Home › Guides › Which solitaire to play — four rule axes, not a flowchart

Which solitaire configuration fits you?

By Gleb Tkatchouk · last updated 2026-10-05

Solitaire is not one game with many skins. Variants differ on four rule axes: build Ace→King foundations vs clear cards away; how much of the deal is face-up; how flexible empty columns, free cells, and sequences are; and round length from card count, decks, and redeals. This chart is a universal configuration chooser — classic names as spectrum examples, not a tree that ends on one catalog. Decks is one endpoint; any site can embed the same map.

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The four axes

No yes/no flowchart. Place any patience game on each spectrum. Amber dots on the chart mark games playable in Decks; Baker's Dozen and Canfield appear as classic examples only — they are not in Decks.

Goal

What are you trying to do?

• Build foundations (Ace → King by suit): FreeCell, Klondike, Yukon, Baker's Dozen, Canfield, Spider
• Clear the tableau (remove cards from play): Golf, Pyramid, TriPeaks, Black Hole

Information

How much do you see at the start?

• Every card face-up (full information): FreeCell, Golf, Pyramid, Black Hole, Baker's Dozen
• Hidden cards (face-down in the deal): Yukon (mixed), Klondike, Canfield, Spider, TriPeaks

Layout flexibility

How free are your moves?

• Flexible (free cells · empty columns · whole sequences): FreeCell, Yukon, Spider, Baker's Dozen
• Middle (runs allowed; empties restricted): Klondike, Canfield
• Rigid (mostly single-card moves): Golf, TriPeaks, Pyramid, Black Hole

Round length

How long is a round? Derive this only from card count, number of decks, and redeal or pass limits — not from luck or how often deals can be won.

• Short (few cards · few redeals): Pyramid, TriPeaks, Golf, Black Hole, Baker's Dozen
• Mid: FreeCell, Yukon, Klondike
• Long (two decks · many piles): Canfield, Spider (104 cards), Double Klondike (104 cards)

Decks coverage

Amber marks on the chart are Decks games. Baker's Dozen and Canfield stay on the spectrum as classic names without an amber dot. Spanish Solitaire is also in Decks (40-card Spanish deck) but is not placed as an axis branch — it is a different deck, not a separate pole on these four spectra.

Play in Decks

Embed this chart

Other sites can reuse the same map. Copy the HTML below; the image links back here, and the caption credits Decks / deckgames.app.

<figure>
  <a href="https://deckgames.app/guides/which-solitaire-to-play">
    <img
      src="https://deckgames.app/assets/which-solitaire.png"
      alt="Four-axis solitaire configuration chooser: Goal (build foundations vs clear tableau), Information (face-up vs hidden), Layout flexibility (free cells and sequences vs rigid single-card moves), Round length (short vs long from card count and redeals). Classic games placed as spectrum examples; amber dots mark Decks coverage."
      width="1200"
      height="1136"
      loading="lazy"
    />
  </a>
  <figcaption>
    Which solitaire configuration fits you? — four rule axes from
    <a href="https://deckgames.app">Decks</a> (deckgames.app).
    Universal map; Decks is one endpoint, not the only one.
  </figcaption>
</figure>

Decks: no ads, no account, works offline. Free to download; daily game limit without Premium.

Scan with your phone to install