How do you win solitaire more often?
About 79% of Klondike deals are winnable, yet typical win rates sit way below that. The gap is decisions — which means it's fixable. These are the habits that actually move a win rate, in the order they matter.
1. Aces and 2s go up — almost always
An Ace does nothing useful in the tableau: nothing can be placed on it, and it blocks nothing worth blocking. Send Aces to the foundations the moment they appear, and 2s right behind them. This is the one foundation move you should make on reflex.
From 3 upward, slow down. A black 3 on the foundation can no longer hold a red 2 you might need to park; a 5 sent up too early can strand the black 4s. A good rule of thumb: keep the foundations roughly even, and before promoting a card, ask whether anything in play still needs to sit on it.
2. Why should you attack the biggest stacks first?
Twenty-one cards start face down, but they're not spread evenly — the seventh column hides six cards, the sixth hides five. Those long columns are where winnable games die, because every hidden card there has more cards sitting on top of it. When you have a choice between two moves that each flip a face-down card, dig at the taller stack. Early game, a flip from the six-deep column is worth more than a flip from the two-deep one, even when the shorter dig looks more convenient.
The same logic ranks all your moves: a move that reveals a hidden card beats a move that merely rearranges face-up cards. Rearranging is sometimes right — but only when it sets up a reveal.
3. Don't empty a column without a King ready
Empty columns are the most valuable squares on the board, and they accept exactly one thing: a King (or a run led by one). Clearing a column when no useful King is available doesn't just waste the space — it can cost you the tempo you spent clearing it. Before you take that last card off a column, know which King is coming, and prefer a King whose color unblocks the queens and jacks you actually hold.
4. Hold cards that create options
Not every legal move is a good move. Playing a card from the waste onto the tableau buries every waste card beneath it one turn deeper — in draw-3, it changes which cards you'll even see for the rest of the pass. Likewise, don't break up a working run to make a move that accomplishes nothing new. The question before every move isn't "can I?" but "what does this uncover, and what does it cost?"
5. In draw-3, count the rhythm
Draw-3 deals the stock in fixed groups of three, so the playable cards repeat pass after pass — unless you remove one, which shifts the whole sequence. Strong draw-3 players sometimes decline a playable waste card specifically to keep the rhythm, or play one specifically to break it. If draw-3 keeps beating you, that's the mechanism to study. (And if you're choosing between modes, see the odds difference in our winnability breakdown — or make it interesting with Vegas scoring.)
6. The Peek advantage: stop deciding blind
Every rule above eventually collides with the same wall: two moves look identical, and the right answer depends on cards you can't see. Which of two black 8s takes the red 9? Which of three Kings earns the empty column? Classic solitaire's only tools for that moment are guessing — or grinding through undo after undo until you've brute-forced the answer.
This is where The Original Solitaire+ plays a genuinely different game. Press and hold Peek (patent pending — the only solitaire that has it) and look at what's actually under those cards before you commit. The solver studies that put Klondike near 80% winnable assume exactly this kind of informed play; Peek hands the same information to you. It doesn't make the move — choosing the line is still your job, and that deliberate comparing-and-committing is precisely what makes an informed game better brain training than a guessing one.
🃏 The pre-move checklist
- Is an Ace or 2 available? Send it up.
- Which available move flips a face-down card — preferably from the tallest stack?
- Am I about to empty a column? Is the right King ready?
- Does this foundation move strand a card I still need in play?
- Two equal-looking moves? Peek first, then commit.
Watch the one-minute versions
Four Shorts from our YouTube channel that drill exactly these rules — each one a single decision on a real board. The full collection lives in the video library.
Put it into practice
Strategy sticks when it costs nothing to drill: the browser game is free, no signup, unlimited Undo and Hint without triggering ads — and a fresh Daily Challenge deal every morning to test yourself against. Prefer to learn by watching? The video library has Peek strategy clips of exactly these spots.