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Odds of winning solitaire: how many deals can be won
No, not every game of solitaire can be won. In Klondike, the classic game, our solver won at least 77.4% of deals turning one card and 73.6% turning three, and it proved that 8.3% of turn-three deals can't be won at all. And that's a solver that sees every card. A simple player who sees only the face-up cards, like you do, won 43.5% and 15%.
Every game at a glance
Solver won Solver ran out of search Can't be won Simple player won
| Game | Deals | Solver won | Can't be won | Ran out of search | Simple player won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Klondike, turn one Turn one card at a time, no limit on passes | 1,000 | 774 (77.4%) | 19 (1.9%) | 207 (20.7%) | 435 of 1,000 (43.5%) |
| Klondike, turn three Turn three cards at a time, no limit on passes | 1,000 | 736 (73.6%) | 83 (8.3%) | 181 (18.1%) | 150 of 1,000 (15%) |
| FreeCell The classic Microsoft deals 1 to 32,000, four free cells | 32,000 | 31,988 (99.96%) | 1 (0.003%) | 11 (0.03%) | Not tested |
| Spider, one suit Two decks of spades, five deals from the stock | 600 | 597 (99.5%) | 0 (0%) | 3 (0.5%) | 122 of 500 (24.4%) |
| Spider, two suits Spades and hearts, five deals from the stock | 400 | 271 (67.8%) | 0 (0%) | 129 (32.3%) | 2 of 500 (0.4%) |
| Spider, four suits Two full decks, five deals from the stock | 100 | 1 (1%) | 0 (0%) | 99 (99%) | 0 of 500 (0%) |
| TriPeaks One pass through the stock, no redeal | 1,000 | 970 (97%) | 30 (3%) | 0 (0%) | 370 of 1,000 (37%) |
| Pyramid, three passes Three passes through the stock (two redeals), as in our game | 1,000 | 656 (65.6%) | 250 (25%) | 94 (9.4%) | 124 of 1,000 (12.4%) |
| Pyramid, one pass One pass through the stock, the strict rule | 1,000 | 71 (7.1%) | 924 (92.4%) | 5 (0.5%) | Not tested |
| Golf solitaire Nothing on a king, kings and aces kept apart, one pass | 1,000 | 277 (27.7%) | 723 (72.3%) | 0 (0%) | 13 of 1,000 (1.3%) |
| Golf solitaire, kings and aces connect An ace goes on a king and a king on an ace (Putt Putt), one pass | 1,000 | 928 (92.8%) | 72 (7.2%) | 0 (0%) | 221 of 1,000 (22.1%) |
| Scorpion Build in suit, kings in empty columns, reserve dealt once no moves are left | 1,500 | 126 (8.4%) | 1,253 (83.5%) | 121 (8.1%) | 61 of 1,000 (6.1%) |
| Yukon Build in alternating colors, any face-up card moves with what is on it | 1,000 | 810 (81%) | 0 (0%) | 190 (19%) | 87 of 200 (43.5%) |
Our own tests, October 2026. "Solver won" is a floor: when the solver ran out of search on a deal, we don't count it as a win, and we don't count it as impossible either. So the true share of winnable deals lies between "solver won" and "solver won" plus "ran out of search". Download this table as a CSV file.
Which solitaire is easiest to win?
Ranked by how many deals can be won at all, from the solver's numbers. How often you win also depends on what you can see, so each entry gives the simple player's result too.
- FreeCell. Our solver won 31,988 of the 32,000 classic deals. It proved that deal #11982 can't be won, and ran out of search on 11 others. Since every card is face up, a lost FreeCell game is nearly always a planning problem, not bad luck.
- Spider with one suit. 597 of 600 deals won, none proven impossible. Even our simple player won 24.4% and finished 3.95 of the 8 runs on average.
- TriPeaks. Here the solver finished every deal: 97% can be cleared and 3% can't. The simple player cleared 37%.
- Golf solitaire with kings and aces connecting. The solver finished every deal: 92.8% can be cleared. The simple player, who can't see the stock, cleared 22.1%.
- Yukon. At least 81% of deals can be won. Our simple player won 87 of 200 (43.5%), level with Klondike turning one for the best simple-player result here.
- Klondike, turn one, then Klondike, turn three: at least 77.4% and 73.6% of deals can be won. Our simple player won 43.5% turning one and 15% turning three.
- Spider with two suits, at least 67.8% of deals, but our simple player won only 2 of 500.
- Pyramid. It depends almost entirely on how many times you can go through the stock. With three passes, as in our game, at least 65.6% of deals can be won. With the strict one-pass rule, only 7.1% can, and 92.4% are proven lost before you start.
- Golf solitaire with the standard rules, where nothing goes on a king: the solver finished every deal, and only 27.7% can be cleared. Our simple player cleared just 13 of 1,000. With nothing allowed on a king, every king that reaches the waste pile ends your run.
- Scorpion. Our solver won 8.4% of deals and proved 83.5% can't be won, with 8.1% left undecided. The simple player won 6.1%.
- Spider with four suits is the one we can't rank. Our solver finished just 1 of 100 deals within its search limit, and it never proved one impossible. That says four suits is very hard to search, not that it's rarely winnable. We don't have a reliable figure.
Why you win less often than the solver
The solver knows where every card is. You don't. In Klondike that matters most, because the cards under the face-down piles decide the game. Two simple players show how much the way you play matters. Both see only face-up cards. One plays the columns first, turning over face-down cards before touching the stock; it won 43.5% turning one and 15% turning three. The other turns the stock first; it won 17.8% and 6.1%. Same deals, more than twice the wins. Our solitaire strategy guide explains the habits behind that.
Turning three cards is harder for a different reason: you only see every third card in the stock, and the cards under it come free only when you play the one on top. Our simple player's win rate fell from 43.5% to 15%.
How this compares with published research
The best-known estimate for Klondike comes from Charlie Blake and Ian Gent at the University of St Andrews. Using their solver, Solvitaire, they put the share of winnable deals at 81.945%, give or take 0.084%, for Klondike with three cards turned, no limit on passes and every card known. Those are the rules of our turn-three test. Our solver won 73.6% and proved 8.3% impossible, which leaves a range of 73.6% to 91.7%. Their figure sits inside it.
For FreeCell, it's long been known that deal #11982 is the only one of the original 32,000 Microsoft deals that can't be won. Our solver reached the same answer on its own, using the same numbered deals.
Sources: Blake and Gent, "The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games", arXiv 1906.12314, published in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. FreeCell deal #11982: Wikipedia, FreeCell.
Questions
Are all solitaire games winnable?
No. In Klondike, FreeCell, TriPeaks, Pyramid, Golf solitaire and Scorpion, our solver found deals it could prove can't be won: 8.3% in Klondike turning three, 3% in TriPeaks, 72.3% in Golf solitaire with the standard rules, 83.5% in Scorpion, and one FreeCell deal in 32,000. Some deals are lost before you make a move.
What are the odds of winning Klondike solitaire?
If you knew where every card was, roughly 8 deals in 10 or more can be won. Playing normally, with the face-down cards hidden, a careful player who plays the columns before the stock wins about 43.5% turning one card and 15% turning three, based on our simple player. Real players who look further ahead can do better.
What is the hardest solitaire to win?
Of the games here, Spider with four suits, Pyramid with one pass through the stock, and Scorpion. Four-suit Spider is so hard to search that our solver rarely finished a deal. One-pass Pyramid can be won only about 7 times in 100, and Scorpion about 8 times in 100 even with every card known.
Can I play only winnable deals?
Yes. In our Klondike, Spider (one and two suits), TriPeaks, Pyramid, Golf solitaire, Scorpion and Yukon games, "Winnable deals only" is on by default, and every deal it hands out is one our solver has won. FreeCell lets you pick any numbered deal.
Can I use these numbers?
Yes. You're welcome to quote, chart or republish them. Please link to this page as the source so readers can see how they were made. The CSV file has the full table.
How we tested
Each game has a solver that knows every card and searches for a win. It stops after a set number of positions per deal: 200,000 for Klondike, 60,000 for Spider, 20,000, then 400,000 on a second try, for FreeCell, 150,000 for Scorpion and 120,000 for Yukon. Golf solitaire is small enough that the solver searched every deal to the end. When a search finishes with no win, the deal is proven impossible. When it hits the limit, we say we don't know. The Yukon solver skips a few rare kinds of moves to save time, so a Yukon deal it didn't win counts as unknown, never impossible. The simple players follow the same move order as the hints in our games and use only cards that are face up. Every deal is numbered, so anyone can run the same tests again, and so can we whenever a game changes.
Keep playing
- Klondike solitaireThe classic: seven columns, turn one or three, with undo and a daily deal.
- FreeCellEvery card face up and four free cells. Play any numbered deal.
- Spider solitaireTwo decks, ten columns, one, two or four suits.
- TriPeaksClear three peaks one card higher or lower. Build long runs for points.
- Pyramid solitairePair cards that add up to 13 and take the pyramid apart.
- Golf solitaireClear seven columns one card higher or lower. Lowest score wins.
- Scorpion solitaireBuild each suit from king to ace, moving whole piles at once.
- Yukon solitaireKlondike without a stock: move any face-up card with everything on it.
- Solitaire rulesThe rules of all eight games, with a section for each.
- Solitaire strategyTips for each game, with win rates from our own solvers.
- Spite and MaliceA two-player race built from solitaire-style stacks, against the computer or a friend.
- Kings in the CornerBuild down in red and black around the table, for 2 to 4 players.