Which solitaire should I play?
They look alike and they are not alike. Here's the honest guide.
| Game | Wins | Why you'd pick it |
|---|
| Klondike | often | You want the familiar one, and you want to win a decent share of the time. |
| FreeCell | almost always | You want a puzzle with no luck in it at all. Every card is face up from the start. |
| Yukon | usually | You like FreeCell's honesty but want more freedom — lift any card, whatever is on top of it. |
| Spider | usually (one suit) | You want something to sink half an hour into. Long, absorbing, and it rewards patience. |
| Golf | rarely | You have two minutes. Fast, chainy, and losing costs you nothing. |
| Turn Three | seldom | You've had enough of winning and want the real fight. |
| Forty Thieves | hardly ever | You want to be beaten by a card game and enjoy it. Build in suit, no redeal, no mercy. |
What this table does differently
- It tells you when a deal is dead. Not every solitaire deal can be won, and when yours can't, this one says so instead of letting you stare at it. That isn't a failure — some shuffles are simply lost from the start.
- Tap, don't drag. Most people play solitaire on a phone, and dragging a card with your thumb is horrible. Tap a card, tap where it goes. Tap it twice and it flies home.
- Unlimited undo, and no score to protect. Explore the deal. Nobody's watching.
- It works with the internet off. Load the page once and it's yours — on a plane, on the underground, in a waiting room with no signal.
- No account, no email, no download, nothing to buy.
The rule everybody argues about
In FreeCell, how many cards can you actually move at once? The answer isn't a fixed number — it's (free cells + 1), doubled for every empty column. Four cells and no empty columns lets you shift five cards. Four cells and two empty columns lets you shift twenty. That single formula is why FreeCell players are so protective of empty columns, and why the game shows you the live number instead of making you count.