How to Win in Solitaire

Solitaire has been one of the most popular games in the world for a long while, and that’s not going to change any time soon. There are still well over 30 million each month that play at least one or two hands of solitaire, with several million playing on a daily basis. If you’re new to the game or have been sitting around in the beginner’s mode for years, there are tips that you should know.

Not every hand of solitaire is going to be a winner, but if you want to improve your skills, here are five tips that you need to know that will help you win more games. When you’re playing on expert levels and winning each hand, you’ll be thanking us!

1. Use Your Stock First

One mistake that a lot of solitaire players make from the very beginning is that they start to focus on the cards at the bottom and save the stock once everything is settled below. However, it should be the inverse at the start. Getting the stock cards out of the way is the most important thing you can do as a solitaire player, and there may be some cards you need on the first flip. This includes aces, which can get you started off on the right foot.

2. Get The Aces Out of the Way

If there are any aces available on the table, make sure to put them into the foundations table right away. First, flip the top stock cards, then take care of any aces that are there. Aces don’t have any other purpose in solitaire but to be the base of the foundation piles. If there are any twos, try to get those on the aces pile right away, as well. The threes can wait, but the aces and deuces have to go.

3. Use Your Kings

In almost every game of solitaire, there is going to be a vacant spot where there are no cards to flip over. When this happens, make sure that there’s a king that fills the void as it will be paramount in dumping off the queens and other lower cards. If your king is sitting on a tableau with a lot of cards with it, that can be a huge benefit to the rest of your game to move it on over to the vacant spot. However, if you’re filling two vacant spots, try to make sure that the kings are different colors.

4. Make Big Piles a Priority

The farther to the right a tableau is at the start of a game of solitaire, the higher it should be on your priority list. Trying to get the tableaus evened out from right to left is the easiest way to win quickly, but it’s not always possible. Still, focus on shrinking those piles before you start worrying about the tableaus that have just one or two cards.

5. Cards Don’t Have To Go To Foundations Right Away

One of the more common mistakes that people make right away is getting every card into the foundation as soon as they possibly can. It’s very enticing, of course, as building the foundation stacks means that you’re getting closer to winning the game, but you may need those cards. If you end up burying them, they can’t be brought back into your playing area right away (if at all). Those cards could end up saving you, so keep them in play as long as possible.

Bonus. Learn to Accept Defeat

There are a lot of people that think that every single game of solitaire has a winning path, but that’s not the case. There are some games that are simply impossible to win, and it’s best to not worry about trying to get through your already-established foundations to find the cards you need. We all want to win, but we can’t win them all!