Solitaire Rules: How to Play

A phone, tablet or computer with a browser. Each player uses their own device.

You can play alone, against bots, or with friends. Everyone in the room races the same deal, each on their own table.

Solitaire uses one deck of 52 cards. The table has four parts.

• The columns: seven of them, side by side. The first holds one card, the second two, and so on up to seven. The top card of each column is face up and the rest are face down. That is 28 cards.
• The stock: the other 24 cards, face down at the top left. The number on it shows how many cards are left in it.
• The waste: the face-up pile beside the stock, where the cards you draw land.
• The foundations: four spaces at the top right, one for each suit. This is home.

Get all 52 cards home. Each foundation is built up in one suit, from the ace to the king. Every card on a foundation counts as one card home, and that count is what the other players see as you race.

• Onto a column: a card goes on a card one rank higher and of the other color. A red six goes on a black seven.
• A run: face-up cards stacked on a column can move together, from any face-up card down to the top.
• Into an empty column: a king, or a run that starts with a king. Nothing else.
• Onto a foundation: the next card up in that suit, one card at a time. The ace comes first.
• From the waste: the top card can go to a column or to its foundation.
• Back from a foundation: the top card of a foundation can come back down onto a column where it fits.
• When a move leaves a face-down card on top of a column, that card turns face up.

Tap the stock to draw. With draw one, one card goes face up onto the waste. With draw three, three cards go at once and you can play the top one. Play it, and the card under it is next. If fewer than three cards are left, a draw turns what is there.

The waste shows up to three cards spread out, so you can see what lies under the top card.

When the stock is empty, tap its space to turn the waste over. It becomes the stock again, with the cards in the same order as before.

You can go through the stock as many times as you like. There is no limit and no penalty.

Before each deal the host picks two settings. They are remembered on the host’s device for next time. A device that has never hosted starts on draw one with no time limit.

• Draw: 1 card or 3 cards at a time from the stock.
• Time: none, or a limit of 3, 5 or 10 minutes for the race.

1. Host a room and share the room code, or play on your own.
2. Add bots in the lobby if you want them.
3. Start the game. Everyone moves to the game screen and sees the instructions.
4. Once everyone has reached the game screen, the host sees the deal settings. Anyone still reading the instructions is waited for. Anyone else slow to arrive gets about 10 seconds.
5. The host picks the draw and the time, then taps Deal. Everyone else sees a note that the host deals.
6. Every player on the game screen gets the same deal, and the race is on.

1. The cards are dealt and your clock starts.
2. Look for moves in the columns, and tap the stock to draw when you need more cards.
3. Build the columns down in alternating colors to turn over the face-down cards.
4. Send cards home to the foundations as they come free, ace first.
5. When nothing in the columns is face down and the rest can all go home, the game finishes itself.
6. Your time locks in when the last card goes home. You then see the standings so far while you wait for the others.
7. The race ends when everyone still in it has finished or stopped, or when the time limit runs out. Then the host can change the settings and play again.

Every deal is checked before it goes out, so it can be won from the cards as dealt, with the draw the host picked.

You can still get stuck by the order you play in. If no move is left anywhere, however far you turn the stock, a note under the table says so. Undo to try another way, or tap “stop here” to end your race with the cards you have home.

You never have to carry the last cards home one by one. As soon as every card in the columns is face up and the rest can all go home, the game plays the finish for you, a card at a time, without being asked.

Your clock runs until the last card lands.

The undo button takes back your last move, then the one before it, and so on, a long way back. A draw counts as a move, so a draw can be undone too.

Undo has no penalty. It costs you the time it takes and nothing more.

Tap the light bulb to turn hint mode on. It stays on until you tap it again.

While it is on, the next move of a winning line stays lit: the card or run to move, and the place it goes. When the next move is a draw, the stock is lit. Tap the lit cards and they go where the hint says. Follow the lit moves all the way and you win.

If you make a different move, hint mode looks for a winning line from where you are now and lights that. If it cannot find one, the undo button lights up and a note says you are off the winning line. Undo until a move is lit again.

Hint mode is open to every player, as often as you like, with no penalty.

A strip along the top shows every player in the race, in order of place. Each one has a small picture of their table: how high each foundation has reached, and a bar for each column showing how much of it is face down and face up.

Over the picture is the number of cards that player has home. When someone finishes, the number turns into their time.

The first player to get every card home wins. Everyone who finished is ranked by time, fastest first.

Anyone who has not finished is ranked below every finisher, by cards home, most first. If two players have the same number home, the one who reached it first is ahead.

With a time limit, the race stops for everyone when it runs out. If nobody finished, the player with the most cards home wins. The time left shows beside your clock and turns gold in the last 30 seconds.

The number of moves you make does not count. If nobody gets a single card home, the race has no winner.

Any player can pause the race for everyone, and any player can resume it. While it is paused, every table is covered so nobody can plan ahead, and the bots wait too. Paused time does not count on your clock.

• Ties: finishers are ranked by exact time, so a true tie is very rare. Players who do tie share the place.
• Passes through the stock: unlimited, with draw one and with draw three.
• Stuck: if no move is left, undo or stop. A player who stops keeps their cards home and is ranked with the players who did not finish.
• Someone leaves the room: they drop out of the race and the standings.
• Someone never finishes: with no time limit, the race waits for them. Once the host has finished or stopped, the host can end the race for everyone.
• The host leaves the game: the race ends for everyone.
• A late joiner: if you arrive more than a few seconds after the deal, you wait and join the next race. You will see a message that a race is in progress.
• Play again: the host can change the draw and the time on the final screen. In a group, every new race is a fresh deal for everyone.

The host can add up to three bots in the lobby, each set to easy, medium or hard. Bots race the same deal as everyone else and show up in the strip like any player. They start when the host deals.

A bot plays a winning line for the deal, one move at a time. A draw takes it less time than a move.

An easy bot takes several seconds a move. Now and then it stops to think, or makes a move and takes it back. A medium bot is quicker and slips a little less often. A hard bot plays about a move a second and never slips.

Host a room on your own, start, and tap Deal. It is you against the clock, with a bot beside you if you add one in the lobby.

Your best time is kept on your device, one for draw one and one for draw three.

Host a room and send the room code or invite link. Friends open it on their own phones, wherever they are, and race the same deal.

Open joinme.games/watch on a TV or laptop and enter the room code. The big screen shows every player’s table in brief, side by side, with their cards home, then the final standings.

Everyone plays on their own phone. The TV only watches.

• Drag a card, or a run of cards, to where it goes.
• Or tap it. A card that can go home goes home on a tap, and a card with one place to go moves there. If it has more than one place to go, it lifts up: tap where you want it, or tap it again to put it down.
• To put a card on a column when it could also go home, drag it.
• Tap the stock to draw. When it is empty, tap its space to turn the waste over.
• The curved arrow is undo. The light bulb is hint mode.
• The pause button, or P or Escape on a keyboard, pauses the race for everyone.
• The question mark shows the instructions. The × leaves the game.
• Turn a phone on its side and the players’ strip moves to the left edge. The stock, waste and foundations are drawn smaller, so the cards in the columns can be bigger.

How do you play Solitaire?

Build the four foundations up by suit from ace to king. In the seven columns, stack cards down in alternating colors to turn over the face-down cards, and tap the stock to draw more. A king can go into an empty column. Get all 52 cards home to finish.

Is every game of Solitaire winnable?

Not from any shuffle. On Join Me Games every deal is checked before it goes out, so it can be won. You can still get stuck by the order you play in, and undo has no penalty.

What is the difference between draw one and draw three?

Draw one turns one card from the stock at a time, so you can reach every card in it. Draw three turns three at once and you can play the top one, so a card stays out of reach until the cards over it are played. Draw three is the harder game. The host picks before the deal.

How many times can you go through the stock in Solitaire?

As many as you like. When the stock is empty, tap its space to turn the waste over and draw again. There is no limit and no penalty, with draw one or draw three.

Can you play Solitaire with friends?

Yes. Host a room and share the room code. Everyone gets the same deal on their own device, and the first to get every card home wins. You can also play alone or add up to three bots.

Do undo and hints count against you?

No. Undo and hint mode are open to everyone and have no penalty. They cost you the time you spend on them, since your clock keeps running.