Rules
Picture Patience rules at a glance
- Use two standard 52-card decks shuffled together.
- Deal nine cards face up into a 3x3 reserve.
- Start with all eight foundations empty.
- Each suit has one ace-up foundation and one king-down foundation.
- Ace-up foundations build A, 2, 3, and so on to king by suit.
- King-down foundations build K, Q, J, and so on to ace by suit.
- Only reserve cards and the top waste card are available.
- Reserve cards move only to foundations; they do not build on one another.
- When a reserve card leaves, fill its space from the waste first, or the stock if the waste is empty.
- Draw one card at a time from the stock to the waste.
- When the stock is empty, the waste may be redealt once as the new stock.
- This page does not allow Patriarchs-style foundation reversals.
- Win by moving all 104 cards to the eight foundations.
How to play
How to play Picture Patience
Picture Patience is a two-deck foundation game with a very small working area. The board has eight foundations, a nine-card reserve, a stock, and a waste. The foundations do all of the building. The reserve and waste are only sources, so every move asks the same practical question: can this exposed card go home right now?
Four foundations begin with aces and build upward by suit. The other four begin with kings and build downward by suit. Because the game uses two decks, each suit has enough cards to complete both directions. One club ace will belong to the club ace-up foundation, while one club king will belong to the club king-down foundation.
At the start, none of those base cards are removed for you. Aces and kings are still inside the shuffled deal. If an ace or king is visible in the reserve, you can start that foundation. If not, draw through the stock until a useful card reaches the waste or a reserve move opens the next space.
Layout
The layout on this page
The active layout is intentionally compact: stock and waste on the left, eight foundations on the right, and the 3x3 reserve below. That matches the way the game is played. You scan foundation needs first, then check the nine reserve cards and the waste top for exact matches.
The reserve spaces show only one card each because that is all the rules allow. There are no hidden tableau cards, no movable sequences, and no reserve piles to build inside.
Version
The exact Picture Patience version used here
This page plays Picture Patience as a Patriarchs-family game with two defining changes: the foundations start empty, and reversals are not allowed. In Patriarchs, base aces and kings are normally placed before play and cards can sometimes move between paired foundations when their ranks meet. Picture Patience is stricter.
The stricter rule changes the feel of the whole deal. You must find the first ace and king of each suit naturally, then keep each line moving in its own direction. Once a card lands on an ace-up or king-down foundation here, it stays on that foundation.
Foundations
Ace-up and king-down foundation order
Picture Patience uses normal rank order, but in two opposite directions. The important detail is that both directions are suit-specific. A 5 of diamonds cannot help a club foundation, even if the rank is exactly right.
Ace-up foundationsA2345678910JQK
King-down foundationsKQJ1098765432A
Reserve
How the reserve, waste, and stock interact
The reserve is the game's pressure point. Any of its nine cards can move to a foundation if it is the next suited rank. When a reserve card leaves, the space does not simply stay empty. It pulls in the top card of the waste first. If the waste is empty, it pulls the next stock card instead.
That refill rule means a foundation move can change the waste at once. Sometimes moving a reserve card uncovers the exact waste card you wanted to play next. Sometimes it pulls a useful waste card into the reserve, where it remains visible but no longer sits on top of the waste. Good Picture Patience play notices both outcomes before making the move.
The stock is dealt one card at a time to the waste. This page gives you one redeal: after the stock empties, any cards still in the waste become a new stock once. After that, the board must solve from the remaining reserve cards and waste top.
Examples
Legal and illegal Picture Patience moves
A legal move must satisfy all three tests: the card is exposed, the foundation is the same suit, and the rank is exactly next in that foundation's direction. The reserve gives you visibility, not freedom to rearrange cards.
LegalAn ace of hearts can start the heart ace-up foundation.
LegalA queen of clubs can build on a king of clubs in the club king-down foundation.
LegalThe waste top card can move to a foundation when it is the exact next suited rank.
LegalWhen a reserve card leaves, the top waste card fills that reserve space.
IllegalA 7 of spades cannot build on a 6 of hearts because suits must match.
IllegalA reserve card cannot move onto another reserve card.
IllegalA 2 cannot start a new ace-up foundation; it must wait for the matching ace.
IllegalThis Picture Patience version does not move cards backward between paired foundations.
Strategy
Picture Patience strategy
Start each suit as soon as you can. Empty foundations are inert, so aces and kings have special value in the first part of the deal. A visible 8 may eventually matter, but it is only future promise until the lower ace-up line or higher king-down line reaches it.
Watch the ranks beside your foundation tops. Once the heart ace-up foundation shows a 4, the 5 of hearts is more urgent than almost any unrelated middle card. Once the spade king-down foundation shows a jack, the 10 of spades becomes the card that unlocks the next step. The game rewards exact scanning more than broad pattern matching.
Treat reserve moves as refill decisions. Moving a reserve card is usually good because it builds a foundation, but it also decides which waste or stock card appears in that reserve space. Before moving, glance at the waste top. If it is playable now, consider sending it to a foundation before a reserve move pulls it into the grid.
Use the redeal as a second look, not a reset. The waste order is not shuffled into a fresh deck; it is simply turned into the next stock. Cards that were buried by careless draws may come around again, but they keep much of the same rhythm. If a foundation has not started before the redeal, that suit can become difficult quickly.
Mistakes
Common Picture Patience mistakes
- Waiting too long to start ace-up or king-down foundations.
- Forgetting that reserve spaces refill from the waste before the stock.
- Trying to move reserve cards onto each other as if the reserve were a tableau.
- Drawing over a waste card that could already move to a foundation.
- Watching only upward foundations and missing king-down progress.
- Expecting Patriarchs reversals after a card has already been placed.
Difficulty
Is Picture Patience hard?
Picture Patience is easy to learn because there are few move types, but it is not a loose game. The reserve is only nine cards, there is one waste top, and every foundation is strict by suit. A single missing ace, king, 2, or queen can hold back a large part of a suit.
It feels more tactical than a pure luck patience because you choose when to clear reserve cards and when to draw. It still has a strong shuffle factor, especially because the base cards are not removed before play.
Winnability
Is Picture Patience winnable?
Some deals can be solved cleanly, and some run out of foundation moves after the stock and redeal are gone. The game is not guaranteed from a random shuffle. A good deal still needs good play, because drawing too quickly can bury a useful waste card and moving reserve cards in the wrong order can delay the ranks a foundation needs.
This implementation does not filter deals for solvability and does not borrow win percentages from other software or rule sets. A useful win rate would need measured data from this exact version: empty foundations, no reversals, one redeal, and automatic waste-first reserve refills.
Family
Picture Patience, Patriarchs, and nearby games
Picture Patience belongs near Patriarchs, Odd and Even, Royal Cotillion, and older foundation-planning patience games. They share the idea of paired foundations and a small reserve that feeds them. The details change the play sharply: starting foundations, reserve size, redeals, and reversals can turn the same family idea into a much more forgiving or much stricter puzzle.
Compared with Colorado, Picture Patience has far less storage but a clearer reserve refill rule. Compared with Alhambra, it does not let reserve cards move to the waste; the reserve is only a source for foundations. Compared with Strategy, it is wider because two decks and paired foundations create eight different suit lines to watch at once.