How to Play Solitaire With a Deck of Cards

Solitaire is a game that most people are familiar with because it is present on many computers. Because of the prevalence of computer solitaire, many people are unaware of how to set up and play real solitaire. Playing solitaire with cards is a simple game that makes passing the time alone easier.

Remove any jokers and instruction cards from deck and shuffle the cards.

Place seven cards on the table in front of you face down. Turn the first card on the left face up. Place six cards face down on top of the face down cards. Turn the card on the far left face up. Continue to place cards in this manner until you have one card in the first row, two in the second, three in the third and so on with seven cards in the seventh row. Put the rest of the cards in a pile to the top left of the other cards.

Place the cards on the table in descending value, with kings at the top and aces at the bottom. Alternate colors, so the king is red, the queen is black, the jack is red and so on. Continue to stack cards until you can no longer make any matches. When you remove a card from a pile, turn the next card face up. Empty spots must be filled with kings or left blank.

Turn the cards in the draw pile face up one at a time. Try to place the cards onto the cards lying on the table. Never shuffle the draw pile. If you go through the entire draw pile without using each card, flip the entire pile face down once more and start over. Do not shuffle.

Go through the draw pile and continue to reveal the face down cards until you have four different stacks of alternating color cards in descending order; one for each of the spade, club, diamond and heart suits. When you have made these piles, the game is over.