Australian Patience

How to play

How to play Australian Patience

Australian Patience is a one-deck foundation game with a sharp contrast: the tableau lets you move dramatic packets, but the building rule is strict. Your goal is to move every card to the four foundations, each suit climbing from ace through king.

In the tableau, a card can land only on the next higher card of the same suit. A 6 of hearts can move onto a 7 of hearts, but not onto a 7 of diamonds or a black 7. When you select a tableau card, every card above it travels along. Those carried cards do not have to be in order; the front card is the card that matters.

The stock adds the other half of the puzzle. Turn one card at a time to the waste. The top waste card may go to a foundation or into the tableau if it fits. Because this version has only one pass through the stock, each draw changes what is available and what may be buried under later waste cards.

Setup

The layout on this page

The opening deal is compact: seven columns, four face-up cards per column, for 28 tableau cards total. The other 24 cards begin in the stock. There are four empty foundations, one for each suit, and a waste pile that starts empty until you draw.

Unlike Yukon, there are no face-down tableau cards to uncover. The hidden information is in the stock order instead. That makes Australian Patience feel more transparent on the board but more unforgiving in timing. You can see every tableau card, yet you do not know whether the next stock card will save a suit chain or cover a useful waste card.

Packet moves

The packet rule that gives the game its movement

Australian Patience uses the Yukon-style idea that any face-up tableau card can be the front of a moving packet. If a column has a 10 of clubs with several unrelated cards above it, that 10 and all those cards can move onto the jack of clubs. The loose cards above the 10 are passengers.

This rule gives you leverage. You can move clutter away from a useful card, open a column for a king, or create a same-suit runway that was not obvious a move earlier. The danger is that a legal packet move can also drag trouble into the one column that had a clean suit order. Legal does not always mean helpful.

Examples

Legal and illegal Australian Patience moves

The tableau rule is strict even though packet movement is loose. Same suit matters more than color. Rank must descend by exactly one. Empty columns are reserved for kings.

A single top tableau card or top waste card can move to a foundation when it is the next card of its suit. A packet cannot move to a foundation. If a 4 of spades has cards above it, move the packet somewhere useful first or clear the cards above it before the 4 can climb to the spade foundation.

Strategy

Australian Patience strategy that fits this rule set

Start by reading each suit separately. Because tableau builds are same-suit only, hearts mostly help hearts, clubs help clubs, and so on. Before moving a packet, ask which same-suit card will become exposed at the top of each affected column. A move that creates a new same-suit landing place is often stronger than a move that merely makes a column look tidy.

Protect empty columns. A space is powerful because a king-led packet can move there, but a careless king can also clog the only flexible area on the board. The best king moves either release a useful buried top card from another column, organize a long suit chain, or make room for a waste card you cannot afford to lose.

Treat the waste as temporary, not permanent. If the waste card can be played cleanly, take that chance before drawing again unless a better stock-timing reason says otherwise. Once a card is covered by later waste cards, you may not see it again soon enough.

Avoid decorative packet moves. Australian Patience will often let you move a big messy packet by its front card. That is useful when it opens a same-suit chain or creates a king space. It is weak when it simply moves disorder from one column to another while the stock keeps shrinking.

Winnability

Is Australian Patience winnable?

Australian Patience is not always winnable from a random shuffle. Same-suit building gives fewer landing places than alternating-color games, and the single stock pass can put a key card out of reach at the wrong time. Undo helps you explore a route, but it does not make every deal solvable.

This page avoids claiming a precise win rate because a trustworthy number should come from this exact implementation and many measured deals. Rule details such as no redeal, king-only spaces, manual foundation moves, and unlimited undo all affect practical difficulty.

Variants

Australian Patience variants and house rules

The main variant question is the stock. This page uses the strict one-pass version: once the stock is empty, there is no redeal. Canberra is commonly described as a related version that allows one redeal, while Tasmanian Solitaire loosens the game further with unlimited redeals. Those changes make the stock less severe and increase the chance that a useful waste card returns.

Some software may also change empty-space rules or automate foundation moves. This version keeps the rules plain so the decisions stay visible: same-suit tableau builds, free packet movement, king-only spaces, one-card waste, one stock pass, and foundations built from ace to king.

Nearby games

How Australian Patience compares with Yukon and Scorpion

Yukon is more flexible in the tableau because it builds down by alternating color and has no stock. Australian Patience is stricter by suit, but the stock gives it a different rhythm: you are not only rearranging the board, you are deciding when to expose the next card.

Scorpion also cares about same-suit packet movement, but its goal is to assemble complete king-to-ace runs in the tableau. Australian Patience sends cards to foundations instead, so low cards and foundation timing matter much more. If you like this game's suit tension, both Yukon and Scorpion are natural next stops.