Klondike rules: draw one, draw three and recycle the stock

Seven columns and four foundations

A standard deal uses 52 cards. Its seven tableau columns start with one through seven cards, with only the front card of each column face up. Those 28 cards leave 24 in the stock. Stage positions can begin differently, so read the position actually on your screen before assuming a full opening deal.

Each foundation belongs to one suit and grows from Ace to King. Complete all four thirteen-card foundations to win. Tableau building goes in the opposite direction: one rank lower, alternating red and black. A red seven fits on a black eight. It does not fit on a red eight or a black nine, even though those cards may look close enough.

Visible cards and movable cards

You may move a face-up suffix of a tableau column when the entire selected group descends in alternating colors. Compare the first card of that group with the receiving column. A group reading black eight, red seven, black six can go onto a red nine. You cannot select a group that includes a face-down card.

Removing a group turns the newly exposed card face up automatically. An empty tableau column accepts only a King or a legal group beginning with a King. Moving to a foundation is different: you move exactly one card, and it must be the next rank of that foundation’s own suit.

Draw three still exposes one playable card

Draw-one transfers one stock card to the waste; draw-three transfers up to three. If only two stock cards remain, a draw-three action transfers those two. Several cards may be shown in the waste, but only its front, most recently drawn card is selectable. Visibility is a preview, not permission to pick any shown card.

For example, suppose a draw produces black five, red six, black seven, in that back-to-front order. Black seven is the only playable waste card. If you move it to a legal destination, red six becomes the front card and can be considered next. Black five cannot jump past either card. This is why removing a useful waste card can open another useful move.

Recycling is different from restarting

When the stock is empty but waste cards remain, the next stock action reverses the remaining waste into the stock. That action recycles; it does not also draw cards. Press again to draw the selected number. This implementation has no limit on the number of recycling passes.

Only cards still in the waste return. Cards already moved to the tableau or foundations stay there. In draw-three, removing waste cards can change later packet boundaries, so the next pass need not expose exactly the same front cards. Recycling is therefore worth reassessing after a useful move, but repeatedly cycling an unchanged position does not by itself create a solution.

Judge a move by what it opens

Before choosing a move, ask whether it reveals a hidden card, frees the next waste card, or preserves a landing place for another group. Foundation progress is useful, but a card may still have work to do in the tableau. This implementation lets the top foundation card return to a legal tableau destination.

Restart this deal returns to that deal’s opening rather than merely undoing the last move. It can help you compare two decisions from the same start. These checks are ways to understand access and consequences; they do not guarantee that a chosen continuation, or an arbitrary random deal, will be won.

Questions and answers

Can I choose any of the three shown waste cards?

No. Only the front waste card is playable. Moving it makes the next card accessible.

Does recycling reset the tableau?

No. It returns only the remaining waste to the stock. Restart this deal returns to the deal’s opening.