Turn rules into a plan
Klondike strategy
Choose productive moves, preserve flexibility, and recover when a deal feels stuck.
Reveal cards before polishing piles
A move that turns over a face-down tableau card usually creates more possibilities than one that only rearranges visible cards. Give the deepest face-down columns extra attention.
Play aces and twos promptly, but keep higher cards available when they support useful tableau moves.
Preserve both colors and ranks
When two same-rank cards could receive a move, compare what sits beneath them. Choose the destination that reveals a card, opens a column, or keeps the other color available for a later sequence.
Avoid moving a card just because the move is legal. A productive move should reveal, release, or prepare something.
When stuck, audit the whole table
Recheck the top of every tableau column, the waste, and the foundations. Look for a run that can move, a foundation card that frees a needed rank, or a stock play that changes the next pass.
- Can any move reveal a face-down card?
- Can a king use an empty column?
- Can a safe foundation move unblock the waste?
- Will playing one stock card change the next draw-three pass?