Captive Queens

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Terms
3. Setup
4. Playing
5. Winning
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Captive Queens is a gentle patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire) with a pretty result. You turn the cards over one by one and sort them onto eight piles: on each 6 you build upwards to the Jack, on each 5 downwards to the Ace and then the King. The four Queens take no part – they sit in the middle, "captive", and if the game comes out, each is surrounded by a King and a Jack of her own suit. You make no real decisions, so it is pure luck and relaxing to play. It is also known as Quadrille.

• Players: 1
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Time: about 5 minutes per game.

Terms

• Stock: the face-down deck you hold or put in front of you.
• Waste: a face-up pile for cards you can't use yet. Only its top card can be played.
• Foundations: the eight piles you build. Each belongs to one suit.
• Build up / down in suit: put a card on a card of the same suit that is one rank lower (up) or one rank higher (down).
• Redeal: turning the waste over to make a new stock, without shuffling.

Setup

Shuffle the deck and hold it face down as the stock. There is no layout at the start – the foundations appear as you play. Leave room in the middle of the table: traditionally the Queens lie in the centre with the 5s and 6s in a ring around them, but two rows – 6s above, 5s below, with the Queens between them – are easier to follow.

Playing

Turn over the top card of the stock, one at a time, and look at it:

1. A Queen goes to the middle. That's all she does.
2. A 6 or a 5 starts a new foundation.
3. A card that fits a foundation goes there at once: - on a 6, build up in suit: 7, 8, 9, 10, J; - on a 5, build down in suit: 4, 3, 2, A – and then the King on the Ace.
4. Any other card goes face up on the waste.

Whenever the top card of the waste fits a foundation, play it; the card below then becomes the top card and may fit too.

When the stock is used up, turn the waste over as a new stock and go through it again. You may do this twice (two redeals), so you go through the cards three times in all.

Example: The foundations stand as in the picture, and the waste shows the 10♦, which must wait: the diamond 6 has not come yet. You turn up the 2♠ – it goes on the 3♠. Next comes the K♥, which goes on the A♥: the heart "fives" pile is complete. Then the 6♦ starts the last free place in the top row. The 10♦ still waits for the 7♦, 8♦ and 9♦.

Winning

You win when all 48 cards are on the foundations: on every 6-pile a Jack on top, on every 5-pile a King, and the four Queens in between. If the cards don't come out in your third pass, the game is lost. About three games in five come out – computer runs by Jan Wolter and Mark Masten give 59%.

Tips for beginners

• Always play a card from the waste as soon as it fits – there is no reason to wait.
• Before a redeal, don't shuffle: the order of the waste is kept, and it matters which cards now lie near the top.
• Keep an eye on the waste: the most common mistake is to overlook that its top card has become playable after a foundation grew.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Easy start: before you begin, take the four Queens, 5s and 6s out of the deck and lay them out as foundations. David Parlett's version does this and allows three redeals. Jan Wolter found that with the 5s and 6s laid out first, about 97% of games come out within three passes.