Play Thirty Nine Steps Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Deal one deck across thirteen three-card piles in this lighter single-deck cousin of Waning Moon, easy enough for an 85% win rate built on skill.

Thirty Nine Steps Solitaire is a single-deck take on Waning Moon: one fewer card in each of the thirteen opening tableau piles, and a single deck instead of two, which is where the name comes from, three cards times thirteen piles. It's an easy game, with an 85% chance of winning, and how you do comes down mostly to skill.

It's closely related to Waning Moon Solitaire, the two-deck version with an extra card in each pile, and Lucas Solitaire, which shares the same single-deck layout but starts a few cards on the foundations already.

When you want a slightly longer game to sink into, original Solitaire is the classic that started it all.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Have a good time playing!

How to play Thirty Nine Steps Solitaire

Layout:

4 foundation piles: Build up from Ace to King in the same suit.

13 tableau piles: Build down in suit, moving just one card at a time. Any card can fill an empty pile. Each pile starts with three cards, all dealt face up.

Stock: Click to deal one card at a time to the waste pile. You only get one pass through the stock; there's no redeal.

Waste: The top card can be played to the foundations or the tableau.

Foundation:

There are four foundation piles, one per suit. A card can join a pile only if it's one rank higher and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that might follow a queen of spades is the king of spades. Each pile fills from ace to king, 13 cards deep.

You can also move a foundation's top card back into the tableau if a pile there will take it.

Tableau:

Thirteen tableau piles of three cards each, all dealt face up.

A card can be added to a pile only if it's one rank lower and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that might follow a jack of spades is the 10 of spades.

Only cards that aren't covered by another card are free to move, onto a foundation or another tableau pile, one card at a time.

Any card can fill an empty tableau pile.

Stock and waste:

There's one waste pile, and everything else starts in the stock. Click the stock to deal one card at a time to the waste. You only get a single pass through the stock, so play what you can before it runs out.

The top card of the waste can be played to the tableau or a foundation.