Klondike Soitaire

As you are probably aware, the very worst part of being a Maker is waiting for the glue to dry.

So, here's a quick and simple solitaire game you can play with a single deck of cards while the glue dries.

The aim of the game is to finish with four piles of cards, one for each suit, ace at the bottom, king at the top.

All you need is a single deck of normal playing cards, and space to deal them out.

Yes, those are Instructables playing cards!

Oh, and before you ask, I don't know why it's called "Klondike" solitaire. That's just what the guy who taught it to me called it.

Remove the jokers from the deck, and shuffle it as best you can, then shuffle it again.

Deal out seven piles of cards;

• A pile of 1
• A pile of 2
• A pile of 3
• A pile of 4
• A pile of 5
• A pile of 6
• A pile of 7

Put the rest of the deck to one side as a "draw" pile.

This is your tableau.

Flip over the top card of each pile.

If any of them are aces, put them above the tableau. This is your foundation.

You can move cards around on the tableau, as long as you always put a red on a black, or black on a red, and the piles go in descending order - king at the bottom, two at the top.

That black six is going on top of the red seven.

If you cannot move any cards, you can draw one card from the draw pile and play that. If you cannot play that card, you add it to the discard pile, face up.

The top face-up card is always available to play.

You are not limited to moving single cards - you can move several cards together, as long as you stick to the red/black/red/black sequence, and always keep the values in descending order.

(Here I'm moving the five and six onto the seven and eight.)

Once an ace is revealed and moved to the foundation, you can add cards to it - if the ace of hearts is played, and you reveal the two of hearts, you can put it on top of the ace.

This carries on, three onto two, four onto three etc, until the whole foundation is filled, ace to king.

You cannot move cards once they are in the foundation.

The object of the game is to fill all four foundations completely. Be prepared to fail frequently.

If you have gone through the draw pile, but not completed the game, you may then play the discard pile.

This game started poorly, and I had to work quite a way through the pile before I was able to start moving properly.

You may not shuffle the discard pile, and any cards discarded this time may not be played again.

When you run out of moves, the game is over - gather up your cards and shuffle again.

I hope you enjoy this