Daily Solitaire
Daily Solitaire gives you one deal a day and takes it away tomorrow. Same rules as ordinary Klondike, same seven columns and four foundations, but the deal is fixed for everybody playing that day.
The clever part is the schedule. Difficulty is set by which day of the week it is, so Monday is gentle and the week gets harder as it goes. That turns a game people play absent mindedly into something with a shape, and it gives a Saturday deal a weight that a random shuffle never has.
If you are used to hitting restart until a deal looks winnable, this format removes that option, which is the point.
How to play Daily Solitaire
Seven columns, the last card of each face up. Four empty foundations above them. The rest of the deck in the stock.
- Build the foundations up by suit, ace first, king last.
- Build the columns down, alternating red and black.
- Drag a whole ordered run by its highest card.
- Only a king can go into an empty column.
- Turn the stock when the tableau has nothing left to offer.
One deal, everybody
Because the deal is the same for every player that day, this is the version where a loss means something. You cannot reshuffle into an easier hand, so a deal you cannot solve is a deal you cannot solve.
That also means the difficulty label is honest. A hard day is hard for everyone, not just for you.
The weekly curve
Monday deals are built to be finished. By the end of the week they are not, and some of them are genuinely unwinnable, as a share of Klondike deals always are.
Knowing which day it is changes how you play. Early in the week, take the safe line. Late in the week, take the line that opens the buried column even if it looks reckless, because the safe line will not get there.
Tips and strategy
Before the first move
Klondike rewards ten seconds of looking, and almost nobody spends them.
Count the face down cards in each column. Note which column has the most, and what is sitting on top of it. Check whether any ace or two is already visible, and whether the cards on top of the columns can be stacked onto each other at all.
That picture tells you whether this is a deal that opens up quickly or one that needs a specific card from the stock. On a daily, where you cannot reshuffle, knowing which kind you are in changes everything about how carefully you should play the first ten moves.
Turn cards over before anything else
Twenty one cards start face down and every one of them is a fact you do not have. Given two legal moves, take the one that reveals something. Given two that reveal, take the one from the longest column.
Tidying the board without uncovering anything feels productive and is how deals stall.
Do not bank the middle cards
Aces and twos go up straight away, they can never be useful below. Anything higher is a judgement.
A six sent to the foundation is a six that cannot hold the five you turn over next. On a Monday deal that rarely matters. On a Friday deal it is usually the move that loses.
Empty columns
An empty column is worth more than any single card move, and only if you know what you will put in it.
Fill it with the king that unblocks the column you actually need to dig into. If no king helps, leave it empty and use it as a place to unload a run. Refilling an empty column out of tidiness is the most common self inflicted loss in Klondike.
Read the deal in the first minute
Find the column with the most face down cards and the least helpful card on top. That is the problem. Everything you do in the opening should be aimed at reaching it.
If two columns are equally buried and neither has a route in, you may have one of the unwinnable deals. On a daily, that is worth knowing early rather than after twenty minutes.
Playing the week
- Monday and Tuesday: practise the discipline. Take the slow, correct line even when a faster one exists.
- Midweek: this is where card order actually matters. Slow down before sending anything to a foundation.
- Friday and Saturday: assume the deal is tight. Commit to opening one buried column rather than spreading effort.
What a daily format changes
Playing the same deal as everybody else has an effect that a random shuffle does not.
It makes the loss informative. When you cannot finish a random deal, the honest response is a shrug, because it may simply have been unwinnable. When you cannot finish today's deal, the question of whether it was solvable has an answer, and that pushes you to look harder before giving up.
It also caps the session. One deal, win or lose, and you are done until tomorrow. For a game with a reputation for eating afternoons, that constraint is most of the appeal.
Other solitaires here
Classic Solitaire is the same game without the daily constraint, FreeCell shows you every card and is nearly always winnable, and Solitaire Story TriPeaks is the fast one. More in cards.
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Frequently asked questions
Is there a new deal every day?
Yes, one per day, and it is the same deal for everybody playing that day.
Why is the difficulty different on different days?
The game sets it by day of the week. Monday is the gentlest and the deals get harder as the week goes on.
Can I restart until I get an easier deal?
No, and that is the point of the format. The deal is fixed, so a hard day is hard for everyone.
Can every daily deal be won?
No. Klondike always produces a share of deals that cannot be solved, and the harder days include some of them.
What is the single most useful habit?
Judging every move by whether it turns over a face down card. A board you have tidied without revealing anything is about to stall.
Is Daily Solitaire free?
Yes, free in the browser with nothing to install and no account.