How Does a Person Play Cards Alone?
Other People Are Reading
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Choosing a Game
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People who play cards alone have a wide variety of games from which to choose. These card games are called "solitaire" in the United States and "patience" in Great Britain. The most well known solitaire game, Klondike, requires a combination of luck and skill, and many other solitaire card games involve variations on this basic game.
Picking a Deck
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Most solitaire games use a standard deck of 52 playing cards plus two to four jokers, although many games require removing the jokers before dealing. Solitaire players may choose to use a standard-sized deck, or a slightly larger poker deck. Extra small card decks can be particularly useful for players who have limited space, or who want to play cards alone while traveling. Many of the most common solitaire card games such as Klondike, Free Cell and Spider Solitaire are also available in online versions, both on desktop computers and on handheld devices.
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Dealing
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In most solitaire games, the player must shuffle her cards, then deal them out in piles in a pre-set order. For example, in Klondike, the player places one card face up, then six cards face down in a row. The player then deals one face-up card on top of the first face-down card, and the rest face down. This continues until all the piles have a face-up card on top. Many solitaire games use variations of this basic dealing pattern. In other solitaire games such as accordion, the player only turns over one card at a time, and tries to play each card as it comes up.
Playing
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Many solitaire games involve playing the cards in foundations and tableaus. In Klondike, the player uses the cards in the draw pile (the cards left after dealing) and the dealt cards to create tableaus, or piles of cards in numerical order that are all of the same suit or alternating red and black. The foundations are piles for each suit the player places above the tableaus, starting with the ace and going up in numerical order, ending with kings. Other games, such as accordion, involve setting out the cards one by one, and stacking them whenever the card to the left or two spaces to the left matches in number or suit.
Winning
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The player wins when all of the cards are on the foundations, or otherwise arranged in the order required by the game. Some solitaire games are easier to win than others. For example, the official goal of accordion is to get all the cards into one pile, but since this is nearly impossible, many players consider the game a win if they achieve five piles or less. Since solitaire games require only one player, there is no competition between players. Some players may choose to keep track of how many games they win, or how many they win in a row.
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