Gaps Solitaire

Sorting two to king

How to play Gaps Solitaire

All fifty-two cards are dealt face up into four rows of thirteen. The four aces are then removed, which leaves four empty positions scattered through the layout. Those gaps are the only thing that ever moves.

You slide a card into a gap, and the rule is always the same: the card must be one rank higher than the card immediately to the gap's left, in the same suit. The only exception is the first column of a row, where a gap accepts any 2.

Nothing is built and nothing is removed — this is a sorting puzzle. You win when each row runs from a 2 up to a king in a single suit, which puts forty-eight cards in order and leaves the four gaps sitting at the right-hand ends.

What each gap wants

Which card each gap will accept

Gap discipline

Gaps Solitaire strategy

Get 2s into first columns before anything else. A row without a 2 at its head cannot be built at all, and every card you place elsewhere is provisional until it is anchored to one. Four 2s in four first columns is the real opening of the game.

Avoid creating gaps behind kings. It is the single most common way to waste a hole, and it is entirely avoidable — before moving a card, look at what will be to the left of the space it leaves. If it is a king, that hole is gone for good.

Extend runs from the left rather than building fragments. Only cards connected back to the 2 at the head of a row are safe from a reshuffle. A 9-10-J sitting unattached in the middle of a row looks like progress and will be swept away the moment you shuffle.

Hold your reshuffles. Three sounds generous and is not, because each one only keeps what you have anchored. Reshuffling from a board with nothing locked in wastes the chance entirely — build first, then reshuffle to fix what is left.

Where deals get stuck

Where Gaps deals get stuck

Filling a gap without checking what it strands

Moving a card creates a new gap where it came from, and that gap inherits whatever sits to its left. Move a card out from behind a king and you have converted a working gap into a dead one. Always look at what will be left behind.

Chasing a long run before the 2s are placed

Nothing counts until a row starts with a 2, because everything else builds from it. A beautiful 8-9-10 sitting in the middle of a row is not progress — it is three cards in the wrong place that will be collected at the next reshuffle.

Spending reshuffles early

Three is not many, and each one only preserves the runs you have built from the start of a row. Reshuffling with nothing locked in simply gives you a fresh random board and one fewer chance. Build at least one or two rows partway before you use one.

Gaps' real chances

Is Gaps Solitaire winnable?

Sometimes, and the three reshuffles are what make it possible at all. Without them the game would stall almost immediately — a fresh board typically has two live gaps and two dead ones, and it does not take many moves to run out.

Skill matters most in how you spend the reshuffles and how carefully you avoid making dead gaps. Both are learnable, and a player who understands the locking rule will win far more often than one who plays move to move. We do not publish a figure: this family runs under several names with different shuffle allowances, and each one changes the answer.

The three deals

Gaps, Montana and Addiction

This family runs under several names and the core is identical in each: four rows, four holes, one move type. What varies is how forgiving the reshuffle is.

Clock Patience is in the table as a contrast rather than a relative: another game where position does all the work, but with no decisions in it whatsoever. Gaps looks similarly mechanical and is not — almost every move is a genuine choice about where to put a hole.