How to Play Single Player Card Games

You can create hours of amusement on your own once you master single player card games like solitaire. All you need is yourself, a deck of cards and a little time on your own.

Things You'll Need

• Table or other hard, smooth surface on which to play cards
• Standard deck of 52 cards with Jokers removed

Instructions

1. Shuffle or mix up the cards and place the top card face up on your playing surface to begin a basic game of solitaire, or Klondike, the most popular single player card game. You will then deal out 6 more cards from left to right, face down on the playing surface.

2. Deal the second row of cards by placing a card face up on the second column and dealing 1 card face down on the remaining columns. Repeat this process by dealing a card face up to each progressive column until all 7 columns have a card face up on top.

3. Place any aces that are showing in a horizontal row above the 7 columns of cards, called the "tableau." The aces form the "foundation" of play and you will place cards of the same suit in numerical order from ace to king, as they are revealed.

4. Pull cards in groups of 3 as needed from the stack remaining after the tableau is dealt and all cards that can possibly be played to the foundation have been. This stack is referred to as the "stock" and the discards from it are referred to as the "talon."

5. Build piles with cards from the tableau and the stock by place cards of opposite color suit in increasing numerical or face value on top of each other. This will help you move cards from the tableau to the foundation.

6. Game play ends when all 52 cards have been moved in the proper order to the foundation or the player is no longer able to legally play any of the cards in the stock, talon or tableau.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be discouraged if you don't win at solitaire right away. This is a game of chance as much as it is a game of skill.