), one suit per pile.
3. A stock pile contains remaining cards. Click to deal one card onto the end of each tableau column.

How to play

• Play Aces to start the foundations.
• On the tableau, build by placing cards one rank lower in opposite colors (red on black, black on red).
• Move a face-up card together with any face-up cards stacked on top of it as a group, even if they aren't in proper rank-and-color order—only the bottom card of the group has to fit where it lands.
• When a face-up card is moved, the face-down card below it turns over.
• Move face-up cards from the tableau directly to the foundations or to other tableau piles.
• Empty tableau piles can be filled with any card or group of cards.
• 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 104 cards to eight foundation piles, one suit per pile, building from Ace to King.

You win when all 104 cards are stacked on the eight foundation piles in their correct sequences. You're stuck when no more moves are available and the stock is exhausted (there's no redeal).

Tips

• The flexibility to move any face-up card is Old Carlton's advantage—use it to expose face-down cards and create space.
• Focus on uncovering hidden cards early to generate more play options.
• Empty tableau piles are valuable; use them strategically to maneuver cards and create chains.

Play Old Carlton free on Windows

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

• Quadruple Yukon — A four-deck version of Yukon with 16 tableau piles and no stock, letting you freely rearrange any face-up cards.
• Triple Yukon — Using three shuffled decks across thirteen piles, this Yukon relative buries cards deeply and rewards flexible group moves that dig out what's hidden below, feeding twelve foundations as you go.
• Double Yukon — A two-deck variant where face-down cards reveal themselves as you work through the tableau.
• Milligan Yukon — This double-deck game blends two classic mechanics: a triangular deal like Yukon and flexible tableau moves that let you shift any stack of face-up cards at once, not just neat sequences.