Klondike is the game most people mean when they simply say "solitaire." It is the version that shipped with Windows for decades, the one people deal from a real deck on kitchen tables, and the default at nearly every card website. Despite its fame, plenty of players click cards without ever quite grasping the rules, winning by luck rather than understanding. This guide fixes that by walking you through Klondike from the very first deal to the final King placed on its foundation.
By the end you will know how the board is laid out, what each pile is for, which moves are legal, and how to think your way toward a win. If you want to follow along hands-on, open a fresh game of Klondike in another tab and deal alongside the steps below. Learning by doing is by far the fastest route.
What You Need to Play Klondike
Klondike uses a single standard deck of 52 cards, with no jokers. That is the entire kit. When you play online the deck is shuffled and dealt for you instantly, but knowing the physical version helps you picture what is happening on screen. The deck contains four suits, hearts and diamonds in red and clubs and spades in black, each running from Ace up through King. Those colours matter enormously, because Klondike is built around alternating red and black cards.
Setting Up the Klondike Board
The layout has three distinct zones, and understanding each one is the key to the whole game. When you start a new deal, the cards are dealt into a specific pattern.
The Tableau
The main playing area is the tableau: seven columns of cards dealt left to right. The first column gets one card, the second two, the third three, and so on up to seven cards in the last column. Only the top card of each column is turned face up; everything beneath stays face down until you uncover it. That staircase of 28 cards is where most of the action takes place.
The Stock and Waste
After the tableau is dealt, 24 cards remain. These form the stock, the face-down draw pile usually shown in a corner. When you turn cards from the stock they land face up on the waste pile, and the top card of the waste is always available to play. The stock is your reserve of fresh options when the tableau stalls.
The Foundations
The four foundation piles start empty and are where you win the game. Each foundation is reserved for one suit and must be built up in order, starting with the Ace and climbing Ace, 2, 3, and so on to the King. Move all 52 cards to the foundations and you have won.
The Goal of the Game
Everything you do in Klondike serves one purpose: getting every card onto the foundations, sorted by suit and stacked from Ace to King. To reach that goal you have to uncover the face-down cards buried in the tableau, free the Aces and low cards trapped underneath, and feed them up in the right order. The tableau is a working space where you rearrange cards to expose what you need; the foundations are the destination.
How to Play: Turn by Turn
A single turn in Klondike follows a loose but reliable rhythm. Here is the sequence experienced players run through almost automatically:
- Scan the tableau. Look for any Aces or 2s you can send straight to the foundations, and play them first.
- Make tableau moves. Move face-up cards between columns to build descending, alternating-colour sequences and expose face-down cards.
- Turn a face-down card. Whenever a move uncovers a face-down card, flip it face up. Every card you reveal is new information and new possibility.
- Fill empty columns. If a column becomes completely empty, place a King there, ideally one that unblocks other cards.
- Draw from the stock. When the tableau offers no useful moves, turn cards from the stock to the waste and play what you can.
- Repeat. Continue cycling through these steps until you win or run out of moves.
The heart of good play is doing as much as possible on the tableau before diving into the stock, because tableau moves reveal hidden cards while stock draws do not.
The Rules of Movement
Klondike has just a few rules governing how cards may move, and knowing them cold prevents almost every beginner error. Keep these in mind:
- Tableau builds down in alternating colours. You place a card on another that is one rank higher and the opposite colour, so a red 6 goes on a black 7.
- Foundations build up by suit. Each foundation starts with an Ace and climbs in the same suit, 2, 3, 4, up to King.
- Only Kings fill empty columns. An empty tableau column can only be started with a King, whether from the tableau or the waste.
- You can move whole sequences. A properly ordered run of face-up cards can be moved together onto a valid card, not just one card at a time.
- The waste top card is always live. The face-up card on top of the waste can go to the tableau or a foundation whenever it fits.
Master those five and you know the legal machinery of Klondike completely. Everything else is strategy. For a deeper look at each rule and the edge cases around them, our full breakdown in Klondike solitaire rules explained goes further.
Draw One or Draw Three
When you start a game you will often be asked to choose between draw one and draw three. This decides how many cards flip from the stock at a time. In draw one you turn a single card and every stock card is easy to reach, which makes the game noticeably easier and friendlier for beginners. In draw three you flip three at once and can normally only play the top of the trio, which hides cards and demands more planning. Beginners should start with draw one; the difference is significant enough that we devote a whole guide to it in Klondike draw 1 vs draw 3.
A Simple First-Game Mindset
For your very first games, keep your thinking simple. Play any Ace the moment you see it, then hunt for the 2s that go on top. Prioritise moves that flip face-down cards over moves that just shuffle face-up cards around, because buried cards are the real obstacle. Do not rush to send every card to the foundations; sometimes you need a low card to stay in the tableau as a landing spot. Once you are comfortable, our Klondike strategy guide will sharpen these instincts into a genuine plan.
Klondike, Spider, and FreeCell
Klondike is one of a family of solitaire games, and trying its cousins deepens your feel for cards. Spider uses two decks and asks you to build long same-suit sequences rather than alternating colours, while FreeCell deals every card face up and gives you free cells to park cards in, which rewards pure planning. Each teaches a slightly different skill, and comparing them is genuinely rewarding once Klondike feels natural. Whichever you try, the tableau discipline you learn here carries over.
Conclusion
Klondike comes down to a handful of ideas: deal seven columns, build the tableau down in alternating colours, fill empty spaces with Kings, and feed Aces up to the foundations until the whole deck is sorted. Play the tableau before the stock, uncover face-down cards at every chance, and start with draw one while you learn. Ready to try it yourself? Open a fresh game of Klondike and deal your first hand, or explore every game and guide on the dukeofsolitaire.com homepage to keep building your skills.