Guide
How to Play Yukon Solitaire
Yukon Solitaire has no stock: all 52 cards are dealt to seven columns, and any face-up card can move with the cards on top of it. Build the four foundations from Ace to King to win.
Play Yukon SolitaireThe objective
Move all 52 cards to the foundations
Yukon Solitaire is played with one standard 52-card deck. Four foundation piles sit above a seven-column tableau. You win when every card has been moved to the foundations, each built up in a single suit from Ace to King.
Between the deal and the win, the work is uncovering face-down cards and rearranging the tableau: descending ranks in alternating colours, Kings in empty columns. There is no stock to fall back on and no timer forcing your hand; the challenge is the order you do things in.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open the board when you want to play; use this guide for the rules, how Yukon differs from Klondike, and the habits that win more games.
The deal
Seven columns, no stock, four empty foundations
The seven columns hold 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 cards — all 52. The first column is a single face-up card. Every other column has a stack of face-down cards (one in the second column, up to six in the last) with five face-up cards on top. The four foundations sit above the tableau, empty.
Every deal here is a fresh shuffle. Some are comfortably winnable and some are not, and you cannot always tell which is which — that uncertainty is part of the game.
Controls
Drag, tap, or use the keyboard
Every method moves the same cards. Pick whichever fits the device in your hand.
Everywhere
Drag or tap-to-move
Drag a card and everything on top of it to a new column, or tap once to pick it up and tap the destination. Every column or foundation that can legally receive the cards you are holding lights up.
Fast foundations
Double-tap / double-click
Double-tap the bottom card of a column to send it straight to its foundation when the move is legal. It is the quickest way to clear low cards without dragging across the board.
Desktop
Keyboard
U undoes, H shows a hint, A auto-finishes safe cards to the foundations, N deals a new game, Esc drops a selection, and M mutes the sound. Space or Enter deals when no game is running. Every button has a visible focus ring.
The loop
Four moves you repeat all game
Reading the board, then choosing between these four is the whole game.
- 1
Read the deal
All 52 cards go onto the table in seven columns of 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 cards. The first column is a single face-up card; every other column has a stack of face-down cards (one in the second, up to six in the last) topped by five face-up cards. There is no stock and no waste — nothing is held back.
- 2
Move any face-up card
Pick up any face-up card and every card on top of it, and drop the group on a card of the opposite colour that is exactly one rank higher: a red six with anything on it can go on a black seven. The cards you carry do not need to be in sequence — only the card you grab has to fit its new home.
- 3
Fill gaps with Kings
When a column is emptied, only a King — with whatever sits on it — can move in. Turning over face-down cards is how you find the cards you need, so digging out the tallest hidden stacks is the heart of the game.
- 4
Send suits to the foundations
Move each Ace up to a foundation, then build that pile in suit from Ace to King. Only the bottom card of a column can go up, and a card on a foundation can come back down to the tableau if you need it. Get all 52 cards home to win.
Rules
Every rule that decides a move
The objective
Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, each built up in a single suit from Ace to King. The game is won the moment the last King lands.
Tableau building
Tableau columns build downward in alternating colours. A face-up card — and every card on top of it, ordered or not — can move onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. Empty columns accept only a King, with anything that sits on it.
Foundations
A foundation starts with an Ace and grows one card at a time in the same suit. Only a single card moves to a foundation, so it has to be the bottom card of its column. A foundation card can be moved back to the tableau.
Time and moves
There is no points score. The clock runs from the deal, and every move — including a move back off a foundation — adds one to the counter. Your fastest win and your fewest-moves win are kept as personal bests.
Winning and getting stuck
Not every deal can be won. When no useful move remains, deal a new game. Undo is unlimited, so a dead end is only final once you choose to move on.
Yukon vs Klondike
What sets Yukon apart
Klondike is the solitaire most people know. Yukon looks similar, but two changes reshape how it plays.
- 01 · Nothing is hidden in a pile
No stock, no waste
Klondike keeps 24 cards in a stock you turn through. Yukon deals every card to the tableau, so the only unknowns are the face-down cards — and each one can be reached by working the columns.
- 02 · The defining rule
Unordered stacks can move
In Klondike only an ordered run can move. In Yukon you can lift a face-up card together with any jumble sitting on it, as long as the card you grab fits on its new column. That freedom makes the game far more fluid — and far easier to tie in knots.
Common mistakes
Why winnable games get lost
Burying the card you need
Because unordered stacks can move, it is easy to drop a big pile onto a column that hides the exact card you were about to use. Scan the destination column before you commit.
Flooding the foundations early
Sending every low card up as soon as it is legal removes the cards that keep alternating runs going. Beyond Aces and 2s, promote a card only when nothing needs to land on it.
Clearing a column with no King
Emptying a column feels like progress, but if no King is available it is just a hole. Line up the King first, then clear the column.
Ignoring undo
Undo is unlimited and free. Treat a questionable move as an experiment: make it, see what it opens, and roll it back if the board did not improve.
- Dig into the tallest face-down columns first — the last column hides six cards, and every one you flip is a new option.
- Always prefer a move that turns a face-down card over. Information is worth more than tidiness.
- Before you empty a column, check that you have a King ready to move in. An empty space with no King is just lost real estate.
- Carrying a jumble is fine, but remember you are burying whatever is under it. Ask what the move covers, not only what it uncovers.
- Play Aces and 2s home right away; hold other cards back until you are sure you will not need them as a landing spot.
- Split a long run when the split card is the one you need — a card partway through a stack can be the key to freeing a face-down card elsewhere.
- Use undo to test a line. If a move opens nothing, take it back and try another order.
Where you can play
Same game on phone and desktop
yukonsolitaire.app runs in any modern browser with no app to install. Progress stays on the device you played on.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. Drag cards with the mouse, double-click to send a card to its foundation, or use the keyboard shortcuts for undo, hint, and auto-finish.
Phones and tablets
The layout is touch-first. Tap a card to pick it up and tap a column to drop it, or drag directly. All seven columns and the four foundations stay on one screen in portrait, and restart is instant.
Progress on this device
Wins, games played, best time, fewest moves, and streaks live in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still stuck on a rule? Read the Yukon Solitaire FAQ or jump in and play.
Play Yukon Solitaire free