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5 Solitaire Variants Ranked by Difficulty, Luck, and Skill

I played all of these with a standard deck—if you don’t already have one, a waterproof deck like this is honestly worth it: https://amzn.to/4euaLaH

Odds are, when someone brings up Solitaire you have an image come to mind. If you’ve played a version and liked it, you definitely have a specific version come to mind. If you didn’t like the version you first tried, you’re probably about to click off this article and that’s okay—but you’re missing out!

Now, if you’ve fallen down the Solitaire rabbit hole (like I have recently), you’re probably wondering which version I’m talking about here. Truth is, I’m talking about as many of the over 500 versions as I can find the rules for. But, for this article, we’re going to discuss five versions (and yes, two of them are Klondike). Not all versions of Solitaire have the same material requirements, so for this article, I will be focusing on my experience playing versions that only require one deck to play. I played three games with each of the versions I played and kept a record of my experiences. I am also a casual Solitaire player and only really play Klondike, so please keep that in mind.

1.      Tri Peaks

Difficulty: ★

Luck: ★

Skill: ★★

·       Game One: Win with 9 cards left in the deck. Under 5 minutes of gameplay.

·       Game Two: Win with 9 cards left in the deck again. Also, under 5 minutes of gameplay.

·       Game Three: Win with 7 cards left in the deck. This time, I had under 3 minutes of gameplay.

It was a satisfying low-difficulty option. Once you find your play method, set up often takes longer than actual gameplay but it still manages to feel satisfying to play.

2.     Klondike (1-Card Draw)

Difficulty: ★★

Luck: ★★★

Skill: ★★

·       Game One: My first loss of the day—and I knew almost immediately. Before I could move my first card on the board, I had to draw over ¾ of my deck! But I persisted. I earned my loss as 2 cards left in my deck with 12 cards left uncovered on the board.

·       Game Two: Win – in under 10 minutes.

·       Game Three: Loss – the last card in my deck was the first card to uncover a blocked card. I lost in under 5 minutes of gameplay with 16 cards left uncovered! It was brutal…

That being said, I loved every second. Single card draw Klondike is absolutely my go to and 10/10 I will play religiously.

3.     Klondike (3-Card Draw)

Difficulty: ★★★★

Luck: ★★★★

Skill: ★★★★

·       Game One: Loss with 5 cards left uncovered.

·       Game Two: Loss with 20 cards left uncovered. I accidentally knew where a card (and Ace at that) was starting out too! Only got to make three moves before the game decided it was over.

·       Game Three: Loss with 10 cards left uncovered. I realized I was going to lose very early in the game though.

The biggest question with Klondike (3-Card Draw) is whether or not the game is going to let you play. You don’t get to make that decision and the deck will teach you that the hard way, if it has to. In fact, my only note on actual gameplay was: ☹.

4.     Pyramid (I’ve never played this before—bear with me)

Difficulty: ★★

Luck: ★★★★

Skill: ★

·       Game One: Loss with 6 cards left in the pyramid. My queens were blocked by queens and the Aces I needed to free those queens…I had no chance from the beginning.

·       Game Two: Win on 3^rd deck cycle, very quick victory.

·       Game Three: Win on 2^nd deck cycle, also a very quick victory.

Pyramid takes more math than I usually aim for in my games. Once you get the hang of which cards add up to 13, it gets extremely easy. Since you can see all of the cards in the pyramid at the beginning, you can tell pretty much as soon as you deal if it’s even possible to win the game.

5.     Accordion (Never even heard of this version before)

Difficulty: ★★★★★

Luck: ★★★

Skill: ★★★★★

·       Game One: Loss at 12 piles. I struggled as I learned the rules.

·       Game Two: Loss at 5 piles. I learned very quickly after the first games.

·       Game Three: Loss at 4 piles. And I was ecstatic.

You have to consider every card in the deck the entire time you play, which sounds more stressful than it feels in the moment. If I had more space, I would dedicate more time to playing this version. I enjoyed every second that I struggled. I would love to hear from someone that has actually won Accordion Solitaire (since you have to get the entire thing to be one pile again). I highly recommend trying this version of the game.

Game	Difficulty	Luck	Skill	Win Rate
Tri Peaks	★	★	★★	3/3
Klondike (1)	★★	★★★	★★	1/3
Klondike (3)	★★★★	★★★★	★★★★	0/3
Pyramid	★★	★★★★	★	2/3
Accordion	★★★★★	★★★	★★★★★	0/3

Solitaire is still the G.O.A.T. of single-player card games. I am very excited to try more versions of the game and share my results with you all. I do have a second deck of cards on the way, which will open up a whole bunch of new game versions for me. Let me know what your favorite version of Solitaire is, so I can give it a try!