Three cards at a time
In draw-three Klondike, each tap on the stock turns three cards over together, and only the top one of the three can be played. The two beneath it come into play only once the top card has gone somewhere. That one rule is what makes draw 3 the harder game: a card you need can sit in the stock, out of reach, pass after pass, until you play the cards in front of it.
This is the way the Windows game dealt by default, and the way many people learned Solitaire. As on draw 1, you can go through the stock as many times as you like, and every deal here has been played through and won before you see it.
How to play
Klondike is played with one pack of 52 cards. The goal is to move every card onto four piles at the top, one for each suit, building each from the Ace up to the King. The full rules, with pictures and tips.
- The columns. Seven columns are dealt, from one card to seven, with only the front card face up. In the columns, cards go down in order and alternate colours: a red 6 on a black 7, a black Jack on a red Queen.
- Moving several cards. A face-up card can move with all the cards on top of it, as long as they stay in order.
- Empty columns take only a King, with any cards on it.
- The stock. When you need a new card, tap the stock to turn three cards; only the top one can be played. When the stock runs out, tap it again to turn the pile over and go through it again, as often as you like.
- The suit piles start with an Ace and take the 2, 3 and so on of the same suit. A card can come back down from them if you need it.
Controls
Tap or click a card and it goes to the best place for it: up to its suit pile when it fits there, otherwise onto a column. You can also drag a card, or a run of cards, where you want it. With a keyboard, Tab moves between the face-up cards and Enter moves one. D turns cards from the stock, H asks for a hint, U undoes and N starts a new deal.
Undo takes back any move, as many times as you like. Hint looks ahead and shows a good next move, with a sentence that says why. Once every card is face up and the stock is used, the last cards go up to their piles by themselves.
Tips for draw 3
- Watch the order of the stock. Because cards come out in threes, playing a single card from the turned-up pile changes which cards you will see on the next pass.
- Before you go through the stock again, play a card from the turned-up pile if you can, even one you don’t urgently need: it shifts the whole stock by one and brings new cards to the top.
- Still turn over hidden cards first, and still keep an empty column for a King.
- Use Undo freely. Trying a line and taking it back is part of the game here.
New to Solitaire? Start with draw 1, and read how to play Solitaire.