Rules
Cruel Solitaire rules at a glance
- Use one standard 52-card deck.
- Place all four aces on the foundations before the tableau is dealt.
- Deal the other 48 cards face up into 12 tableau piles of four cards.
- Only the exposed top card of a tableau pile can move.
- Foundations build upward by suit from ace to king.
- Tableau piles build downward by suit: 5 of clubs onto 6 of clubs, for example.
- Move one card at a time; sequences do not move as packets.
- Empty tableau piles cannot be filled directly.
- The Deal button regroups tableau cards into piles of four without shuffling.
- Win by moving all 52 cards to the foundations.
How to play
How to play Cruel Solitaire
Cruel Solitaire is an open patience game: every tableau card is visible from the beginning. That makes the game feel honest, but not easy. The aces are already waiting on the four foundations, and the remaining cards sit in twelve small piles. Your job is to release each suit in order without burying the card that a suit needs next.
Move exposed tableau cards to foundations whenever the foundation shows the previous card of the same suit. If the hearts foundation shows 5 of hearts, then 6 of hearts can move there. Tableau movement goes the opposite direction: a 6 of hearts can accept 5 of hearts, but not 5 of diamonds and not 4 of hearts.
The Deal button is the unusual part. It does not shuffle. It gathers the tableau cards in a fixed order and deals them again into piles of four. A deal can change which cards are exposed after you have created short piles or empty piles, but it cannot rescue the game by randomness alone.
Version
The exact Cruel Solitaire version on this page
This implementation uses the common one-deck Cruel rule set: aces begin on the foundations, the other cards are dealt into twelve face-up piles of four, foundations build upward by suit, tableau piles build downward by suit, only one top card may move, empty piles are closed, and redeals are unlimited but ordered.
Ordered is the important word. The Deal button collects tableau cards left to right by row as they are displayed, then deals them back into piles of four. It is not a stock, not a waste pile, and not a shuffle. This page ends a deal only when there is no exposed move and another ordered deal would still leave no move.
Layout
Setup and table layout
The four foundation spaces are already occupied by aces at the start. That means the foundation count begins at 4, not 0. The remaining 48 cards form twelve tableau piles, each face up. On phones, the piles wrap into a compact grid so all active targets fit without horizontal scrolling.
A pile may grow above four cards if you keep building down by suit. It may also become short or empty after foundation moves. Those uneven piles are exactly what make the next ordered deal matter.
Movement
Top-card-only play
A buried card is visible, but it is not playable. If the 3 of spades is under two other cards, you cannot take it for the spades foundation until the cards above it move away or a later deal exposes it.
Sequences are also locked to the top card. You might build 8, 7, and 6 of clubs in one pile, but you cannot lift that three-card run as a group. Cruel gives you information, then denies you most of the workspace that easier tableau games provide.
Examples
Legal and illegal Cruel Solitaire moves
A legal foundation move must match suit and climb by exactly one rank. A 9 of diamonds can go to the diamonds foundation only if that foundation currently shows 8 of diamonds. A 10 of diamonds is too high, and a 9 of hearts belongs to another foundation.
A legal tableau move must also match suit, but it descends. If a pile shows queen of spades on top, jack of spades may move onto it. Jack of clubs, 10 of spades, and king of spades are all illegal for that destination.
Foundation2 of hearts goes onto the ace of hearts
Foundation7 of spades goes onto 6 of spades
Tableau5 of clubs goes onto 6 of clubs
Illegal5 of clubs cannot go onto 6 of spades
IllegalA whole same-suit sequence cannot move together
RedealDeal regroups tableau cards without shuffling them
Redeals
How ordered redeals work
In many solitaire games, a redeal feels like another draw from chance. Cruel is different. The tableau is gathered in order and dealt again without shuffling, so the same cards remain in the same overall sequence. What changes is the grouping into piles of four.
This makes empty piles useful without letting you fill them directly. If several piles have been shortened, the next deal compresses the remaining cards and may expose a card that was previously buried. If the table is still full and orderly, dealing too soon may accomplish very little.
Spaces
Why empty piles are closed
Empty piles in Cruel are not storage spaces. You cannot park a king there, and you cannot use the space to reverse a sequence by hand. The space matters only when the tableau is dealt again.
That rule changes the feel of the game. Clearing a pile is still valuable, but not because it gives you a free cell. It is valuable because it changes the next ordered deal and may pull cards forward into new exposed positions.
Strategy
Cruel Solitaire strategy that actually helps
Start by checking the next foundation cards in each suit. Since aces are already founded, the early pressure is usually on the 2s, 3s, and 4s. A move that uncovers a low card of the same suit is often stronger than a move that merely makes a pretty descending pile.
Be careful with destination cards. If 8 of clubs is the only visible landing place for 7 of clubs, covering the 8 before the 7 is free can close a useful route. Cruel rewards looking one card deeper in the pile, not only at the card you are about to move.
Move safe foundation cards, but do not treat every foundation move as automatic. Low cards are usually safe because they are needed for progress and rarely serve as long-term tableau destinations. Higher cards can be trickier: a 9 on the tableau might be the only way to move an 8 that is blocking a needed foundation card.
Use Deal when the current table has stopped creating useful moves. Because the deal is not random, tapping it after every legal move can simply remix a position you had not finished exploiting. Clear the moves that reveal foundation cards or shorten piles first, then deal when the exposed cards have genuinely stalled.
Mistakes
Common Cruel Solitaire mistakes
- Expecting the Deal button to shuffle the tableau into a fresh random layout.
- Trying to fill an empty pile directly with a king or another exposed card.
- Moving a tableau card onto the right rank but the wrong suit.
- Forgetting that only one top card moves, even when a whole sequence is in order.
- Dealing before using visible moves that shorten piles or uncover low cards.
- Burying the only destination card a trapped same-suit card needs.
Difficulty
Is Cruel Solitaire winnable?
Cruel Solitaire is not always winnable. Complete visibility helps, and unlimited deals sound generous, but the deal is deterministic. Once the card order can no longer produce a useful exposed move, extra taps on Deal will not create luck that is not there.
This page does not claim a precise win rate because a fair number would need to be measured against this exact implementation. In practical play, Cruel feels more tactical than a hidden-card game, but less controllable than FreeCell because it has no real temporary storage.
Variants
Cruel Solitaire variants and house rules
Cruel is closely related to Perseverance and the wider family of same-suit foundation builders. Some software versions differ in the exact visual arrangement or in how they collect cards for a deal, but the identity of the game is stable: aces begin on the foundations, tableau cards are face up, one exposed card moves at a time, and the redeal is ordered rather than shuffled.
If a version allows spaces to be filled, moves sequences as packets, or shuffles during a redeal, it becomes a different experience. Those house rules can make the game friendlier, but they also remove the puzzle that makes Cruel distinctive: you are fighting the visible order of the deck, not waiting for a new random deal.
Nearby games
How Cruel compares with La Belle Lucie, Baker's Dozen, and Forty Thieves
Cruel and La Belle Lucie both show every card and build tableau cards down by suit. La Belle Lucie gives you fan reshuffles with a limit; Cruel gives unlimited deals, but the deals are ordered and the aces already start on the foundations.
Baker's Dozen is another open one-deck game with closed spaces, but it is looser in the tableau because suits do not matter there. Forty Thieves goes the other direction: it keeps same-suit building, adds a second deck, and uses a stock and waste instead of Cruel's no-shuffle deal button. If Cruel appeals to you, those games are good next steps because they each test a different kind of patience with visible or semi-visible cards.