How to Set Up Solitaire: Step-by-Step Setup & Deal Guide

May 30, 2026

If you have ever wondered how to set up Solitaire — the classic single-player card game also called Klondike — the good news is that the deal takes less than a minute once you know the pattern. The setup is the same whether you are dealing a real deck on a table or starting a game online: seven columns of cards form the playing area, a face-down stock supplies extra cards, and four foundation piles wait to be built. This guide walks you through exactly how to set up a game of Solitaire step by step, explains what every part of the table is for, and answers the questions players ask most often, so your next deal is correct and ready to play.

What You Need to Set Up Solitaire

To set up Solitaire with physical cards you need just one thing: a standard 52-card deck with the jokers removed. No special board, timer, or accessories are required — a clear table or flat surface is enough. Give the deck a good shuffle first, because Solitaire is a game of chance and skill, and an unshuffled deck produces a predictable, unsatisfying game. If you are playing online, the shuffle and the entire deal happen automatically the moment the page loads, so you can skip straight to playing. Either way, the layout you are aiming for is identical, and understanding it makes the digital version far easier to follow.

How to Set Up Solitaire Step by Step

Here is how to set up a game of Solitaire from a freshly shuffled deck. The deal builds seven tableau columns that grow from one card on the left to seven cards on the right, in a neat staircase shape. Follow these steps in order:

Deal the first row. Place seven cards in a row from left to right. Turn the first card (the leftmost) face-up, and leave the other six face-down. This gives you seven columns at once.
Deal the second row. Skip the first column, then deal one card onto each of the remaining six columns. Turn the card on the second column face-up; leave the rest face-down.
Continue the staircase. Each pass, skip one more column from the left and deal a face-up card on the first column you reach, with face-down cards on the columns to its right.
Finish the tableau. When you are done, column 1 holds 1 card, column 2 holds 2, and so on up to column 7, which holds 7 cards. Exactly one card at the bottom of each column is face-up — seven face-up cards in total.
Form the stock. Place the remaining 24 cards face-down in a pile to one side. This is the stock (also called the draw pile), the source of extra cards during play.
Leave room for the foundations. Above the tableau, leave four empty spaces. These are the foundations, which start empty and are built up by suit from Ace to King as you play.

That is the entire setup. Twenty-eight cards go into the seven tableau columns, twenty-four cards form the stock, and the four foundations begin empty — 28 plus 24 equals the full 52-card deck. If your columns form a tidy staircase with one face-up card each and you have 24 cards left in hand, you have set up Solitaire correctly.

Understanding the Four Areas of the Table

A correct Solitaire setup creates four distinct areas, and knowing what each one does turns the layout from a pattern you memorized into a board you understand.

The Tableau

The tableau is the main playing area: the seven columns you just dealt. This is where most of the game happens. You build downward in descending rank and alternating colors — a red six on a black seven, a black five on a red six — and as you remove cards, the face-down cards beneath them are turned face-up. Uncovering those hidden cards is the central task of Solitaire, because the cards you cannot see are the ones that decide whether the deal can be won.

The Stock

The stock is the 24-card face-down pile set to the side. When you run out of moves in the tableau, you draw from the stock to bring new cards into play. Depending on the rules you choose, you flip either one card or three cards at a time, and the cards you pass land in the waste pile next to it.

The Waste Pile

The waste (sometimes called the talon or discard pile) holds the cards you have drawn from the stock but not yet played. Only the top card of the waste is available to play onto the tableau or foundations. When the stock is empty, you can gather the waste and turn it back into a fresh stock to draw through again, subject to the redeal rules of your chosen variant.

The Foundations

The four foundations are the goal of the game. Each foundation is built up by a single suit, starting with the Ace and ending with the King: Ace, two, three, all the way up to Jack, Queen, King. When all four foundations are complete — one each for spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs — you have won. They begin the game empty, which is why you leave four spaces for them above the tableau.

Is Solitaire 7 or 8 Rows?

Standard Klondike Solitaire is set up with seven columns, not eight. People sometimes say "rows," but the seven piles are really columns that run vertically down the table, dealt in a staircase from one card to seven. The confusion usually comes from other solitaire games: Spider Solitaire uses ten columns, and FreeCell uses eight columns. So if you are setting up classic Solitaire (Klondike), the answer is seven; an eight-column layout means you are setting up FreeCell instead.

How to Deal the Stock: Draw 1 or Draw 3?

One setup choice changes the difficulty of the whole game: how many cards you flip from the stock at a time. Both options use the exact same tableau deal — only the way you draw differs.

Draw One (Turn 1)

In the draw-one game, you flip a single card from the stock each time, and every card in the stock is easy to reach. This is the more relaxed, beginner-friendly way to play, with a win rate high enough that most well-played deals can be solved. If you are learning how to set up and play Solitaire for the first time, start here. You can play the classic draw-one game on our Klondike Turn 1 page.

Draw Three (Turn 3)

In the draw-three game, you flip three cards at once and may only play the top one, so reaching a specific card takes planning and timing. This is the traditional, more challenging form of Solitaire and the version found in many classic computer editions. Once the basic setup feels natural, try the harder draw-three game on our Klondike Turn 3 page. The setup is identical; only the stock draw makes it tougher.

How Do You Play Basic Solitaire?

Once the setup is complete, the rules of basic Solitaire are straightforward. The aim is to move all 52 cards up to the foundations, building each suit from Ace to King. Here is the core loop of play:

Move any Aces you can see straight up to start a foundation, then add the matching twos, threes, and so on as they become available.
In the tableau, build downward in alternating colors. You can move a single card or a correctly ordered group of cards onto a card one rank higher of the opposite color.
Whenever you remove the face-up card from a column, flip the face-down card beneath it. Revealing hidden cards is your main priority.
When a column becomes completely empty, only a King (or a sequence led by a King) may be moved into the empty space.
When you run out of tableau moves, draw from the stock to bring new cards into play, and use the top of the waste pile.
Keep going until every card reaches the foundations — that is a win — or until no moves remain.

Setting Up Physical Cards vs Playing Online

Setting up Solitaire by hand is a pleasant ritual, but it is also where mistakes creep in: a miscounted column, a card turned face-up by accident, or a forgotten staircase step. Dealing carefully and double-checking that each column has the right number of cards prevents an unfair or unwinnable game. Playing online removes all of that friction. The deal is always perfect, the shuffle is genuinely random, and helpful features like unlimited undo, auto-complete, and a fresh deal at the press of a button let you focus entirely on strategy. If you would rather skip the manual deal, you can start a correctly set-up game instantly on our free online Solitaire — no download and no sign-up required.

How to Set Up Other Solitaire Games

Klondike is the game most people mean by "Solitaire," but the same family includes several popular variants with their own setups. Learning those layouts is easy once you understand the Klondike deal.

How to Set Up Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire uses two full decks (104 cards) dealt into ten columns. The first four columns receive six cards each and the remaining six columns receive five cards each, for 54 cards in the tableau, with only the bottom card of each column face-up. The other 50 cards form the stock, dealt a full row at a time. The goal is to build descending King-to-Ace sequences in a single suit and remove them. Try it on our Spider Solitaire page.

How to Set Up FreeCell

FreeCell is dealt entirely face-up into eight columns — the first four columns get seven cards and the last four get six cards. There is no stock at all; every card is visible from the start, which is why FreeCell is a game of pure skill where nearly every deal is winnable. Above the columns sit four free cells (temporary single-card holders) and the four foundations. Play it on our FreeCell page.

Common Solitaire Setup Mistakes

Turning too many cards face-up. Only the bottom card of each tableau column should start face-up — seven cards in total, not the whole staircase.
Miscounting the columns. Double-check that the seven columns hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 cards respectively before you begin.
Forgetting to shuffle. A poorly shuffled deck produces repetitive, often unwinnable deals; always shuffle thoroughly when playing with real cards.
Leaving the jokers in. Standard Solitaire is played with 52 cards; remove both jokers before dealing.
Building the foundations with cards already dealt. Foundations always start empty and are filled only during play, beginning with the Aces.

How Long Does It Take to Set Up Solitaire?

With a little practice, dealing a game of Solitaire by hand takes about thirty seconds to a minute, plus a few moments to shuffle thoroughly. The staircase deal is quick once the pattern is familiar — seven columns, then six, then five, and so on — and counting the cards becomes automatic. Online, the setup is instant: the moment you open the game the deck is shuffled and dealt for you, perfectly arranged every time. That speed is one of the quiet advantages of playing digitally, since you spend all of your time on the game itself rather than on dealing and re-dealing.

Why the Staircase Deal?

The increasing one-to-seven column layout is not arbitrary — it is what gives Klondike its central tension. Because every column except the first starts with face-down cards beneath its single face-up card, much of the board is hidden at the outset, and the whole challenge becomes uncovering those cards in the right order. A flat deal with everything face-up would remove the mystery and most of the strategy. The staircase shape also means the longer right-hand columns hold the most hidden cards, which is exactly why experienced players often dig into the tallest stacks first when they want to reveal the most information.

Setting Up Pyramid and TriPeaks

Two other popular solitaire games use eye-catching shaped deals instead of columns. Pyramid Solitaire arranges 28 cards in a pyramid of seven overlapping rows, and you clear it by removing pairs of cards that add up to thirteen. TriPeaks deals three overlapping peaks of cards above a single row, and you clear them by playing cards one rank above or below the card in the waste. Both are quick to set up and fast to play. You can try them on our Pyramid Solitaire and TriPeaks Solitaire pages without any manual dealing.

A Quick Setup Checklist

Remove both jokers and shuffle the 52-card deck thoroughly.
Deal seven columns in a staircase: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 cards.
Turn only the bottom card of each column face-up — seven face-up cards in total.
Set the remaining 24 cards aside, face-down, as the stock.
Leave four empty spaces above the tableau for the foundations.
Decide whether you are drawing one card or three from the stock, then begin play.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I set up my Solitaire game?

Shuffle a 52-card deck and deal seven columns in a staircase: 1 card in the first column up to 7 in the seventh, with only the bottom card of each column face-up. The remaining 24 cards form a face-down stock, and you leave four empty spaces above for the foundations.

How many rows is Solitaire?

Classic Klondike Solitaire is set up with seven columns (often loosely called rows). Spider Solitaire uses ten columns and FreeCell uses eight, but standard Solitaire is always seven.

Do you draw 1 or 3 cards in Solitaire?

Both versions exist. Draw one (Turn 1) is easier because every stock card is easy to reach; draw three (Turn 3) is the traditional, harder game where you flip three cards and can only play the top one. The tableau setup is the same for both.

How do you play basic Solitaire?

After setup, move Aces to the foundations and build each suit up to the King. In the tableau, build down in alternating colors, flip face-down cards as you uncover them, fill empty columns only with Kings, and draw from the stock when you run out of moves.

How many cards are in the stock pile?

In Klondike Solitaire the stock holds 24 cards. Twenty-eight cards go into the seven tableau columns and the remaining 24 become the face-down stock, which together account for the full 52-card deck.

Is Solitaire setup the same online and with real cards?

Yes. The layout — seven staircase columns, a 24-card stock, and four empty foundations — is identical. Online, the shuffle and deal are done for you automatically and perfectly, so you can start playing immediately.