Klondike Solitaire guide: reveal cards and manage the waste
A productive move usually reveals a hidden card, releases the waste or creates a useful place for a king. Judge progress by the options a move opens, not just by how many cards you move.
Back to the game →Separate tableau building from foundations
Build tableau columns downward by rank in alternating colors. A face-up ordered run can move together. Only a king, or a valid run beginning with a king, can fill an empty column.
Foundations build from ace to king in the same suit. Win by moving all 52 cards to the four foundations. Exposing a face-down card at the end of a tableau column turns it face up automatically.
Choose the move that reveals information
When two similar moves are legal, compare what they uncover. Moving a red 6 onto a black 7 is more useful if it reveals a hidden card than if it simply rearranges two fully exposed columns.
Before emptying a column, identify a king you can put there and what that king's move would reveal. An empty column with no available king cannot receive an arbitrary card. The longest column is worth examining, but revealing from it is not always the only useful option.
Worked example: Draw 3 waste access
The example shows a real Draw 3 waste fan. Several cards are visible, but only its top card is available. You cannot pick the king underneath merely because an empty tableau column is waiting for it.
Move the top card to a legal destination first. The next card then becomes accessible. Check the newly exposed waste card before drawing again: covering it with another draw may postpone a useful move until a later pass.
Draw 3: visible does not mean available
K♦, 7♣: Underneath: unavailable
2♦: Top card: available
The rightmost 2♦ is the top waste card. Only this card can be used, and its destination must still follow the normal rules. The visible K♦ and 7♣ are underneath; they become available one at a time after cards above them are moved.
Think ahead before moving to a foundation
An ace on a foundation opens space, but higher cards can still serve as tableau supports. If moving a black 7 to its foundation strands a red 6 you need to move, inspect the alternatives before committing.
This version allows moving a top foundation card back to a legal tableau destination. That can restore a missing support, but repeated foundation-to-tableau cycling without revealing anything does not solve a blockage. Undo is useful for comparing the effect of a choice.
Use Draw 1 and Draw 3 deliberately
Draw 1 exposes one stock card at a time; Draw 3 adds up to three, with only the top waste card playable. When stock runs out, recycle the waste in order. This version does not impose Pyramid's three-pass limit.
On a repeated pass, notice whether any card was removed: that may change which cards become accessible in Draw 3. An unchanged cycle will not reveal new options by itself. A hint is a legal suggestion, not proof that a deal can be finished; restart or a new deal may be needed.