About BestSolitaireGames
BestSolitaireGames is a reference for classic solitaire and patience games. It currently covers 75 variants, each with its rules, a strategy section, and a citation for where those rules were checked.
The scope is deliberately the documented classic canon rather than every variant ever implemented in an app. A game is here if its rules are published somewhere we can point you at. If we could not find a source for a game, it is not on the site — three entries were removed on exactly that basis.
What you will find on a game page
- Deck and suit count, typical length, and difficulty.
- How much the outcome depends on your decisions, reported separately from difficulty.
- The rules, and how to play the game well.
- A link to the source those rules were checked against.
- Related games, drawn from real relationships in the data.
What you will not find
No ratings, no star scores, no player counts, no popularity rankings and no invented win rates. We do not collect any of it, so publishing it would mean making it up. Where a page quotes odds of winning, they come from the cited source. The reasoning is set out in full on the editorial policy page.
Playing the games
There are no playable versions on the site yet. Rather than put a button on every page that does nothing, each game page says plainly that it covers rules and strategy only.
Frequently asked questions
- Is solitaire the same as patience?
- Yes — "solitaire" is the common North American term, while "patience" is the traditional British term for the same family of single-player card games.
- Do I need a real deck of cards to play?
- No — every game on this site is played digitally, so no physical cards are required.
- Can every solitaire deal be won?
- No. Depending on the game and the shuffle, some deals are mathematically unwinnable no matter how well you play — this varies by game.
- What's the difference between the tableau and the foundation?
- The tableau is the main playing area where you build sequences of cards; the foundations are the separate piles where you build each suit up in order to win.
- What does "redeal" mean in solitaire?
- A redeal is when the stock pile is reshuffled and dealt again after it runs out, giving you another pass through the remaining cards — some games allow this, others don't.
- Why are some games one deck and others two decks?
- It depends on the specific game's design — some, like Spider, are built around a wider tableau that needs the extra cards from a second deck.
- What does "beginner friendly" mean on this site?
- It means the game has simple rules and a layout that's forgiving of early mistakes, making it a reasonable game to learn solitaire on.
- Are these games free to play?
- Every game we cover is free to learn about on this site.
- What do "skill level" and "luck level" mean?
- Skill level reflects how much your decisions affect the outcome; luck level reflects how much the initial shuffle determines the outcome regardless of play.
- How do I know which solitaire game to try next?
- Start with the difficulty and category pages to browse by what you're in the mood for, or check a game's related games and alternatives for something similar.