How to Play Waterloo Solitaire

A two-deck stock-based solitaire with minimal tableau space and relaxed building rules. Build sequences freely by rank (any suit) in your 6 tableau columns while racing through the stock to reach the foundations.

Setup

1. The eight foundation piles start empty; you'll move an Ace to each one as you turn it up from the tableau or waste.
2. Create 6 tableau columns, dealing 1 card face up to each column.
3. Place the remaining 98 cards in the stock; you'll draw one card at a time to the waste.
4. One pass only through the stock—no redeal allowed.

How to play

• Click the stock to draw one card face up to the waste pile.
• Build tableau sequences downward by rank (any suit): a 5 goes on a 6, whether the suits match or not.
• Move several cards together when they form a same-suit run: if you have 9♠-8♠-7♠ stacked in order, you can move the whole group onto any 10 (any suit), or onto an empty column.
• Fill empty tableau spaces with any available card (top card from another tableau pile or the waste pile).
• Start a foundation by playing an Ace to it, then build it up one card at a time in the same suit.
• Cards that can no longer be built upon in the tableau move to the foundations automatically.
• You can change this auto-move behavior in Settings if you prefer to move foundation cards yourself.
• With only 6 columns and a limited stock pass—plan carefully.

How to win

Objective: Move all 104 cards to eight foundations, building each from Ace up to King in the same suit.

You win when all eight foundations reach King in their suit. You're stuck if the stock is exhausted and tableau cards cannot be matched and moved to foundations.

Tips

• Build long mixed-suit sequences to access buried cards; when a full suit run forms, send it to the foundations.
• With only 6 tableau piles, empty spaces are crucial—use them to unlock cards you need.
• Manage the stock wisely; hold cards in the waste if they'll help expose valuable cards in the tableau later.

Play Waterloo free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Waterloo 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 Forty Thieves family:

• Barricade A — A straightforward two-deck solitaire where you build foundations regardless of suit and arrange twelve tableau piles in descending order.
• Barricade B — A challenging two-deck variant of Barricade where you build the foundations in suit order instead of any-suit, and you can't play cards directly from the stock.
• Diplomat — A generous Congress variant where foundations build up by suit while tableau cards sequence down by rank in any suit, with four cards dealt to each tableau pile.
• Double Rail — A two-deck game with a compact five-pile tableau where sequences can mix suits and whole runs can be relocated together.
• Eight by Eight — A two-deck solitaire with eight columns and eight rows of tableau cards, where you work through a stock that redeals with fewer cards each pass.