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Klondike Solitaire Strategy: Tips to Win More Often

Practical advice for beginners and improvers alike.

Klondike looks like a game of luck, and some of it is — but good habits raise your win rate dramatically. The difference between a beginner and a strong player is rarely a single clever move; it's a set of sensible instincts applied on every turn. Below are fourteen concrete tips, in roughly the order they matter. If you're brand new, read how to play first, then come back here.

The core habits

1. Free your buried cards first

The face-down cards in the tableau are your real obstacle — you can't win until they're all turned over. On every turn, ask which move uncovers the most face-down cards, and favour that over a move that just tidies the face-up ones. Progress in Klondike is measured in flipped cards.

2. Don't rush cards to the foundations

It's tempting to send every card up the moment it fits, but a card on a foundation can no longer help you build in the tableau. If you send a red 6 up too early, you may find you needed it to hold a black 5. Play cards up when they help; hold them back when they might still be useful below.

3. Always play Aces and Twos up

Aces and Twos are the one exception to the tip above. They are never useful in the tableau — nothing builds on them there — so send them to the foundations as soon as you see them. Getting the Aces up early also opens the foundations for everything that follows.

4. Empty a column only with a plan

An empty column is powerful, but only a King can fill it. Before you clear a column, make sure you have a King ready — ideally one that unblocks something useful when it moves. An empty column with no King to fill it is dead space you can't use.

5. Uncover the biggest columns first

The tall columns on the right hide the most face-down cards, so they hold the most locked-up value. When you have a choice, chip away at the deeper piles rather than the short ones — you'll reveal more of the deck and give yourself more to work with.

6. Think before you move a long run

Moving a whole ordered run feels productive, but it can bury a card you need or waste a column. Move runs when they flip a face-down card or set up a King for an empty space — not just because the cards happen to fit.

Playing the stock well

7. Turn the stock over early to see what's there

Before you commit to a line, cycle through the stock once to learn what's waiting. Knowing that the King of spades or the last Ace is coming changes which tableau moves are worth making now.

8. In Turn 3, count to the card you want

Because Turn 3 deals three at a time, only every third card lands on top of the waste. If the card you need is one you saw two draws ago, you can sometimes cycle the stock the right number of times to bring it back to the top. Plan those cycles rather than drawing blindly.

9. Take a waste card only when it's safe

A card sitting on the waste is available, but grabbing it exposes the one beneath. If taking a waste card doesn't advance your position, leave it — you may prefer the card underneath on the next pass.

Reading the whole board

10. Keep both colours available

To build long tableau runs you need both a red and a black card at each rank. If you send all your low black cards to the foundations, you'll have nowhere to place the red cards you draw. Try to keep a balance so you always have somewhere to build.

11. Watch the Kings

Kings can only move to empty columns, so a King stuck at the bottom of a pile of face-down cards is a long-term problem. When you spot a buried King, start planning how you'll clear a column for it — the sooner it comes out, the more room you have.

12. Use Undo to explore, not to cheat yourself

Undo is unlimited here, so treat a tricky spot as a puzzle: try a line, see where it leads, and back out if it closes the board. Testing a plan and reversing it is how you learn which moves actually open things up.

13. Ask for a Hint when you're truly stuck

If you genuinely can't see a move, the Hint button will point out one that's available. Use it sparingly — the game is more satisfying when you spot the moves yourself — but it's there to keep you from giving up on a winnable board.

14. Play winnable deals while you learn

Turn on “Winnable games only” in Settings and every deal is guaranteed solvable. That removes luck from the equation entirely, so every loss teaches you something about your own play rather than the shuffle. It's the fastest way to improve.

Put it into practice

The best way to absorb all of this is to play. Start an easy game on the Turn 1 table, or test your planning with Turn 3. New to the rules? See how to play. Not sure what a term means? The Solitaire glossary has every one. And when you want to measure yourself against everyone else, play the same hand in the Game of the Day.

Go deeper

Each of these takes one idea above and explains it in full: