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Patience / Solitaire

Card games for one player are called Patience in Britain and Solitaire in America. The web site pagat.com is devoted mostly to games for more than one player, but on this page I have provided some links to sites which specialise in one-player games. Some of these sites contain rules or analysis, and many of them provide software, since these solitary games are particularly suitable for play against a computer. If you have further links or information that should be included on this page, please let me know.

This page deals with solitaire (patience) games played with playing-cards. There are separate pages for:

Here is a link to an article by David Parlett on the Origins and History of Patience / Solitaire.

Randy Rasa's Solitaire Central site contains a wide range of information, including a searchable Solitaire Rulebook with descriptions of numerous games, a searchable collection of reviews of computer solitaire games for download, plus reviews of online solitaire games.

Here is an archive copy of Gordon Bower's Solitaire pages, which have rules of several solitaires, old and new, and investigations of the probability of winning.

For information about Freecell, see Michael Keller's Freecell site, including a tutorial, a catalog of solutions and free computer program Freecell Pro. A further collection of Freecell links can be found at Freecell.org.

Michael Keller also runs the Solitaire Laboratory, which includes a section on Giza.

The rules section of the BVS Solitaire site has rules for hundreds of solitaire games.

Boris Sandberg's BVS Solitaire is a collection of 392 different solitaire games, and allows the user to create new games by modifying the rules of the included games. The author writes: "You'll be able to learn solitaires not found elsewhere. BVS Solitaire Collection gives you a plethora of statistical and scoring screens. You can track your performance and progress in playing solitaire about as completely as many people use a computer to track their finances. And you can publish your personal statistics on the BVS Solitaire Collection web site to appear in the top scores list."

BVS also runs sites giving rules and strategy tips for Freecell and Spider, with free trial downloads of these games.

Rules for many Solitaire games are available on the the Bicycle Cards web site. The structure of this site changes frequently. When last checked, Solitaire games were best found by selecting "Solitaire" from the "What kind of game?" drop-down list.

Thomas Warfield's Pretty Good Solitaire is a collection of 570 solitaire games for Windows. Users can have their win/loss statistics posted on the web site. The site also contains the rules for all these games. From the same site you can also obtain Action Solitaire, in which you play for points against the clock in timed rounds, and Pretty Good Mahjongg, a collection of solitaire games using Mah Jong and other tile sets, including the well-known tile matching game, and also Mah Jong tile solitaires based on Freecell, Spider and Klondike.

SolSuite 2010 is a high quality Windows shareware collection of 500 different Solitaire games including Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, Pyramid, Golf, Busy Aces, Canfield, Forty Thieves, Diplomat, Four Seasons, Poker Solitaire, Flower Garden, Rouge et Noir, Scorpion, Monte Carlo, Sultan, La Belle Lucie, Gaps and several original games. Features include unlimited undo and redo, Snapshot position and Undo to snapshot, comprehensive statistics, customisable playing-cards and backgrounds, and an editor that lets you change the rules of any game.

HOYLE Card Games 2012 for Windows or Mac OS X includes a collection of solitaire games, which are also available as a separate package.

Microsoft's Solitaire, a computer version of Klondike Solitaire created by Wes Cherry, has been included with every version of Windows from 3.0 up.

Aisleriot Solitaire is a free collection of over 80 solitaire games programmed in the GNOME scripting language and available for Linux, Windows and Hildon platforms. A manual is available that lists and describes the games.

Zonora Technologies offers several shareware collections of solitaire games with comprehensive statistics and save, undo and replay facilities.

SolitaireGames4All.com is an English language edition of the Dutch site PatienceSpelen.nl with around 40 free games that can be played online in your browser; a German edition is also available at KartenSpielen.de. The Freecell game on these sites has a mechanism and game numbers consistent with the Microsoft Windows version.

1st Free Solitaire for Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/2003 is a free collection of 7 polular solitaire card games: Yukon, FreeCell, Klondike, Flower Garden, Nestor, Bisley, Carpet.

James Yates has written pages on Solitaire Strategy and Vegas-style Scoring, which discuss the strategy of Klondike Solitaire.

Absolute Patience by Bertrand Vauthier (Kamikaze Games), formerly known as Solo Cards, is a collection of 430 solitaire card games (over 600 if custom rules are included) played against the clock. The Absolute Paitience site also provides rules of several Solitaire games.

WebTV users: the following sites provide Solitaire games that can be played on-line - no downloads and no Java required!

Here are the rules for Cribbage Solitaire, in which you play Cribbage against the deck.

At World Winner players can compete in tournaments for cash prizes at Freecell, Solitaire Rush, Golf Solitaire, Catch 21 and other games.

Tournament Games Tournament Games - Online Tournament Solitaire and more with cash prizes to tournament winners! Play free or pay to play! $10.00 free credits to new players! Players download the free software and compete online. A range of games is offered, including:
  • a Klondike type of Solitaire, including a wild card, up to a 5 card deck spread and several bonus scoring features;
  • Triple Stars and Mega Stars, which are tower games similar to Tritowers.

Rick Holzgrafe's Semicolon Software publishes Solitaire Till Dawn, a collection of solitaire computer programs for the Macintosh, plus a discussion of the strategy for winning the various games:

Scott McNab's Card Games 4 Free site reviews a range of free Solitaire games.

Vegard Krog Petersen's Freeware Solitaire page has reviews of a large number of free solitaire packages.

Gabor Kertes has published a Windows Solitaire pack.

MVP Solitaire is a collection of shareware solitaire games for Windows.

Rajeev Hariharan's Explorer Solitaire site offers a range of Solitaire games for on-line play or download.

Hardwood Solitaire is a collection of over 80 3D solitaires for Windows from SilverCreek Entertainment.

2M Games Solitaires Collection offers a collection of 400 computer Solitaire games for Windows.

AS-Solitaire is a free collection of 40 Solitaire games for Windows, supplied with an editor which you can use to design your own cards for the game.

You can download Miha's Windows shareware collection 18 card games for 1 player which includes Freecell, Four Seasons, Golf, Alternate, Canfield, Auld Lang Syne, Castles in Spain, Klondike, Ship shape and Bristol fashion, The Battle of Ladies, Son of fortune, The Beleaguered Castle, Bisley, Fortress, Grandpa's clock, Princ Albert, Quadrille and Raglan. The free version gives access to a limited selection of these - to play all 18 you need to register the package, which includes a facility for the user to add further games by specifying their rules in a text file.

John Punzak's EverydayGames.net has a collection of Java solitaire games which can be played in a web browser. They include Klondike, Spider, Scorpion, Pyramid, Canfield, Freecell and others.

At the Solitaire Bliss site you can play Klondike, Spider, Freecell and Pyramid free online.

Roger Waters' Solitaire Innovations site offers computer solitaire games in which all the starting positions are selected to be winnable, movable cards are highlighted and multiple moves can be made with a single mouse click.

123 Free Solitaire is a freeware collection of solitaire games by TreeCardGames Inc. The same organisation also publishes several more free collections: 123 Free Solitaire for Children, NetSolitaire, and Spider Solitaire. Also 123 Free Puzzle Card Games, a collection of simple puzzles in which cards are moved around a small layout.

From Funkitron you can buy a Solitaire Kingdom Supreme - a variation of Klondike Solitaire for Windows in which the pack contains various bonus cards and key cards which confer special powers when discovered. Also available for Mac and iPhone.

Free Golf and Pyramid Solitaire programs for Windows can be downloaded from Alex van Trijffel's Soft-Central site.

At Preben Sonne's free Solitaire Timeout site you can play Klondike, Gold or Seahaven Towers online (Java required).

DKM software offers an range of free online Solitaire games.

At Spiele 247 you can play a range of solitaire games online, including Jewel Quest Solitaire, which starts as a solitaire card game similar to Tripeaks, in which you must discard exposed cards from a layout which are one rank higher or lower than the top card of the discard pile. For each discard you are given a jewel in a Jewel Quest tableau, and for discarding consecutive cards of the same suit you get the right to an extra exchange of adjacent jewels.

From Freeverse software you can obtain the Burning Monkey Solitaire 2 program for Windows or Macintosh computers.

Game Colony offers Freecell, Solitaire and Rush-21 head to head games and multi-player tournaments, which can be played free or for cash prizes.

Strike Solitaire runs online solitaire tournaments with a range of games to play.

GameAccount.comGameAccount.com offers three Solitaire games - Klondike, Pyramid and "Riverboat Rummy" - which can be played free or for cash prizes.

Several Solitaire games can be played on line at Game Desire

Games.com provides several free online Solitaire games.

The Dutch site SpelletjesOverzicht has a large collection of free online card games, most of which are solitaire games. There is a similar collection at games.co.za, with an interface in English.

On the social network site doof.com you can play Klondike, Golf Solitaire and various other games on line.

Here is a link to David Bernazzani's free Solitude for Windows software.

The shareware Absolutist Solitaire Studio has a range of solitaire games and a Solitaire Script language which allows you to design your own games and add them to the program.

PySol is a freeware collection of over 250 solitaire games by Markus Oberhumer. It runs on Unix (X11), Windows 95/98/NT and Macintosh computers.

King Sol is a collection of over 400 solitaire games for Windows.

At Solitaire Paradise, you can play verious solitaire games including Tri-Peaks Reserve, a more skilful variation of the popular Tri-Towers solitaire game, the similar Golf Solitaire and also Tower Solitaire and a variation of Pyramid Solitaire in which one card can be placed in a temporary store.

Amber Mango, a UK company based in York, offers Freecell3D, a 3D rendered version of Freecell with the emphasis on looks and features. The game features an animated solver and a the split-screen Race Mode where you compete against the computer to finish the same deal first.

A free online soltaire (Klondike) game is available on David Mahler's site.

The German site Skill 7 includes both Solitaire and multi-player games to play online.

The pokersquares.com site has offers an on-line Poker Squares Solitaire game.

North Star Solutions' Poker Challenge is a computer solitaire game for Windows in which the objective is to identify and remove high scoring poker hands from a playing-card layout.

Sudoku Works Cards Edition is a computer sudoku puzzle using playing-cards from ace to nine in place of figures.

Maurits van der Schee's AceCardGames site has twelve Flash solitaire games that can be played on line. (You will need to download the free Flash 7 player if you don't already have it).

Here are archive copies of Danny Kodicek's two Shockwave patience (solitaire) games: Ships and Layered.

Sema's on-line Tetker game is another Poker / Tetris hybrid, now available in English. Pocket PC and Smartphone versions also available.

In Dream Solitaire, available to play online or download, ascending or chains of alternate red and black cards are removed from a grid layout, causing new cards to fall from the top.

The Skill Arcade site offers an on line game of Golf Solitaire.

DogMelon offers solitaire games for PC, Palm and eBookman.

Here are Rudy Muller's rules for Rangoon (also known as Station, Blue-Moon, Gaps, Montana Aces) and here is his postcard-ware program for playing it.

Tim Adam's Online Bowling Solitaire game, programmed in Java.

A java Tripeaks game is available online at fwend.com.

The Italian site Solitari con le carte has rules and software for several games.

The American Federation for the Advancement of Duplicate Solitaire (AmFADS) has released Klondike Pro, a computer solitaire game based on Klondike, but with a special scoring system designed for competitive duplicate play.

Here is an archive copy of John Kanold's SolKan, a shareware program which plays 130 different Solitaire games.

The Softgame Company's Funsol Solitaire plays hundreds of solitaire games.

The Solitaire Network has a collection of 30 Java Soliatire games that are free to play on line without registration.

Solitaire Antics Deluxe, from Masque Publishing, is collection of 50 solitaire games for Windows or Macintosh computers. An on-line competitive solitaire game is available through the Masque web site.

Mike's Cards is a shareware collection of solitaire games for Macintosh and Windows computers. A freeware version Mike's Cards Lite is also available from the same site.

Solitaire Forever offers a collection of over 100 solitaire games with 3D graphics for Macs running OS X 10.2 or higher; they will run on PowerPC or Intel Macs but no longer work with OS 9.

The free AS-Solitaire program plays several dozen different Solitaire games, and provides a range different card designs of cards, including animals, flowers and celebrity pin-ups.

Candystand.com has a collection of solitaire games: Freecell, Klondike, Pyramid, Spider and others, which can be played online.

Pete Wiseman's Solitaire City offers ten Solitaire games for Windows (45 if variations are counted). These are timed games against the clock - the faster you play, the higher you score. Versions of Solitaire City for Palm OS and Pocket PC are also available.

The Red Mercury programs AcidSolitaire, AcidFreecell and AcidSpider are now available for iPhone as well as Windows 2000/XP Palm OS. AcidSolitaire for Windows features 100,000 winnable deals graded by difficulty, with an animated hint system and a mechanism for keeping detailed statistics of games played and results.

Mike Perry's Allgood Solitaire (formerly Poor man's Solitaire) for the Macintosh includes a range of games.

A range of soltaire games can be obtained from the Game Download site.

The Solitaire Bodies page has Klondike Solitaire games with pinup cards that can be played on line or downloaded.

Here is Brian Bain's Windows Solitaire program. Standard Solitaire but with a variety of card deck options and the possibility to design your own deck.

The Solitaire Now site offers a customisable shareware Freecell game and a collection of links to other shareware and freeware Solitaire games for various platforms.

Nabisco World has three Solitaire games (Calculation, Freecell, Solitaire) which can be played online.

From CoGS Games you can obtain Kitty Cat Solitaire and Bikini Solitaire.

LogLod.com offers Pirates Solitaire, a free Klondike solitaire game with pirate-themed cards, which can be played online.

From the Zayante Creek site you used to be able to obtain Sammy Caras' Poker Solitaire program, and it may reappear.

Spellarama Solitaire Mania is a computer solitaire game using letter cards to complete words of a given length.

Rules (in French) for La loi Salique and Pyramide are available from Jean-François Bustarret's site.

Tim Winter's Game Suite a collection of nine solitaire card games - not traditional solitaire games but games in which you race against a clock.

Here are Mike Lalena's Java Games: Eleven Out, Fun21, Poker Flash, Quick21 and others. Again, these are games played against the clock. Most of them were originally developed for the coin operated touch screen game systems usually found at bars.

Game Gate also offers Java games to play against the server, including two card-based games: Poker and Lucky Cards.

Note - links to Video Poker games have been moved from here to the Video Poker page. Links to Tile Matching games are now on the Tile Matching page.