How to Play Carpet Solitaire

Learning how to play carpet solitaire is easy. Carpet solitaire uses one deck of playing cards and has an easy set up.

Carpet Solitaire Rules

| Players: 1 | Type: Solitaire | Supplies: 1 Deck |

Objective

The objective of carpet solitaire is to build the foundation piles from ace to king, filling the tableau or “carpet” from the stock as spaces become available.

Setup

Separate the aces from the deck and lay them out in a row face up to form the four foundation piles. Shuffle the remaining deck, lay out 20 cards face up in a 5X4 grid to form the tableau, also known as the “carpet” in this game. The remaining deck of 28 cards forms the stock and is placed upside down. Flip the top card of the stock over to form the waste pile.

Game Play

Cards are moved from the carpet (tableau) to the foundation up by suit. Any card from the tableau may be played onto a foundation pile as long as it is one higher in rank and of the same suit of the foundation pile it is going on. So a 2 of clubs can go on the ace of clubs, and continue in sequence.

Cards may not be moved from the foundation piles. Any holes in the carpet (spaces in the grid left by moving cards from the tableau to the foundation) may be filled with the top card from the waste. You may choose when to fill the empty spaces with the top card of the waste pile. You may flip the top card of the stock over to add to the waste at any time. When the stock runs out, the waste pile is not flipped over, only one pass through the stock is permitted, the top card of the waste pile is always available for play either onto a foundation pile or to fill a hole in the carpet.

To Win

If the player builds all four foundation piles up from ace to king in suit, the game is won. If the player runs out of moves and does not have all the foundation piles built up, the game is lost.