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CardTray

Guides

How to play

The rules of every game in the library, written to be useful whether or not you ever install CardTray.

Start with the classics

  1. The opening deal of Klondike Solitaire, laid out on a green felt table.
    2 min read

    How to Play Klondike Solitaire

    The classic solitaire played worldwide. Deal cards three at a time from the stock, build tableau piles down in alternating colors, and work toward moving…

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  2. The opening deal of Spider Solitaire, laid out on a green felt table.
    3 min read

    How to Play Spider Solitaire

    Ten tableau piles let you stack cards downward in rank no matter their suit, but a run only travels as a group when every card in it shares one suit.

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  3. The opening deal of FreeCell Solitaire, laid out on a green felt table.
    3 min read

    How to Play FreeCell Solitaire

    All 52 cards deal face-up into eight tableau piles, with four open cells alongside them for shuffling cards while you build the foundations up by suit.

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  4. The opening deal of Pyramid Solitaire, laid out on a green felt table.
    2 min read

    How to Play Pyramid Solitaire

    A classic pairing game where you remove cards from a pyramid by matching pairs that total 13, or removing Kings alone.

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  5. The opening deal of Golf Solitaire, laid out on a green felt table.
    2 min read

    How to Play Golf Solitaire

    A unique solitaire where the entire tableau is dealt face-up with no building allowed between piles.

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  6. The opening deal of Yukon Solitaire, laid out on a green felt table.
    3 min read

    How to Play Yukon Solitaire

    Every card is dealt to the tableau up front—there's no stock to fall back on. What sets this game apart is how freely you can pick up cards: a whole cluster…

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Klondike

Deals cards from a stock into a waste and a tableau built down in alternating colors, sending cards up to suited foundations; the archetypal patience game and its many deck-size and layout variants.

Foundations

Cards move from the stock, waste, or a small reserve straight to the foundations with little or no sequence-building tableau; the challenge is ordering plays and juggling multiple foundation sets rather than rearranging a tableau.

Forty Thieves

Two or more full decks fill a wide, narrow-pile tableau built down by suit with mostly single-card moves, feeding eight or more suited foundations; a spacious, demanding cousin of Klondike.

FreeCell

Every card is dealt face up at the start; a handful of free cells hold cards temporarily while the player rebuilds the tableau in order up to the suited foundations, with no stock to fall back on.

Canfield

Foundations begin from a randomly chosen base rank and wrap around; a thirteen-card reserve feeds the tableau while the stock deals to a waste, a classic casino-style challenge.

Spider

Multiple decks fill a wide tableau where cards build down regardless of suit, but only a same-suit run can move as a group, and completed same-suit sequences are removed to clear the board.

Pairing

Cards are matched and discarded in twos, either because they share a rank or because they add up to a fixed target, from a flat tableau or dealt row rather than a pyramid.

Fan

Small fans or packets of cards are laid out with no stock draw; the player gathers and redeals them into new fans a limited number of times while working cards up to the foundations.

Yukon

No stock at all: any face-up tableau card, together with everything stacked on it, can move onto a valid card regardless of whether it forms a strict sequence, freeing buried cards much faster than Klondike.

Baker's Dozen

Thirteen or so tableau piles are dealt face up with no stock; cards build down regardless of suit, and with no redeal to fall back on, every card must find its way to a suited foundation through careful planning.

Beleaguered Castle

Foundations sit in the center of the layout with reserve piles fanned out on either side; single cards move freely between reserves with no stock at all as the player frees up each suit.

Scorpion

A Spider-like tableau deals some cards face down; same-suit runs can be moved regardless of whether they are in order, and a small, limited stock refill helps clear the rest.

Pyramid

Cards are dealt into a triangular pyramid, or several, and removed in matching pairs, usually ones that sum to 13, with the remaining stock providing extra pairing chances.

Golf

A single foundation, or a small set of them, accepts cards in consecutive rank regardless of suit; the player chains a fanned tableau up or down to clear it.

Raglan

Descended from King Albert: a triangular tableau plus a reserve row builds down in alternating colors toward the foundations, with variants changing how the reserve and foundations start.

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