One word kinder than Scorpion

Wasp Solitaire

Everything about Wasp is Scorpion — the packet move, the same-suit building, the twelve hidden cards, the three-card tail. One rule differs: an empty column will take any card at all. That is enough to turn a frequently hopeless game into a frequently winnable one.

Any card fills a space
Build down by suit
Move any face-up packet
A three-card tail

Completed0/52

Hidden12

Tail3

Tableau49

Moves0

Completed suits

Deal the tail once: one card to each of the first three columns.

Build down by suit, open spaces, and uncover the hidden cards.

Scorpion, loosened

Wasp Solitaire rules

Read the empty-columns line. Everything else on this page is shared with Scorpion.

Wasp Solitaire setup and rules
Setup
Deck	One standard 52-card deck.
Tableau	Seven columns of seven cards, 49 in total.
Face down	Three in each of the first four columns — twelve altogether. The last three columns are fully face up.
The tail	The three cards left over, held back.
Moving
Building	Down by exact suit. A 6 of hearts goes only onto a 7 of hearts.
The packet rule	Any face-up card moves with every card stacked on it, in whatever order they sit.
What has to fit	Only the card you selected.
Empty columns	Any card, or any packet. This is the rule that separates Wasp from Scorpion.
Face-down cards	Cannot be selected. They flip once nothing covers them.
The tail and winning
Dealing the tail	Once only: one card onto each of the first three columns.
Clearing	A complete king-to-ace run in one suit leaves the board.
Win condition	All four suits assembled as king-to-ace runs.

Any card into a space

How to play Wasp Solitaire

Forty-nine cards go into seven columns of seven. The first four bury three cards each under four face-up ones; the last three are dealt entirely face up. Twelve cards are hidden, and three are held back as the tail.

There are no foundations. You build downward by exact suit inside the tableau, and a complete king-to-ace run in one suit lifts off the board. Four runs wins.

Any face-up card may be picked up, and everything stacked above it comes too — in whatever order. Only the card you selected has to land legally. And when you clear a column, that space will accept anything you care to put in it.

Face up
Face down
The tail

Twelve hidden cards, all in the left half. Columns five, six and seven are open from the first move, so you can read them completely and plan which suits are worth chasing. Columns one to four are the work — and they are also where the tail lands.

The one difference

What an open space rule is actually worth

In Scorpion, an empty column takes a king and nothing else. With same-suit building and twelve face-down cards, a specific king is often unreachable, which means a hard-won space can sit unusable for the rest of the deal.

Wasp removes that restriction entirely. A space accepts any card or any packet, so clearing a column is always worth doing and is always immediately useful. Nothing else about the two games differs — same deal, same move rule, same suits, same tail.

It is a good illustration of how little it takes to change a patience game. One clause, and a game most players lose becomes one they can reasonably expect to finish.

Open columns change things

Where Wasp's open columns change the answer

Legal and illegal Wasp moves
The move	Verdict	Why
A column ends in the 7 of hearts. You play the 6 of hearts.	Legal	Down by exact suit, the only building rule.
You move a queen into an empty column.	Legal	Any card fills a space here. Scorpion refuses this exact move.
You move a 4 and three unrelated cards on top of it into an empty column.	Legal	Packets may fill spaces too, whatever they are carrying.
A column ends in the 7 of hearts. You play the 6 of diamonds.	Illegal	Same colour is not enough. Wasp wants the suit.
A column ends in the 7 of spades. You play the 8 of spades.	Illegal	Building is downward only. Nothing climbs.
You deal the tail a second time.	Illegal	Three cards, once. There is no other stock.
You select a face-down card in column two.	Illegal	It has to be uncovered first, and it flips on its own.

Spending open columns

Wasp Solitaire strategy

Aim for a space early and deliberately. Because it will accept anything, an empty column is the most flexible thing on the board — it is where you park an obstruction, stage a run, or break into a buried column. Clearing one should be an actual plan rather than something that happens by accident.

Start in the open columns. Five, six and seven are visible in full before your first move, so work out which suits have their middle ranks accessible and build toward those. That planning is free and most players skip it.

Protect the low cards. A run only counts when it reaches the ace, so the aces and twos of suits you are assembling are the cards to keep reachable. The packet rule makes burying one very easy.

Spend the tail while it can still open something. Held to the end it becomes three more cards in the way; played when one of the first three columns is close to breaking open, it can be the move that unlocks the deal.

Traps the freedom does not fix

Where Wasp deals still go wrong

Filling a space with the first thing to hand

The open space rule is generous and that is exactly the danger. A space will take anything, so it is easy to dump a card in and discover you have spent your best asset on your least urgent problem. A space is how you unpick a buried column — decide which column before you fill it.

Emptying a column you then cannot refill usefully

Clearing a column is genuinely achievable here, and a space is worth a lot. But the cards you moved out have to go somewhere, and with same-suit building each of them needed a specific home. Count the destinations before you start unstacking.

Holding the tail as insurance

Three cards onto the first three columns is not a rescue package. Taken while those columns are close to opening something it can unblock the deal; saved until nothing else moves it usually just adds three obstructions to piles that were already stuck.

Where Wasp deals go wrong

Is Wasp Solitaire winnable?

Considerably more often than Scorpion, and that is the point of the variant. The open space rule means a cleared column is always immediately useful, so the main way Scorpion deals die simply does not happen here.

It is still a suit-strict game with no foundations and only three spare cards, so it is not easy. Skill matters a great deal: with three columns visible from the start and only twelve cards hidden, a player who plans before moving will clear most deals. We do not publish a figure, since the difference between this and Scorpion is exactly the sort of rule change that makes borrowed numbers meaningless.

This version

Open spaces, suit-strict, one tail

Seven columns of seven, twelve cards face down, a three-card tail.
Any face-up card moves with everything above it, in any order.
Building is down by exact suit. Colour is never enough.
Empty columns accept any card or packet.
The tail is dealt once, onto the first three columns.
Completed king-to-ace suit runs clear automatically.

Undo is unlimited and unpenalised. If you want the same game with kings-only spaces, that is Scorpion, and it has its own page here.

Wasp and Scorpion

Wasp against its neighbours

Wasp compared with Scorpion, Yukon, and Spider
Game	Empty columns	Tableau builds	Move rule	Stock
Wasp	Any card or packet	Down by exact suit	Any face-up card, with everything on top	Three cards, dealt once
Scorpion	Kings only	Down by exact suit	Any face-up card, with everything on top	Three cards, dealt once
Yukon	Kings only	Down, alternating colour	Any face-up card, with everything on top	None
Spider (one suit)	Any card or run	Down by rank	Ordered runs only	Fifty cards in five forced rows

The first two rows differ in exactly one cell. It is worth looking at, because that cell is the difference between a game with a reputation for being unfair and one that is simply hard.

Explore

More solitaire games

Try the strict original, or the packet rule with foundations to unload onto.

Tested rules

How this solitaire game is checked

Game logic is implemented and tested by Brian Hamilton, then reviewed by Karan Hamilton for rule clarity, player flow, and correction notes.

How we make and test solitaire games