By Online Solitaire Free Editorial Team · Editorial Standards
Klondike, Spider, and FreeCell are well known. But the patience tradition includes dozens of lesser-known solitaire games playable with a standard deck. Here are the best hidden gems worth learning.
Victorian-era game books documented over 200 named patience variants. Most have never been digitised — they exist only in 19th-century books and the memories of dedicated card game enthusiasts. With a standard deck of cards, you can play nearly all of them.
Deal all 52 cards face-down into 13 piles arranged like a clock face (12 outer positions plus one centre pile). Turn the top card of the centre pile, place it face-up under the pile corresponding to its rank (Ace=1, Jack=11, Queen=12, King=centre). Continue with that pile. Win if all cards are face-up before all four Kings are revealed. Win rate: approximately 1 in 13.
A surprisingly strategic game despite its name. Deal four cards in a row. If any are the same suit and not separated by more than 3 positions, remove the lower card. If all four are the same suit, remove three of them. Fill gaps by shifting remaining cards right, then deal four more. The goal is to eliminate all cards — rarely achieved, always engaging.
Deal a 5×5 grid of 25 cards. Remove pairs of matching rank that are adjacent (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). Consolidate remaining cards to fill gaps, maintaining order. Deal new cards to fill the grid to 25. Win by pairing all 52 cards. Achievable about 10–15% of the time.
One of the oldest documented patience games. Deal cards one at a time into four waste piles of your choice. Aces automatically go to foundations when dealt. Build foundations up by suit from Ace to King using the top cards of waste piles. Skill in deciding which waste pile to use makes a significant difference to win rates.
Draw cards in pairs and score cribbage hands — pairs, runs, 15-combinations. Track your score over 26 pairs (the full deck). The goal is to reach 121 points (the standard cribbage winning score) before running out of cards. Requires cribbage knowledge but plays quickly and is deeply satisfying for fans of both games.