Play Thirteens Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)
Pair up cards that add to thirteen across an open ten-card spread refilled from the stock, and see if you can beat this tough game's 5% win rate.
Thirteens Solitaire is one of the oldest and plainest of the adding games, the branch of the patience family in which cards leave the table in pairs that reach a set total. It is essentially Pyramid with the pyramid flattened out: instead of twenty-eight overlapping cards you get an open spread of ten, every one of them exposed and ready to pair from the very first move.
The arithmetic is the familiar rule of thirteen. An ace counts one, a jack eleven and a queen twelve, and any two cards whose ranks total thirteen are discarded together — queen and ace, jack and two, ten and three, nine and four, eight and five, seven and six. Kings count thirteen all by themselves and are removed singly. Every removal punches holes in the spread, and here lies the game's engine: each empty space is refilled instantly with the top card of the stock, so the spread stays ten cards strong until the deck finally runs dry.
You win by discarding all fifty-two cards, but with only a single deck dealing out so few useful matches, this is a difficult game where roughly only 5% of deals go all the way. Luck drives most of it: skill only enters when several cards of the same rank are showing and you must decide which partner to spend.
This game's pairing hook shows up again, pushed further, in Pyramid Solitaire and King Tut Solitaire.
The same patient, one-move-at-a-time sorting that drives Thirteens also drives original Solitaire, so it's a natural next stop.
If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.
Enjoy playing!
How to play Thirteens Solitaire
Layout:
10 tableau piles: Each is dealt one face-up card. Remove pairs of cards that add up to 13; kings are removed alone. Emptied piles are refilled automatically from the stock.
Stock: The remaining 42 cards, face down. The stock is never dealt by hand — its only job is to refill empty tableau piles, one card at a time.
Tableau:
There are ten tableau piles of one card each. Every card is dealt face-up, so all ten cards are always in play.
No building is permitted on the tableau; cards are only ever removed.
Two cards whose ranks total thirteen may be removed together: a queen with an ace, a jack with a 2, a 10 with a 3, a 9 with a 4, an 8 with a 5, or a 7 with a 6. Suits do not matter. Kings count as thirteen by themselves and are removed singly.
The moment a pile is emptied, the top card of the stock is turned up to fill the space automatically. You cannot place cards into a space yourself. Once the stock is exhausted, emptied piles simply stay empty.
Stock:
The remaining forty-two cards comprise the stock, dealt face down in a single pile.
The stock is never turned over to a waste pile and there are no redeals. Cards leave it only to replace removed cards on the tableau, so every pair you discard draws two fresh cards into view.
The game is won when all 52 cards have been paired away.
