Deal Solitaire — Free Klondike Solitaire Online

Klondike is the classic one-deck card game that most people mean when they say "solitaire": you move all 52 cards onto four foundations, Ace to King, one suit per pile. Play it here in your browser, free, no signup, no download, with Turn 1 or Turn 3 drawing, hints, undo, scoring, a timer, and continue where you left off.

What is Klondike Solitaire?

Klondike is a single-player card game played with one standard 52-card deck. The deck is dealt into seven tableau columns: one card in the first column, two in the second, and so on up to seven, with only the top card of each column face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock pile, drawn from when no tableau move helps. The goal is to move all 52 cards onto four foundation piles, one per suit, built from Ace to King. On the tableau, cards build down in alternating colors — a black 6 goes on a red 7 — and whole face-up runs can move together. You win when every foundation reaches its King. Klondike is played one card at a time (Turn 1) or three at a time (Turn 3), and when the stock runs out you turn the waste back over and keep playing. It is the game most players simply call solitaire.

How do you play Klondike solitaire?

You play Klondike by uncovering the tableau and building the four foundations, and the moves are easy to learn. Face-up cards can be placed on a card of the opposite color and one rank higher, so a 6 of hearts sits on a 7 of spades, and whole face-up runs can be moved together. An empty tableau column can only be started with a King, or a run that starts with a King. Foundations begin with an Ace and build up in suit from 2 to King. When no tableau move helps, draw from the stock: one card at a time in Turn 1, three at a time in Turn 3, and only the top waste card is playable. A face-down card flips over automatically when you move the card above it. When the stock runs dry, click the empty stock well to turn the waste back into the stock and keep playing. You win the deal when all 52 cards sit on the foundations.

• Move cards onto each other. Face-up cards can be moved between tableau columns, and runs of face-up cards can be moved together. A card may only be placed on a card of the opposite color and one rank higher (e.g. a 6 of hearts on a 7 of spades).
• Kings fill empty columns. An empty tableau column can only be started with a King (or a run that starts with a King).
• Build the foundations. Each foundation starts with an Ace and builds up in order (A, 2, 3, …, K) within one suit. Moving a card to a foundation scores points.
• Draw from the stock. Tap/click the stock to draw cards face up onto the waste pile — one card in Turn 1, three at a time in Turn 3. The top waste card is playable.
• Redeal. When the stock runs out, click the empty stock area to turn the waste back over into the stock and keep playing.
• Flip blocked cards. When you move the last card off a face-down card it flips over automatically for +5 points.

How does Klondike scoring work?

Klondike scoring uses the standard Microsoft scheme — the same one built into Windows Solitaire. You earn +10 points for each card moved to a foundation, +5 for moving a waste card onto the tableau, and +5 for flipping a face-down tableau card face up. Taking a card back from a foundation onto the tableau costs −15. Undo rewinds the entire move — score, cards, and board state — so a mistake you catch in time costs you nothing. A new deal always starts the score at zero. An unfinished deal you continue keeps its score, moves, redeals, and timer exactly as you left them. Scoring measures a deal; it is not the point of one. Two players can play the same shuffle and finish with very different scores, because the same cards reward different choices.

What are the best Klondike solitaire strategies?

Klondike rewards a few habits more than flashy play, and they all work the same way: they give you more choices. Uncover face-down cards first — every hidden card you reveal multiplies your options, so prefer moves that expose a facedown card. Manage Kings before column space runs out: a buried King can block an entire column, so clear a column for it early when you can. Don't rush the foundations — a card kept in the tableau can unlock more value than the 10 points you get for parking it. Check the waste before every move: the top waste card is one of your most valuable options. And use the tools the game gives you: the Hint button highlights a suggested move, and Undo rewinds any mistake. None of this promises a win — some deals are unbeatable by anyone — but inside a deal that can be won these habits measurably raise your win rate.

• Uncover face-down cards first. Every hidden card you reveal multiplies your options; prefer moves that expose a facedown card.
• Deal with Kings before column space runs out. A buried King can block an entire column, so clear a column for it early when possible.
• Don't rush the foundations. A card kept in the tableau can unlock more value than the 10 points you get by parking it.
• Check the waste before every move. The top waste card is one of your most valuable options.
• Use hints and undo. The Hint button highlights a suggested move, and Undo rewinds any mistake.

Turn 1 or Turn 3: which should you play?

Turn 1 and Turn 3 are the same game with one rule changed: how many cards you draw from the stock at once. Turn 1 deals one card per draw, so a playable card appears more often and the waste is easier to track; it is the gentler mode and the one beginners usually start with. Turn 3 deals three cards per draw, and only the top card of each trio is playable, so a card you need can sit buried under two others. That makes Turn 3 the classic, harder challenge, and it rewards careful stock management — experienced players time their draws so a needed card doesn't get covered. You can switch with the Turn 1 / Turn 3 buttons above the board, and a new deal starts in the mode you chose. There is no right answer, only the mode that matches how you like to play.

What is a winnable shuffle?

A winnable shuffle is a deal that has been checked and verified solvable before it reaches you. Every deal in Winnable mode is confirmed winnable in advance — but solving it is still you. There are no auto-wins and no hints that play for you: you make the moves, and some deals are harder than others. The verification happens before the deal is offered, so the promise is the deal itself — not luck. Winnable mode is an opt-in choice; the default deal stays a random shuffle with honest odds and no guarantee. The two modes never mix: your win rate in Winnable mode is recorded separately from your random play, so the numbers stay honest. A winnable deal is verified by the game before it reaches you — and winnable never means easy: some deals are harder than others, and the solving is still yours to do.

Random vs winnable: two modes, honest odds

Deal Solitaire has two shuffle modes, and they keep separate records on purpose. Random shuffle is the default: every deal is a true random shuffle with honest odds, and no deal is promised winnable — a share of deals cannot be won no matter how well you play. Winnable shuffle is opt-in: every deal is verified solvable before it reaches you, but solving it is still you — no auto-wins, and difficulty varies from deal to deal. The two modes never blend: your win rate, streaks, and best times are recorded separately for each mode, because a single blended number would make both modes dishonest. Whichever mode you choose, the deal is what the game says it is: random deals are honest shuffles, winnable deals are verified — and both are recorded without mixing. The choice is one tap away, and the records never meet.

What is the Daily Challenge?

The Daily Challenge is one deal a day, the same for every player, seeded by the date and verified winnable. Everyone who plays today's challenge gets the same deal, and every challenge has a number — share it, replay it, compare how you did. The Challenge is a separate surface from free play: it has its own record, and it never touches your free-play win rate or streaks. Miss a day? It's just unplayed — the calendar doesn't count it against you, and unplayed days are not losses. Because the daily deal is verified winnable, a lost Challenge is a real loss: the deal could be won, and the moves were yours. There is no countdown and no urgency — the same deal waits for every player all day. Play it at noon or at midnight: the deal and its number are the same for every player.

Klondike vs FreeCell: what's the difference?

Klondike and FreeCell are the two most common windowed solitaire games, and they reward very different habits. Klondike — the game on this page — uses one 52-card deck split into a 24-card stock pile and seven tableau columns with face-down cards. Its luck comes from two places: the order of the deal and the order the stock feeds you. FreeCell deals all 52 cards face up across eight columns, with nothing hidden and no stock. The entire game state is visible from the first move, so play is pure planning: you clear cards by moving whole runs through four spare cell slots, and because nothing is concealed, almost every deal can be solved with careful thought. Klondike is the opposite — no deal is guaranteed to be winnable, which is exactly why a freshly shuffled table stays interesting.

If you prefer FreeCell's pure-puzzle feel, try Klondike in Turn 1 mode: one card per draw keeps more of the game in your hands and rewards patience over luck.

Is Solitaire a game of skill or luck?

Both — and it's worth being honest about which is which. Whether a particular deal can be won is decided by the shuffle, before you touch a single card. Researchers Charlie Blake and Ian Gent measured exactly how often with a solver called Solvitaire: about 82% of standard Klondike deals are winnable — even in the "thoughtful" variant, where the player can see every card in the deck (81.945% ± 0.084%, arXiv:1906.12314, published in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2026). With Turn 1 play that rises to about 90%. In real play, where cards stay hidden, the effective rates are lower still. The study improved the best previous estimate of Klondike's winnability by a factor of 30. The honest headline: a meaningful share of deals cannot be won no matter how well you play. That is the luck part, and it is outside your control. This figure describes Random play only — the honest odds of a true shuffle. Winnable deals are not measured this way: they are verified solvable by construction, and no win rate is published for them, because the outcome is up to the player, not the shuffle.

Inside a deal that can be won, skill decides the outcome. Experienced players win the same deal far more often than beginners because they make different choices: they uncover face-down tableau cards before building foundations, they hold an empty column open for a king instead of using it for a small run, they check the waste before every move, and in Turn 3 they time their draws so a needed card doesn't get buried under two more. Those habits measurably raise your win rate — but they can't rescue an unwinnable random deal. The Winnable shuffle's promise is different: every deal can be won — but some are much harder than others, and no mode plays the game for you. Play for the wins you can take, and treat the rest as the honest odds of the game.

Where did Klondike solitaire come from?

Klondike's exact origins are unclear, and its name is disputed: some authors connect it to the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, but no solid evidence supports the link. The game first appears in print in the 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games, called "Seven-Card Klondike" and played three cards at a time; by 1913 the rules were renamed Klondike and switched to one card at a time — which is why Turn 3 is sometimes called the classic form. For a while the game was also known in America as Canfield, after Richard Canfield's casino in Saratoga Springs, New York; Canfield himself called his game "Klondike," and the two names tangled for decades. What made Klondike the world's default solitaire was Microsoft. Windows 3.0 shipped it in 1990, written by intern Wes Cherry with a card design by Susan Kare, and it taught a generation of computer users to handle a mouse — Microsoft said in 1994 that Solitaire had become the most-used application in Windows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related solitaire games

Klondike is one of hundreds of patience games, and a few family favorites make good next stops. Spider, the third member of the windowed classics, deals ten columns of face-down cards and asks you to build descending runs of a single suit — harder to start, harder to finish, and even less forgiving of a bad shuffle. FreeCell deals every card face up and plays like pure planning, with no stock at all. Pyramid and TriPeaks both clear the table by matching pairs rather than building sequences. Golf turns solitaire into a fast, luck-friendly sprint. All of them are free, run entirely in your browser, and play by the same honest rule: deals are random shuffles, and nothing is guaranteed.