Colorado

Colorado is a Sir Tommy game scaled up until the scale becomes the point. Two decks, twenty waste piles, and eight foundations climbing from the Aces and descending from the Kings — and no tableau building anywhere.

With twenty places to put every card and no way to reorganise afterwards, it becomes a game of sorting rather than sequencing: you are distributing 104 cards into twenty buckets and hoping you grouped them sensibly. Twenty buckets turns out to be generous, and around four deals in five go the distance. It is the friendly end of a family whose other members — Auld Lang Syne, Tam O'Shanter — are anything but.

Two decks, and twenty cards are laid out as the bases of twenty waste piles — conventionally two rows of ten. Eight foundations are formed from one Ace and one King of each suit: the Aces build up by suit, the Kings build down. Cards come off the stock one at a time and either go to a foundation or onto any waste pile you choose, and a card on a waste pile can never move except up to a foundation. While the stock lasts, an emptied pile is refilled from it.

Twenty waste piles is an enormous amount of choice, and the whole game is deciding which pile to bury each card on. Because Aces climb and Kings descend in every suit, most ranks are wanted at both ends eventually — so the real question is which ranks are wanted *soon*. Keep a few piles reserved for high cards and a few for low, rather than scattering. Emptying a pile refills it from the stock, which effectively draws you an extra card, so clearing piles is actively good. At around 80% this is one of the most winnable games in the catalogue.