Tips for Winning Spider, Solitaire, and FreeCell

Accordion

This version of the game has all the cards visible at the start and is won when the game has only one card left. Winning can only happen if toward the end of the game all the cards or all the cards but one are of the same rank

The player needs to select a rank such that all 4 cards of that rank are near the right side of the layout and will presumably be the only cards left besides possibly one other card at the end of the game. This will require the extensive scanning of the layout for each rank. Solitaire Games of Skill can flag cards of a desired rank with orange strips so the player can see how close they are to the right side of the layout. Solitaire Games of Skill also provides a score for each rank which measures how far the cards are to the right of cards with their same suits.

Australian Patience

Try to keep the wastepile a small as possible by building as many hand cards on the tableau as possible.

Scan the layout in order to locate all card sequences that would make the game unwinnable. For example three cards in sequence and of the same suit with ranks 5, 3, and 4 would make the game unwinnable. The card of rank 3 could never be built on the card of rank 4. Solitaire Games of Skill throws out most games with sequences making the game unwinnable. The player would need hours to find all such sequences.
Make sure that a card placed on the wastepile does not cover the card of the same suit and one rank higher and also a card of the same suit and a lower rank. For example if a 9 of spades is higher in the wastepile than the 10 of spades and a 3 of spades, the 9 of spades cannot be moved off the wastepile and the game is lost. Because checking every hand card is tedious, most players continue to play the game long after the game is already lost. Solitaire Games of Skill flags with an orange strip any hand card that when placed on the wastepile would cause the game to be lost.

Beleaguered Castle

If a space cannot be created in the layout, the game is lost.

The player should start the game trying to find which column could be removed to make a space. If a space cannot be made, the game is lost and the player should move on to the next game. Solitaire Games of Skill can filter games so that every game has a column in which a space can be made. In fact, under the Tools menu, the column number where the space can be made is given.
Even though tableau building is by rank only, it is advantageous to put cards together of the same suit. That way cards can be moved more easily to the foundations. Getting cards together of the same suit can require a lot of clicking and dragging. Solitaire Games of Skill allows the player to swap columns in order to get cards of the same suit together as long as the same result could be done by moving the cards laboriously one card at a time.

Forty Thieves - the aristocrat of solitaire games

If a space cannot be created in the layout, the game is lost.

The player should start the game trying to find which columns could be removed to make a space based on foundation building and the top tableau cards.
Try not to build on the tableau if the building will hinder space creation.
Try not to build on the tableau if the building will hinder reaching valuable cards near the bottom of a column.
Try to keep cards with ranks below 7, which are needed for foundation building, from getting buried in the wastepile.
Fill tableau spaces with cards that can be readily built on the foundations or on the tableau. Solitaire Games of Skill provides a table which shows which cards have yet to be dealt from the hand. This table can be used to see which cards might be built on the foundations or tableau in the future.
If at least one space is present in the tableau, see if a hand or wastepile card can be built underneath a tableau column that is in suit sequence. To place the card underneath the suit sequence, first remove all cards above the bottom card of the sequence before placing the hand or wastepile card on a space in the tableau and then building on that card.

FreeCell - a game that can be nearly always won

FreeCell can be won over 99% of the time. As for Spider, making spaces in the tableau is critical.

In trying to make a space in the tableau, find the column which has the most cards which can either be built on the foundations or the tableau. Then remove as many cards as possible from that column. If after this you are blocked, start the game over with removing cards from the column which has the second most number of cards that can go on the foundations or tableau. Repeat the process with untried columns which have the highest number of buildable cards until you are not blocked.
If a card can go on a foundation and is in sequence, see if the other card with the same rank and color is available. If it is available, you might be able to place the first card on a foundation and then put the other card in its position thereby possibly freeing up a cell or tableau space.
Try to avoid putting kings in cells since kings cannot be built on other cards.
If possible cards should be built on the foundations evenly. This avoids problems when building cards on the tableau.

Miss Milligan - a game that can leave you speechless

Winning Miss Milligan is all about making spaces in the tableau where king sequences can be placed.

Try to keep some tableau columns that have no kings as short as possible with a view to removing the cards in the columns in order to make spaces for king placement.
If a tableau card can be built on a foundation and is not in sequence with other cards, it is best to build the card on the foundation. If a tableau card can be built on a foundation and is in sequence with other cards, it might be best to keep the card on the tableau to facilitate tableau building especially if the card is rank 7 or above.
If a tableau card within an alternating color sequence can be built on a foundation and is the same rank and color of another tableau card not in a sequence, then the out of sequence card can replace the card in sequence.

Queen of Italy

Winning Queen of Italy is all about sending the 11 card reserve to the foundations.

When choosing the foundation rank, try to pick a card which minmizes the chance of a reserve card covering a card needed to build the card on the foundations. Solitaire Games of Skill shows with asterisks which cards in the reserve are covered by a card higher in the foundation sequence. This helps to decide which rank is the best foundation rank.
As the game progresses there may be only one card left of its rank and color that can be used to build a reserve card on the foundations. If this card is used to build a nonreserve card on the foundations, the game is lost. If the player does not keep track of such cards, the player may keep playing long after the game is lost. Solitaire Games of Skill flags such cards with an orange strip.

Scorpion

Scorpion is won when all the facedown cards are turned over. No building should be done unless it leads to uncovering a facedown card.

Scan the layout in order to locate all card sequences that would make the game unwinnable. For example three cards in sequence and of the same suit with ranks 5, 3, and 4 would make the game unwinnable. The card of rank 3 could never be built on the card of rank 4. Solitaire Games of Skill throws out most games with sequences making the game unwinnable. The player would need hours to find all such sequences.
Scan the layout in order to locate all the cards that can be used to uncover facedown cards. Solitaire Games of Skill flags these cards and cards that can make spaces with an orange strip.
If a king covers a facedown card, focus on getting a space in the layout where the king can be placed. Otherwise try to uncover facedown cards first in the largest columns.

Solitaire (Klondike)

The game Solitaire is also known as Klondike. The tips given here are for the version of Klondike which has unlimited redeals with the cards being dealt one at a time. About 70% of such games are winnable. It should be noted that the traditional Klondike game does not allow any redeals. The key to winning Klondike is uncovering the facedown cards. If the only card left that a faceup card can be built upon is a facedown card in the same column, the game might be lost. For example, the two red nines can only be built on the two black tens in the tableau. If one of the red nines is already built on a black ten and the other black ten is a facedown card under one of the nines, the game is lost unless one of the nines can be moved to a foundation.

Do not build with cards from the hand or wastepile unless they are being used to uncover a facedown card. Otherwise you might create a potential block to winning as described in the example above. Before doing any building you might want to go through the hand cards to see what cards you have that can be used to uncover facedown cards. This can be a tedious process requiring a good memory or the writing down of what cards are available. The version of Klondike called Klondike Garden in the Solitaire Games of Skill program makes the procedure painless by spreading out the hand cards so that the player can see all the hand cards at a glance. The hand cards are also sorted by rank and suit for the player's convenience. Also every hand card is available at any time. This might seem to be relaxing the rules too much. But with an unlimited number of redeals, every card can be seen and accessed at any time anyway. Having all the hand cards visible, sorted, and accessible at the same time merely makes the card manipulation easier and reduces the demands on memory.
Try to uncover facedown cards from the highest columns first since potential blocks in the layout which could cost you the game are most likely here.
Do not build cards on foundations unless doing so helps to uncover a facedown card. Not building the cards on foundations allows other cards to be built upon them on the tableau.

Spider (Four Suit)

About half the Four Suit Spider solitaire games are winnable. The key to winning Spider games is to be able to remove whole suit sequencs. Spaces allow the player to get cards of the same suit together and to untangle the layout. The columns where spaces might be created must be kept as short as possible while other columns especially the columns having kings can be kept long.

Order in which card building should occur.
- Build cards on cards of the same suit.
- Build with cards that can be built on more than one card.
- Build on kings.
- Build on cards that can have the most cards built upon them.
- Build on columns where it is unlikely that a facedown card could be uncovered.
- Build on cards that are on the longest columns.
- Build on cards with the highest ranks.
It is not always good to build cards. It might be good to not to move cards that are on columns where creating a space in the near future is impossible. If a card covers a king or a complex sequence of cards, you might not want to build with that card if the building means decreasing the probablity of getting a space elsewhere.
Fill spaces with cards that have a good chance of being picked up again and thus create a space. If you are playing Spider with the Solitaire Games of Skill program, check the table to see the number of cards for each rank that are not faceup. Try to fill spaces with cards for which there are a large number of cards one rank above that are not yet faceup and thus are likely to appear in the next deal. The cards one rank above could be used to pickup the card you are using to fill a space. For example in the screenshot below, it is tempting to fill the space with the six of spades in column eight and thus uncover a facedown card. But according to the table there would be only a 36% chance that play would continue if the six were placed in the space. A better strategy would be to fill the space with a card which would have a good chance of being picked up again and thus create a space on the next deal. Of the cards available to fill the space the eight of hearts in column two has the largest number of hidden cards that are one rank above according to the table. Thus it might be good to fill the space in the screenshot with the eight of hearts so that one of the four hidden nines might be used to pick up the eight and thus create a space on the next deal. Alternatively fill spaces with cards that can be built back on a column or columns of the present tableau. For example in the screenshot below the seven of clubs in column nine would be a good card to fill the space. The eights in columns two, seven, and nine might be used to pick up the seven and create a space on the next deal. It might be thought that using the table is cheating, but the Solitaire Games of Skill table could be created by the player based on the cards already faceup.
Sometimes it is better not to uncover a facedown card if it means filling a space by a card. If when the facedown card is turned over it is likely that there are no further moves, it would be better not to uncover the facedown card if it means filling a space with a card that has a poor probability of being picked up on the next deal. Instead you should leave the facedown card covered and fill the space with a card that has a good chance of being picked up to make a space on the next deal. The probability that turning over a facedown card will result in further moves is given in the Solitaire Games of Skill program table. The player could also calculate this probability by hand based on the visible faceup cards. When many of the columns are topped with aces, the probability of further moves being created by uncovering a facedown card is usually poor. For example in the screenshot above the probablity of further moves in the screenshot above is a low 29% with several columns topped with aces. Thus instead of uncovering a facedown card in column one by placing the king in column one into the space, it would be better to fill the space with a card that has a high probablity of being picked up again and go on to the next deal.
Whenever possible try to get cards of the same suit together. The game could be lost if one such opportunity is missed even if it requires 20 or 30 separate moves just to get two cards of the same suit together. The Solitaire Games of Skill program allows the player to swap columns and thus accomplish in one move what would ordinarily take 20 or 30 moves. The Solitaire Games of Skill program also allows the player to flag all the cards of a given suit. This allows the player to more easily assemble an entire suit of cards in one column for the purpose of removal.
If a complete suit of cards is available to be removed from the game, the cards should not necessarily be removed. It might be better to keep the cards and use them for getting cards in other columns together with cards of the same suit. The Solitaire Games of Skill program allows the player to do this while most other software versions of Spider do not. Also when all the ranks of a suit of cards appears in the layout, the first letter of the suit appears in the Solitaire Games of Skill table. Thus the player does not have to be constantly scanning the layout to see if all the cards of a given suit are available to be possibly put together and removed.

Yukon

Yukon is won when all the facedown cards are turned over. No building should be done unless it leads to uncovering a facedown card.

Scan the layout in order to locate all the cards that can be used to uncover facedown cards. Solitaire Games of Skill flags these cards and cards that can make spaces with an orange strip.
If a king covers a facedown card, focus on getting a space in the layout where the king can be placed. Otherwise try to uncover facedown cards first in the largest columns.