Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (9 page)

After moving a card, turn up that pile’s top card and repeat. If you start by turning up an ace, for example, move it to the bottom of the pile in the 1:00 position. Then turn up the top card of the 1:00 pile and move it as appropriate. The game continues in this way until all thirteen piles are sorted by rank, or until you have turned up the fourth king.

If the final card in any pile belongs to that pile (e.g., if the last card in the 3:00 pile is a 3), turn up the topmost
face-down
card in the next pile moving clockwise (e.g., the topmost face-down card in the 4:00 pile).

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 2
   

Congress has no frills, no fancy tableau, and no needlessly complicated rules. This simplicity—and the fact that luck plays almost no role in winning—is the root of Congress’s ongoing popularity. Few modern Solitaire games can boast Congress’s loyal following of players. You should win 1 in every 8 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total), and deal eight cards, face up, in two rows of four. This is your tableau. Set aside all other cards as a reserve.

WINNING
Build eight foundation piles up from ace to king, organized by suit and in ascending rank.

HOW TO PLAY
All foundations must start with an ace, so promote aces as they become available. Then play the top card of each tableau pile on a
foundation, or build it onto another tableau pile, one at a time in
descending
rank. Suits do not matter when building cards on the tableau.

Once your initial moves are exhausted, turn up the top card of your reserve and play it either on a foundation (matching suit in ascending rank) or on a tableau pile (regardless of suit, but in descending rank). If you cannot play a card, dump it onto a waste pile; the topmost waste card may always be played on a foundation or tableau pile.

When a tableau pile is empty, fill the vacant slot with the top card from any tableau pile or with the topmost card on the waste pile. There is no redeal in Congress.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 2
   

Crazy Quilt is so much fun you almost forget to ask, “Who invented such a strange game?” To win, you need solid Solitaire strategy (the odds of winning are 1 in every 9 hands, and luck is not much of a factor), plus a large enough table to accommodate the game’s unique tableau.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total), and remove one ace and one king from each suit. Place the four removed aces in a column on one side of your board, the four removed kings in a column on the other side. These are your foundations.

Next, deal an 8 by 8 tableau (sixty-four cards total) in the following manner: eight rows of eight, with cards alternating in vertical and horizontal positions. The first card is dealt vertically, the second horizontally, like so:

WINNING
Build the foundation aces by suit in ascending rank (A of spades-2 of spades 3 of spades…Q of spades-K of spades) and the foundation kings by suit in descending rank (K of spades-Q of spades J of spades…2 of spades-A of spades).

HOW TO PLAY
Cards may be played from the tableau onto a foundation if at least one of the card’s short (or “skinny”) edges is not immediately border ing another tableau card. In the example above, you may play the Q of diamonds in the first row to the king foundations, since it has one “skinny” edge that does not border another tableau card. You may also play the 2 of diamonds in the third row to the ace foundations. You may not move cards among the tableaus, nor may you fill an empty tableau slot with a replacement card.

If it’s any consolation, you may build cards from the tableaus to a single waste pile (once established) by suit and either up or down in rank (your choice, and you may alternate direction at any time, e.g., 5 of hearts-6 of hearts-5 of hearts-4 of hearts). And you may play the topmost waste card onto the foundations at any time.

When you can make no additional moves, turn up a card from the reserve and play it to the foundations. If that’s not possible, you must move the card to the top of your waste pile, even if it does not match the suit and/or rank of the card beneath it.

There’s an ongoing debate over how many times you may recycle the waste pile to create a new reserve. The correct answer is either “just once” or “as many times as you like.” Either way, don’t shuffle the waste pile, just turn the cards over and deal as needed.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   medium
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   short
   
3. DECKS
   : 2
   

This game moves fast. The challenge is to keep track of all the cards (Crescent has no fewer than sixteen tableau piles) while not missing an obvious opportunity to build your foundations. The name comes from the shape of the tableau, which forms a semicircle or rough crescent. Odds of winning are 1 in every 6 hands.

HOW TO DEAL
Start with two fifty-two-card decks (104 cards total), and remove one ace and one king from each suit. Place the removed aces in a row directly above the kings, all face up. These are your foundations. Next, deal sixteen tableau piles (six cards per pile, all face up) in a semicircle around your foundations. Leave room for a row of four reserve cards either directly above or below the foundations.

WINNING
Build the eight foundation piles like so: aces in ascending rank to kings, and kings in descending rank to aces. Suits and colors do not matter in Crescent, only rank.