How to Play Sixteen Piles Solitaire

An unusual puzzle where you stack cards of matching rank to uncover buried cards. The strategy is figuring out which cards to stack first to access the sequences you need in the foundations.

Setup

1. Four foundation piles each start with their suit's Ace already in place (they build up from Ace to King)
2. Sixteen fan piles are dealt the remaining 48 cards, 3 cards to each pile
3. All cards are face up from the start

How to play

• In each fan pile, you can only move the top card. Stack it onto another fan pile if the top card of that pile has the same rank (e.g., put a 5♥ on a 5♠)
• When a card is stacked, it covers the card below, potentially exposing new cards to move
• Move exposed cards to the foundations by building sequences from Ace up through King in the same suit. Cards move to the foundations automatically once no other card could be built on them (you can change this in Settings to always send cards automatically or turn it off)
• Empty fan piles cannot be refilled
• The goal is to uncover cards strategically so you can complete the foundations
• You can redeal up to twice. When you click the redeal button, the cards left in the fan piles are shuffled and dealt back out in the original pile size

How to win

Objective: Move all 52 cards to the four foundation piles

You win when all four foundation piles are complete (Ace through King in each suit). The game is lost if you get stuck with cards you cannot stack or move to foundations and have no redeals left.

Tips

• Start by moving same-rank cards to expose different ranks underneath
• Pay attention to which cards are buried so you can prioritize uncovering them
• Build the foundations as cards become available—don't hold cards in the fans waiting for perfect matches

Play Sixteen Piles free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Sixteen Piles 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 Fan family:

• Box Fan — A no-stock variant where all cards are dealt at the start across 16 fan piles, and you build by alternating colors to empty piles only by Kings.
• Ceiling Fan — A single-deck Fan-family game that spreads all 52 cards face up across 18 tableau piles and builds down by alternating color, making for a more open layout than standard Fan.
• Fan — A one-deck game with 18 tableau piles arranged in a fan pattern where only Kings can fill empty spaces and the entire deck is dealt at once.