There are no lucky winners in a game of solitaire, which is a skill game. However, there are a few tricks and hacks you can utilize to maximize your odds of winning in the game.
Since it was incorporated into Microsoft Windows in the 90s, the online solitaire game has garnered unrivaled popularity and attracted millions of players worldwide. Now with the advent of online gaming, you can play this card game on platforms like Solitaire Gold. If you play your cards right, you can also win real cash in cash games. However, that requires you to be highly skilled at the game. Here are a few tried and tested hacks to help you improve your game.
Table of Contents
1. The First Move Matters
Your very first move ideally should be drawing a card from the stockpile simply because this gives you more options to work with. The more cards you reveal, the more efficiently you can stack them. Say if the first card you draw is an ace. Put it in the foundation pile and draw another. This might not seem very innovative, but in online solitaire every single move matters.
2. Deal with the Aces and Twos Quickly
Move your aces and twos as soon as you can to the foundation pile. Letting them sit around in the stock or tableau pile can prove to be a burden later on in the game. These low-value cards usually cannot help you reveal more cards. This is considered to be a crucial strategy in solitaire.
However, keep in mind to not get obsessed with building your foundation pile right from the beginning. Keep reading to find out why.
3. Bigger Foundation Piles are Not Necessarily Better
Sure, the goal of solitaire is to build 4 foundation piles in the ascending order of ace to king – but there are better and worse ways you can go about it. A bad strategy would be to build your foundation piles too high too early on in the game. You would require some of those cards to efficiently move around in the tableau piles.
How high you can stack depends on how many cards you have face up. A good practice is not to go higher than two until you can stack your foundations evenly. Uneven stacking can lead to problems further down the game when you cannot recover many cards anymore.
4. Deal with the Larger Pile First
The key to efficient solitaire playing is to keep revealing the hidden cards. Hence, it is a no-brainer that you should always start with the pile with the most cards.
This point is especially crucial when playing online. For example, If you check how to play solitaire card game on the Solitaire Gold app, you will understand that you get rewarded with points for each card you reveal. This is crucial whether you are playing head-to-head games or tournaments/leagues.
5. Never Leave a Spot Empty
Do not make the rookie mistake of emptying a tableau pile just to move all the cards from the spot. Without a king to place in the empty spot, that column is essentially blocked. However, there is an exception here. On the occasion that the only card left in the pile is an ace, do remove it. The same is the case with twos. Threes and higher numbers must be left in place until you reveal the next king.
6. Use Kings Smartly
The king is the card upon which all your other cards are piled in the tableau pile. Don’t be hasty when you decide upon your king because a wrong king can block your game. Think of a situation where you have a black queen, a red jack and an entire pile of cards all the way down to a three. This is a meaty column, which should not be blocked by a black king. Wait until you reveal a red king and then stack.
Mastering identifying the right king to set the tone for the entire pile will take some time and practice. Always study your face-up cards diligently and move accordingly.
7. Be Strategic with Moving the Cards
While playing online solitaire, it is tempting to slowly move cards from pile to pile to build up tableau piles. This could lead you to a position where you could get essentially locked from moving cards. The problem arises when you lock valuable cards of different colors behind cards of lower value. So the next time you play, hold the urge to move cards unnecessarily. Only move cards when there is a clear benefit of doing that.
8. Make Moves Quickly
When you play online using an app like Solitaire Gold, your time will affect your final score. Be fast with moving cards so that you can score bonus points too. When playing timed solitaire, you can defeat your opponent even if they have successfully built foundation piles. Do not spend too much time on one problem while you could be working on alternate moves.
9. Use the Stockpile
When you play solitaire on a platform like Solitaire Gold, the stock pile keeps the same order as before even when you keep going through it. So if there is a card you needed but could not grab it, get it the next time you go through the stockpile.
Conclusion
The tips above are simple yet when used effectively they can lead you to ace the game. Yes, it does take some time to master the moves before you can effortlessly breeze through a game of solitaire. But remember, practice makes perfect. So go ahead, download the app of your choice and try out these hacks today.
