Rank and nothing else

Bristol Solitaire

Most patience games are arguments about suit. Bristol has no opinion on the subject at all — neither the fans nor the foundations ever look at one. What is left is a game entirely about the order of thirteen numbers.

Suits ignored everywhere
Eight fans of three
Three reserve piles
Kings tucked at the deal

Foundations0/52

Stock25

Reserve3

Moves0

Foundations

Reserve

Stock25

Build foundations up by rank and pack fan cards down by rank.

Fans without suits

Bristol Solitaire rules

Short, and easier to remember than most: no rule anywhere consults a suit.

Bristol Solitaire setup and rules
Setup
Deck	One standard 52-card deck, all face up.
Tableau	Eight fans of three cards.
Kings	Any king dealt above the bottom of its fan is slid underneath the others.
Reserve	Three piles, one card each.
Stock	The remaining twenty-five cards.
The rule that defines it
Foundations	Four, built up from ace to king. Suit is irrelevant.
Fans	Build down by rank. Suit is irrelevant here too.
What that means	The only thing that ever matters is the number on the card.
Group moves	None. One card at a time.
Reserve and stock
Reserve cards	Play to a foundation or a fan. Nothing may be played on to them.
The deal	Sends one card from the stock to each of the three reserve piles.
When	Whenever you choose, while the stock lasts.
Empty fans	Dead. No card may be played into the space.

Eight fans, three reserves

How to play Bristol Solitaire

Twenty-four cards go out as eight fans of three, face up, with any king that lands above the bottom of its fan slid underneath. Three more form the reserve, one card to a pile, and the last twenty-five are the stock.

Four foundations are built from ace up to king, and the fans are packed downward. Neither cares what suit anything is. A 9 takes any 8; a foundation showing a 5 takes any 6.

Reserve cards can be played out to a fan or a foundation but nothing may be placed on to them. When you want fresh cards, a deal sends one card from the stock to each of the three reserve piles.

No game can be more permissive than this about placement. Every card of the rank above will take a card, which is the ceiling for a single deck. Bristol gives that away for free and finds its difficulty somewhere else entirely: three reserve cards, dead empty fans, and no way to move more than one card at a time.

Fans and reserves

What the fans and the reserve allow

Legal and illegal Bristol moves
The move	Verdict	Why
A fan shows the 9♠. You play the 8♥ on it.	Legal	Down by rank. Suit is not consulted at all.
A fan shows the 9♠. You play the 8♠ on it.	Legal	Equally fine — matching suits are neither required nor forbidden.
A fan shows the 9♠. You play the 10♥ on it.	Illegal	Fans build downward only.
A foundation shows the 5. You play any 6.	Legal	Foundations climb by rank with no suit requirement.
You play a card on to a reserve pile.	Illegal	Reserve cards leave; nothing arrives except from the stock.
A fan empties. You move a king into the space.	Illegal	Empty fans are dead ground.
A king sits at the bottom of a fan with two cards on it.	Legal	Normal — kings are tucked under during the deal, not during play.

A rule shared with two other games here

Why the kings go underneath

As the fans are dealt, any king sitting above the bottom of its fan is slid beneath the cards below it. It happens once, at the deal, and never again.

The reason is the same one that drives the rule in Shamrocks and Baker's Dozen: with fans built downward, a king can never be placed on anything, so a king on top of two cards would freeze them permanently. All three games have no way to fill an empty space, which means a frozen fan stays frozen — so the kings are defused before play begins.

Playing a suitless game

Bristol Solitaire strategy

Spend reserve cards before dealing. Three is all you get at a time, and a deal buries every one of them.

Keep the foundations moving together. Four foundations all climbing by rank means the same rank is often wanted several times over, and a 4 buried under a descending run costs you more than a jack does.

Do not pack fans just because you can. Every card is placeable somewhere, which makes it easy to build long descending runs that then have to be dismantled one card at a time.

Watch which fans are short. A fan of one card is nearly a space — and unlike a real space, which is dead here, it can still accept the right rank.

Why it still stalls

How a permissive game still stalls

Forgetting the reserve is a one-way street

The three reserve cards can go out to a fan or a foundation, but nothing can ever be placed on to them. A reserve card you cannot use is simply stuck there until a foundation wants it, and dealing again puts another card on top of it.

Dealing before the reserve tops are spent

Each deal puts one card on to each of the three reserve piles, burying whatever was showing. Three cards is a small board and burying even one useful reserve card can cost you the sequence you were assembling.

Building fans down without watching the foundations

Suits do not matter anywhere, which makes almost every card placeable and lulls you into packing fans neatly. But the foundations need ranks in ascending order and every card you bury under a descending run is a card you will have to dig out one at a time.

Suitless odds

Is Bristol Solitaire winnable?

Fairly often. Ignoring suit entirely is the largest concession a patience game can make, and it shows — most positions have several legal moves available.

What ends deals is the reserve rather than the packing rule: three cards at a time, nothing can be played on to them, and each deal buries all three. We do not publish a win rate, though Bristol is a reasonable candidate for the most forgiving game on this site.

This version

Eight fans, three reserves, no suits anywhere

One deck: eight fans of three, three reserve piles of one, twenty-five in stock.
Kings dealt above the bottom of a fan are moved beneath it.
Fans build down by rank; foundations build up by rank. Suit is never consulted.
One card moves at a time, and nothing may be played on to a reserve pile.
A deal sends one stock card to each of the three reserve piles.
Empty fans cannot be refilled.

Undo is unlimited and unpenalised, with no timer or score.

Games that ignore suits

Games that ignore the suits

A handful of games drop the suit requirement somewhere. Bristol is the only one here that drops it in both places at once.

Bristol compared with Shamrocks, Baker's Dozen, and Strategy
Game	Tableau building	Foundations	Kings	Stock
Bristol	Down by rank, any suit	Up by rank, any suit	Tucked to the bottom at the deal	25, dealt three at a time
Shamrocks	Up or down by rank, any suit	Up in suit from the ace	Tucked to the bottom at the deal	None
Baker's Dozen	Down by rank, any suit	Up in suit from the ace	Sunk to the bottom at the deal	None
Strategy	None — eight waste piles	Up by rank, any suit	No special rule	The whole deck, one card at a time

Strategy is the other game here with rank-only foundations, and it makes an interesting pair: both remove suit entirely, and both then make you earn the win through a very small amount of working space.

Explore

More solitaire games

The other king-burying games, and the other one that ignores suit on its foundations.