Play Dimes Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)
Play a Ten-through-Ace deck of just 40 cards across eight foundations and eight columns, then race one pass through the stock for roughly a 25% win rate.
Dimes Solitaire belongs to the two-deck family that Thomas Warfield built around Busy Aces — games that keep the familiar "build up in suit, build down in suit" rhythm but change which cards are in the pack. Its clever name is the key to the twist: a dime is worth ten cents, and Dimes is played with a shortened deck that begins at the Ten. Every card below the Ten is stripped out, leaving only the Tens, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces — forty cards in all, drawn from two decks.
Because the pack is so compact, the game moves quickly and offers a medium challenge, with roughly a 25% chance of winning. Eight foundations are built upward in suit from the Ten through Jack, Queen, King, to the Ace, while eight tableau columns are packed downward in suit beneath them. A single face-up card starts each column, and any card can be dropped into a column you manage to clear, so vacant columns are precious room to maneuver.
Since you get only one pass through the stock and no redeals, timing matters. Try not to bury a Ten you will need to open a foundation, keep an eye on both copies of each card, and empty a tableau column when you can to give yourself somewhere to unload. As with the rest of the family, a little luck in the deal helps, but thoughtful ordering of your moves is what carries most games to a finish.
Other solitaire games in the same family include Busy Aces Solitaire and Deuces Solitaire, plus Fours Up, Penta, Three's Company, Eights Down, Cast Out Nines, and Jacks in the Box.
When you want the same rhythm without the stripped deck, original Solitaire is where it all started.
If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.
Enjoy playing!
How to play Dimes Solitaire
Layout:
8 foundation piles: Build up in suit from the Ten to the Ace (Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace).
8 tableau piles: Build down in the same suit. Only the top card of each pile is available, and only one card may be moved at a time. Any card can be used to fill an empty pile. At the start of the game, each pile is dealt one card.
Stock: Click to turn one card at a time to the waste. There are no redeals.
Waste: The top card is available for play on the foundations or tableau.
Foundation:
There are eight foundation piles. Move a Ten onto an empty foundation to begin it, then add the same suit's next-higher card each time — a Jack on the Ten, a Queen on the Jack, and so on up to the Ace. The top card of a foundation pile can be moved back into the tableau if another pile will accept it.
Tableau:
Eight columns are each dealt a single face-up card. A card can be added to a column only if it's one rank lower and the same suit as the current top card, so the only card that fits on the Queen of hearts is the Jack of hearts. Uncovered cards can be played to a foundation or another column, and any card may fill an empty column.
Stock and waste:
The cards not dealt to the tableau make up the stock. Each click turns one card to the waste, and you may go through the stock only once. The top card of the waste is always available to play.
