How many decks does Clock Solitaire use?

Clock Solitaire is played with a single standard deck.

Is Clock Solitaire good for beginners?

Yes — Clock Solitaire has straightforward rules and is a reasonable game to learn early on.

Is Clock Solitaire based more on luck or strategy?

Clock Solitaire is largely determined by how the cards fall — there's limited room for strategy to change the outcome.

Easy difficulty

Clock Solitaire

A purely luck-driven game with no decisions — deal all 52 cards into a clock face and see if the Kings come up last.

Also published as Sundial, Clocktime, Travellers Clock.

Clock Solitaire at a glance
Decks	One deck
Suits	4
Typical length	5 min
Difficulty	Easy
How much skill matters	Low
How much the shuffle matters	High
Family	Clock family
Good for beginners	Yes

There is no playable version of Clock Solitaire on this site yet — this page covers its rules and strategy. The game suits a touchscreen well, so it is a good candidate once a build exists.

About Clock Solitaire

Clock Solitaire is the purest form of a solitaire game with no game in it. Twelve piles in a circle like a clock face, four in the middle, and a chain of forced moves: each card sends you to the hour that matches it, and you turn whatever is on top there.

You make no decisions whatsoever. The outcome is fixed by the shuffle, and the odds are exactly one in thirteen — you lose when the fourth King surfaces before everything else has. It is worth including because it is genuinely well known and because it makes a clean point of contrast: not every card game with one player is a puzzle. Some are just a shuffle you watch unfold.

How to play

Twelve piles of four cards go face down in a circle at the twelve hour positions, with the last four in the centre. Turn the top card of the centre pile: whatever it is, it goes face up under the pile at its hour — Ace to one o'clock, Jack to eleven, Queen to twelve — and you then turn the top card of that pile. Kings go under the centre. You keep following the chain until it stops. Reveal all 52 cards, Kings included, and you have won; turn the fourth King while any card is still face down and you have lost.

Strategy

There is nothing to decide. Every card dictates the next move, so the entire game is determined the moment the deck is shuffled — the article is explicit that there is no room for skill at all. The odds are exactly one in thirteen, and that number is a property of the shuffle rather than of anything you do. Play it as a coin-flip diversion, not as a puzzle.

What works

Impossible to play badly — no decisions to get wrong
Very quick, around five minutes
Memorable clock-face layout that explains itself

What to know

Absolutely no skill involved; the shuffle decides everything
Fixed 1 in 13 odds that no amount of play will improve
Nothing to learn or come back for

Frequently asked questions

How many decks does Clock Solitaire use?: Clock Solitaire is played with a single standard deck.
Is Clock Solitaire good for beginners?: Yes — Clock Solitaire has straightforward rules and is a reasonable game to learn early on.
Is Clock Solitaire based more on luck or strategy?: Clock Solitaire is largely determined by how the cards fall — there's limited room for strategy to change the outcome.

Others in this family

Big Ben
A two-deck expansion of the clock-face foundation layout with a fuller tableau.
Grandfather's Clock
A gentler clock-themed patience game where foundations are arranged in a clock face and built up by rank.