Play Solitaire free, with every deal verified winnable
Solitaire is what people picture when they hear the word: one deck, seven tableau columns, four foundations to build up by suit from Ace to King. It's the default Solitaire that shipped with Windows for decades, and it's still the most-played single-player card game in the world.
The catch with most online versions is the shuffle. A truly random 52-card deal is sometimes mathematically impossible to win — researchers estimate that with standard rules and unlimited redeals, somewhere around 1 in 30 random Solitaire deals can't be solved no matter how well you play. Most Solitaire sites don't check for this, so you can lose a game you played perfectly. This site does check: before a deal is shown to you, it's run through a solver that searches for a winning sequence of moves. If a deal can't be confirmed winnable within a reasonable search, it's discarded and reshuffled.
Heads up: Draw-3 deals are harder to verify quickly because more cards stay buried, so on rare occasions a Draw-3 game may load before the solver finishes checking it. The status line tells you if that happens — it's still a fairly shuffled deck, just not solver-confirmed.
How to play Solitaire
- The board deals seven columns, with one card face up on each and the rest face down, plus a stock pile of the remaining cards.
- Build the four foundation piles up by suit, starting with the Ace and ending with the King.
- On the tableau columns, stack cards in descending order, alternating red and black — for example, a black 9 onto a red 10.
- Move a face-down card to face up once it becomes the top card of its column.
- Click the stock pile to turn over new cards into the waste pile when you need more options.
- Only a King, or a run starting with a King, can be placed into an empty column.
- The game is won when all 52 cards are sorted onto the four foundations.
Solitaire rules in detail
Each of the seven tableau columns is dealt with one more card than the last, so column one has a single face-up card and column seven has seven cards, six of them face down. As you clear face-up cards from a column, the card beneath it turns face up automatically — that's how new options open up during play.
Cards move between tableau columns as a single card or as a connected run: any sequence of alternating colors already in descending order can be dragged together. Switch between Draw 1 (turn over one card at a time, the easier casual standard) and Draw 3 (turn over three at a time, only the top one playable, the harder mode favored by purists) using the toolbar above the board.
Why some online Solitaire games can't be won
A standard deck shuffled completely at random produces a Solitaire layout that's solvable a little over 90% of the time. The rest of the time, no matter how carefully you plan your moves, the cards you need are buried in a way that makes a win impossible — usually because two cards that both need to come out from under each other at different points end up stacked the wrong way, with no detour available.
That's an unavoidable fact about Solitaire's rules, not a flaw in any one website. The fix isn't to change the rules; it's to check each shuffle before play starts. This site generates a randomized deal the same way any fair Solitaire game does, then has a solver attempt to find a complete winning sequence. Only deals that pass this check are dealt to you.
More Solitaire on this site
Spider Solitaire
Ten columns, your choice of 1, 2, or 4 suits. 1-suit deals are solver-verified winnable, same as this game above.
Solitaire strategy
The habits that separate players who win consistently from players who get stuck — uncover columns early, don't rush foundations.
Frequently asked questions
Drawing rules, scoring, what "winnable" actually means, and answers to the questions we hear most.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Solitaire game free to play?
Yes. Solitaire and Spider on this site are completely free to play, with no download, no installation, and no account required. The game runs directly in your browser on desktop and mobile.
Can every game on this site actually be won?
Every Solitaire deal is generated and then run through a solver that searches for a complete winning sequence of moves before the deal is shown to you. If the solver cannot confirm a win within its search budget, that deal is discarded and a new one is shuffled, so in practice the hands you are dealt are winnable.
What is the difference between Draw 1 and Draw 3?
Draw 1 turns over one card at a time from the stock, giving you access to every card in the deck eventually. Draw 3 turns over three at a time but only the top card is playable, which buries cards more deeply and is considered the harder, more traditional mode.
Do I need to create an account to track my stats?
No account is required. Move count and time are tracked for your current game only, in your browser, and reset when you start a new game.
Does this site work on mobile phones and tablets?
Yes. The board, cards, and controls resize for touch screens, and cards can be moved by tapping a card and then tapping its destination.