If you are new to the game, start with how to play Solitaire: the layout, how cards move and how the stock works. This page picks up from there.
Turn over hidden cards first
Twenty-one cards start face down in the columns, and the cards you need are usually among them. A move that turns one over is almost always better than a move that only tidies up. When you have a choice, take the card from the column with the most hidden cards: it has the most to give.
Send Aces and 2s up at once, and the rest with care
An Ace or a 2 is never needed in the columns, so send them up the moment they are free. Higher cards are different. A card on its suit pile can no longer hold a lower card of the other colour, and that can strand a card you need to move.
A good rule of thumb: send a card up when both piles of the other colour have reached one rank below it. On this site, once every card is face up and the stock is used, the rest go up by themselves anyway.
It works the other way too. A card on a suit pile can come back down onto a column. If a red 6 needs somewhere to land and the 7♣ is on its pile, bring the 7♣ back down.
Only empty a column for a King
Only a King can go into an empty column, so an empty column with no King to fill it is wasted space, and the moves that emptied it might have turned over cards instead. Before you empty one, know which King will go there.
If you can choose between a red and a black King, look at the Queens. Pick the King whose Queen of the other colour is ready to follow it: a black King for a red Queen you can see, a red King for a black one.
Play the stock with a purpose
In draw 1 you see every card of the stock on each pass, and on this site you can pass through it as often as you like. Turn through it whenever the table is stuck, but take a card from it only when that card goes somewhere useful. A card played from the stock to a column can block the column it lands on.
In draw 3 only every third card is playable, and playing one changes which cards you will see next time round. Say the stock holds nine cards. Turning three at a time shows you the 3rd, 6th and 9th. If you play the 3rd card, the groups move along by one: the rest of that pass shows the 6th and 9th, but next time round you see the 4th, 7th and 9th. A card that seems out of reach can come into view this way.
- Count before you play. Each card you play from the stock moves every card behind it one place forward. In the example, the 4th card came into view because one card in front of it was played.
- Don’t rush. Playing every card you can from the stock is not always best: it may push a card you need out of reach.
Keep your options open
- Mind which card you use. Two cards fit on any card: a red 6 takes the 5♠ or the 5♣. If one of them is buried, save the spot for it.
- Move long runs to uncover cards, not just to tidy. A run of five moving across is worth it if a hidden card turns over.
- Avoid building where you will have to dig. Piling cards onto a column with many hidden cards makes them harder to reach.
Draw 1 or draw 3?
Draw 1 is the gentler game and the better place to practise these habits. Draw 3, the standard setting of the old Windows game, rewards counting and patience. On this site every deal, in both, has been played through and won by the computer before you see it, so if you get stuck, a way through is still there.
When you get stuck
- Undo a few moves and look for a different card to move first, or a different King for an empty column.
- Press Hint. It looks ahead and shows the next move with a sentence that says why. Try to guess it before you press.