Autumn Leaves
A straightforward but challenging solitaire game with similarities to Spider, by Toby Ord.
Class: Solitaire card games
Contributed by Toby Ord.
This is a single deck game with similarities to spider. The main differences are that you can play a card onto any higher card (not just those immediately higher), but to compensate there are fewer piles and you must always play in suit. It leads to some particularly interesting play that is sometimes reminiscent of Towers of Hanoi. Here is a link to Toby Ord's Illustrated Guide to Autumn Leaves.
Layout
Shuffle the deck and lay out 22 cards in six tableau piles. The middle two piles should have three cards and the other piles four. All cards should begin face-down except the topmost card in each pile. Keep the remaining 30 cards face down in your hand.
Play
The topmost card of each pile is available to be moved onto any other pile, so long as the card on top of this pile is of the same suit and has a higher value. Unlike many other solitaire games, this need not be the card immediately higher in value, but can be any card higher up in the suit. Several cards from the top of a pile can be moved at once in this manner so long as they already form a run of consecutive cards of descending value in one suit (note that there must be no gaps in such a sequence). If, after moving a card or run, a face down card is revealed, turn it face up.
Empty spaces formed by moving all the cards from a tableau pile are particularly valuable as they may be filled with any available card or run of cards.
Dealing
You may deal out cards any time you wish. To do so, turn up six new cards from the hand, placing one on each tableau pile (whether empty or not - you do not need to fill all piles before dealing). You will thus be able to deal five times during the course of the game.
Goal
The aim of the game is to sort the cards out into four piles, one of each suit, such that each pile builds from King down to Ace. If you can do so, then the game is won. Note that when a pile of a complete suit is formed it is not removed, but remains in the layout.