What Solitaire Turn 3 actually is

Solitaire Turn 3 is classic Klondike Solitaire played with the tougher draw rule: instead of flipping one card from the stock at a time, you turn three cards at once and only the top one of those three is available to play.

That single change turns a pleasant shuffle-and-sort into a proper thinking game. You can still see every card that goes past, but you cannot reach them all straight away. Getting to the card you want means working out the right order to unload the waste pile, and that is where the skill lives.

If you grew up here calling it Patience, you are in the right place. Turn 3 is the same game your nan played with a real pack at the kitchen table, just without the shuffling and without cards sliding off the tablecloth.

The rules, explained simply

The layout

One standard 52-card pack is dealt into three areas:

• The tableau, seven columns across the middle. The first column has one card, the second two, and so on up to seven. Only the bottom card of each column starts face up. That is 28 cards in total.
• The stock, the remaining 24 cards, face down, ready to be turned three at a time. Beside it sits the waste pile, where turned cards land face up.
• The foundations, four empty spaces at the top, one for each suit. This is where you build up from Ace to King.

How cards move

• In the tableau you build down in alternating colours: a red 9 goes on a black 10, a black 8 goes on that red 9, and so on.
• On the foundations you build up in the same suit: Ace, 2, 3, right through to King of that suit.
• Turn over a face-down card as soon as the card covering it moves away. That is the whole point of the game, uncovering what is hidden.
• An empty column can only be filled by a King, or by a run of cards headed by a King.
• You may move a whole run of properly ordered cards together, not just single cards.
• A card already on a foundation can be brought back down to the tableau if you need it there.

The three-card turn

Tap the stock and three cards flip across. Only the card sitting on top is playable. Play it, and the card beneath becomes available. Because the stock holds 24 cards, one full pass is exactly eight turns of three.

When the stock is empty, the waste pile is gathered up and you go through it again. Here is the part most people never notice: if you play nothing, every pass shows you the same eight cards on top. Take just one card out of the waste, and the groups of three re-form differently, so a completely new set of cards comes to the surface next time round. Skilled Turn 3 play is largely the art of shifting that rhythm on purpose.

How you win

You win when all 52 cards sit on the four foundations, each suit complete from Ace to King. There is no half-win and no score to chase, just the quiet satisfaction of a cleared table.

How to play Turn 3 on this site

Everything here is completely free. There are no ads of any kind, no pop-ups and no paywalls. Nothing is required to start: no download, no install, no sign-up, no account, no email address. Open the page and the cards are dealt.

The game is built simply for enjoyment. There is no gambling, no in-app purchases and no timer nudging you along. Take five minutes with a cuppa or stay an hour, the game does not mind.

• Big, clear cards. Large playing cards and readable text, comfortable for older players and anyone with tired eyes. A zoom control makes the board bigger still.
• Hint when you cannot spot a move.
• Unlimited Undo, step back as far as you like, as often as you like.
• Restart to begin the deal again with a clear head.
• Auto Play to finish off a game once it is solved, instead of clicking the last twenty cards home.
• Drag and drop, or simply tap to move cards, whichever your hands prefer.
• Turn 1 and Turn 3 draw modes in Klondike, so you can switch difficulty whenever you like.
• Wins, time and moves are tracked for your current game.
• Sound can be switched off, and there is fullscreen mode plus table colour settings.

It runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet and phone, the laptop at the dining table, the iPad on the couch, the phone while you wait for the ferry. Every feature is available to everyone; nothing is locked behind anything. You can browse the full list of games or head back to the home page any time.

Strategy that actually works in Turn 3

Start by looking, not moving

Before your first tap, read the seven face-up cards. Which column is deepest? Which move uncovers a hidden card, and which one just shuffles cards sideways? A move that reveals nothing is usually a move you should keep in your pocket.

Dig into the big columns first

The seventh column hides six face-down cards; the first hides none. Every card you free from the tall columns is progress. Given a choice between two identical-looking moves, take the one that turns over a card in a deeper pile.

Use the waste pile as a tool, not a nuisance

This is the heart of Turn 3. If a pass through the stock offers you nothing useful, look for one small, safe play, an Ace, a 2, a card that fits neatly, purely to shift the grouping of threes. Next pass will show you different cards. Players who never do this often complain the game is impossible; they are simply seeing the same eight cards over and over.

Don't rush cards to the foundations

A 5 sent home too early can leave a red 6 stranded with nothing to sit on. Low cards (Aces and 2s) always go up straight away. Middle cards are often more useful staying in the tableau as landing spots.

Be fussy about empty columns

An empty column is valuable, but only a King can fill it. If you have no King available and no way to get one, emptying a column can leave you with a hole you cannot use. Think one step ahead: which King will move in, and what does that King help you unstack?

Common mistakes

• Moving a card between columns when neither move uncovers anything.
• Clearing a column with no King in sight.
• Playing every Ace's follow-on card the instant it appears.
• Flipping through the stock again and again without changing a single thing.
• Forgetting that Undo is unlimited, try the move, see what happens, step back if it sours.

Honestly, the fastest way to improve at Turn 3 is to play a deal twice: once your own way, then Restart and play it again knowing where the cards are. You will be surprised how much of "bad luck" was actually move order.

Facts and figures worth knowing

A few genuine numbers, with their sources, because Solitaire attracts more myths than most games.

• Not every deal can be won. In a paper presented at the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, researchers Bjarnason, Fern and Tadepalli of Oregon State University reported that no fewer than 82% and no more than 91.44% of Klondike deals have a winning solution when the position of every card is known (Lower Bounding Klondike Solitaire with Monte-Carlo Planning, ICAPS 2009).
• A separate study of the one-card draw put the solvable share at at least 81.9% of deals (Mikko Voima, Klondike Solitaire Solvability, bachelor's thesis, 2021).
• Solvable is not the same as winnable by you. Those figures assume every hidden card is visible. Playing blind, as we all do, real win rates are far lower, which is exactly why an unwinnable-looking board is worth one more think rather than instant blame on the shuffle.
• The odds of a repeat deal are nil, near enough. A 52-card pack can be arranged in 52 factorial ways, roughly 8 followed by 67 more digits. Every game you start here is, for all practical purposes, brand new.
• It became the world's game by accident. Microsoft shipped Solitaire with Windows 3.0 in 1990, partly to teach people how to use a mouse. In 2019 it was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play.

A note for New Zealand players

We are often asked how many Kiwis play Turn 3 and how often they win. The truthful answer is that nobody publishes reliable New Zealand-only figures for it, so we will not quote any, made-up statistics are worse than none.

What we can say from the game itself is that Turn 3 suits the way people here play: in short bursts over morning tea, or in a long session on a wet Wellington evening when the washing is already inside. Card games have always had a place at the Kiwi kitchen table. Five Hundred and Euchre on a Saturday night, Patience on a quiet afternoon. Turn 3 is the quiet afternoon version, and it travels well on the phone during a bus ride or a wait at the clinic. We share more of what we learn from players over on the blog.

Questions players ask

Is Turn 3 harder than Turn 1?

Yes, noticeably. The cards are the same; your access to them is restricted. Turn 1 rewards patience, Turn 3 rewards planning. Many players warm up on Turn 1 and switch to Turn 3 once they want a challenge.

Can every game be won?

No. As the research above shows, a slice of deals cannot be solved by anyone. If a board is genuinely stuck, hit Restart with a clear conscience.

Is using Hint or Undo cheating?

Not here. There is no score to protect and no one to beat. Hint and unlimited Undo are learning tools, use them as often as you want, then try a game without them and see how much you have picked up.

Does it cost anything, or do I need an account?

No and no. The game is completely free, with no ads, no pop-ups and no paywalls, and it needs no download, install, sign-up, account or email. Our privacy page explains our approach in plain words.

The cards are too small for my eyes. Can I make them bigger?

Yes. The cards and text are large and clear to begin with, and the zoom control makes the board bigger again. Fullscreen mode helps too, and you can change the table colour if a different background is easier to look at.

Can I play on my tablet or phone?

Yes, it runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet and phone. Drag and drop with a mouse, or simply tap a card and tap where it should go.

Is there any gambling or pressure to buy?

None. No gambling, no in-app purchases, and no timers pushing you. The game keeps your wins, time and moves for the current game only, so you can see how you are going if you are curious, and ignore it entirely if you are not.

Deal yourself a hand, turn three, and take your time. That is the whole invitation.