A card game contains one or more card decks of 52 cards each. Each deck contains the four suits:
![]() | Clubs |
![]() | Spades |
![]() | Hearts |
![]() | Diamonds |
Each of these suits contains itself the following cards types: ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen and king.
This complete order of cards is called a family. There are real families and alternating ones. The real families are all of one suit (for example, Hearts) while the alternating families the card color changes from one to another between a black color (Clubs and Spades) and a red color (Hearts and Diamonds).
If the family is not complete, it's called a sequence.
There are only a few different elements in typical patience game. These should be introduced in the following.
In the beginning of each game all cards are mixed in the deck. But not in every game all cards are dealt out, but some reside in the deck. These cards are put down on the so called talon, which you can find quite easy as it is in most games the only pile showing the reverse.
If no card shows the reverse side, all cards are dealt out and there is no talon. These card games are the hardest as there is no randomness involved after the start of the game, so there is nothing to blame
Many games put cards from the talon first on a waste pile when you click on the reverse of the top card on the talon.
From there you can take the card (which is then face up) and put it into the game.
The foundation piles is where you want to have your cards in the end. If all cards end up there in the right order, you've won.
In most card games these piles are empty in the beginning, but KPatience drops cards there when it sees them fitting to save you this most often boring part.
These piles are the ones where the actual reordering happens. The rules for these piles vary a lot between the games. Some show all cards on them, some not. Some allow only card to be removed, some allow every card to be removed, etc. See the following chapters for details.
Would you like to comment or contribute an update to this page?
Send feedback to the TDE Development Team