Yukon Solitaire

All fifty-two on the table

How to play Yukon Solitaire

All fifty-two cards go onto the table at once. The first column holds a single card; each of the other six holds a face-down run followed by five face-up cards, with one more hidden card in every column as you move right. Twenty-one cards start face down and there is no stock, no waste and nothing in reserve.

Foundations build up by suit from ace to king, and tableau columns build down in alternating colours — so far, identical to Klondike. What is completely different is how cards move.

In Yukon you can pick up any face-up card, anywhere in any column, and it brings every card stacked above it along for the ride. Those passengers do not have to be in order, in sequence, or related to each other in any way. Only the card you selected has to land legally.

Lifting and landing

What Yukon lets you lift

Digging technique

Yukon Solitaire strategy

Dig from the right. Column seven holds six face-down cards and column one holds none, so the depth of your problem increases across the board. The right-hand columns are where the deal is actually won, and the earlier you start on them the more room you have to work.

Think about where the passengers land, not just the lead card. The move is legal as soon as the lead card fits, which makes it easy to fire a packet off without noticing that you have just buried an ace under four cards. Before committing, look at what is riding along and what it will be sitting on.

Uncover before you tidy. A move that reveals a face-down card is worth more than one that creates a neat run, because neat runs are cheap in Yukon — you can assemble them almost at will later. Information is the scarce thing.

Be careful with foundations. With no stock, cards in the tableau are your only landing spots, and a 7 sent up early is a 6 that now has nowhere to go. Aces and twos always; beyond that, ask whether the tableau still needs it.

Where deals die

Where Yukon deals die

Burying a card you will need under a rescue move

Because a packet carries anything, it is easy to dump four cards onto a column just to free the one underneath. Those four are now on top of whatever was there. Yukon lets you move junk around freely; it does not let you make it disappear.

Opening a column with no king to fill it

The packet rule makes clearing a column genuinely achievable, which makes it tempting. But the space still only accepts a king, and with no stock there is no way to draw one. Check where the kings are before you commit to emptying anything.

Sending cards to foundations to tidy the board

There is no stock to bail you out, so a card on a foundation is one fewer card available to receive a packet. Low cards to foundations early is usually right; anything above a 4 or 5 should be earning its place in the tableau first.

Yukon's good odds

Is Yukon Solitaire winnable?

More often than Klondike, and the packet rule is why. Being able to move any face-up card means very few positions are truly locked, and a careful player will clear a healthy share of deals. It rewards patience more than luck.

It is not always winnable. With twenty-one hidden cards and no stock, a deal that buries the low cards of one suit under the high cards of the same suit can be dead from the start. We do not publish a win rate — Yukon versions differ on whether spaces take kings only and whether the first column is dealt face up, and both change the figure substantially.

The rules enforced here

Yukon, Russian, Alaska, and Scorpion

The packet rule spawned a small family, and the differences between them are almost entirely about how strict the tableau is. Yukon is the friendliest of the four.

Russian Solitaire is the one to try next if Yukon starts feeling comfortable. It is exactly this game with same-suit packing instead of alternating colours, which sounds like a small change and turns it into one of the hardest one-deck games there is.