Empty columns and Kings: the highest-leverage move

If you take one idea from any Klondike guide, take this one: an empty tableau column is the most valuable thing you can create on the board — and the easiest to waste. Learning when to open one, and what to do with it, separates players who win the occasional game from players who win most of them.

Why an empty column is so powerful

An open column is a free workspace. You can move a King into it to start a brand-new descending run, and once that King is placed you can build a full sequence down from it, unburying cards all over the board. A well-used empty column is often what turns a stuck position into a winnable one, because it gives your cards somewhere to go.

The rule that makes it tricky: only a King fills an empty column

In Klondike, the only card you may move onto an empty column is a King (or a run headed by a King). That single rule is why an empty column can be a trap as well as a tool. Open a column when no King is available to fill it and you've handed away the space for nothing — worse, you may have buried a card you needed to make the emptying worthwhile. This is the mistake behind a huge share of lost, winnable games.

Open a column only with a plan

• Know which King is going in before you empty. Is there a King on the tableau you can move, or one you can bring down from the stock? If not, ask what emptying actually buys you this turn.
• Prefer to empty the column that frees the most. Clearing a long, tall column uncovers more buried cards than clearing a short one — the point of the space is the cards it releases, not the space itself.
• It's fine to hold an empty column open for a move or two while you set up the right King, as long as nothing else forces your hand. An empty column you fill with the right King beats one you fill immediately with the wrong one.

Watch the Kings all game

Because Kings are the only cards that can occupy an empty column, they quietly control the board. Keep track of where they are — buried deep, sitting on the waste, still in the stock — and you'll know whether opening a column is a real option or a wish. A King stuck at the bottom of a long column is one of the classic reasons a deal can't be won; spotting it early tells you to work that column first.

For the full set of habits, see the strategy guide, and for planning your opening, read reading the board before your first move. New here? Start with how to play.