Card Game Rules

Patience · Game 193 of 388 ♣

Grandfather's Clock

Twelve cards make a clock face – build each one up in suit until every hour shows the right time.

Players
1
Duration
10 min
Age
8+
Difficulty
easy
Cards
52 cards, no jokers
Skill – Luck
SkillLuck
Everyone for themselves – Lots of interaction
Everyone for themselvesLots of interaction
Simple – Complex
SimpleComplex
Quick – Long
QuickLong

Mood relaxedlearned in 5 minutes

Collections: Solitaire games · Games for kids

Quick rules

  • Goal: build the 12 clock cards up in suit to their hour (A = 1, J = 11, Q = 12).
  • Clock: 2♥ 3♠ 4♦ 5♣ 6♥ 7♠ 8♦ 9♣ 10♥ J♠ Q♦ K♣ clockwise in a circle, 9♣ at 12.
  • Tableau: other 40 face up, 8 columns of 5. No stock.
  • Move the last card of a column, one at a time: to its clock pile (K → A round the corner) or onto another column's last card, one lower, any suit.
  • Empty column: any card.
  • A pile showing its hour is complete – nothing more on it.
  • Win: all 52 on the clock. Stuck: lost, no redeal.

Cheat sheet

The clock

Hour Start → end Hour Start → end
1 10♥ → A♥ 7 4♦ → 7♦
2 J♠ → 2♠ 8 5♣ → 8♣
3 Q♦ → 3♦ 9 6♥ → 9♥
4 K♣ → 4♣ 10 7♠ → 10♠
5 2♥ → 5♥ 11 8♦ → J♦
6 3♠ → 6♠ 12 9♣ → Q♣

Watch out

  • Hours 1–4 need four more cards each and go round the corner (K, A, 2, 3); all others need three.
  • A card buried under a long run is hard to reach – build runs only when they help.
  • Fill an empty column only with a card that frees something important.
  • About 3 in 4 games come out.

Full rules

  1. Overview
  2. Card order
  3. The parts of the layout
  4. Setup
  5. Building on the foundations
  6. Playing
  7. Winning
  8. Tips for beginners
  9. Variants

Overview

Grandfather's Clock is a friendly patience (a card game for one player, also called solitaire). Twelve cards are laid out in a circle like the hours on a clock face. You build on each of them, in suit, until the top card of every "hour" shows the right number: an Ace at 1 o'clock, a 2 at 2 o'clock … a Queen at 12 o'clock. All cards lie face up, so you can plan – about three games in four come out.

  • Players: 1
  • You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and a table with room for a clock face and eight columns of cards.

Card order

From lowest to highest: A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K, and then round the corner: after the King comes the Ace again. On the clock, the Ace counts as 1, the Jack as 11 and the Queen as 12.

The parts of the layout

  • Foundations (the clock): twelve piles in a circle on which you collect cards in order. This is where all the cards should end up.
  • Tableau: eight columns of cards below the clock, where you can rearrange cards. The cards of a column overlap downwards so you can see all of them; only the last card of each column – the one lying on top – can be moved.

Setup

  1. Take out the clock cards: from the deck, take these twelve cards: 2♥ 3♠ 4♦ 5♣ 6♥ 7♠ 8♦ 9♣ 10♥ J♠ Q♦ K♣. (The suits repeat in the order ♥ ♠ ♦ ♣.)
  2. Make the clock: lay them face up in a circle, going clockwise, with the 9♣ at 12 o'clock, the 10♥ at 1 o'clock, the J♠ at 2 o'clock, and so on round to the 8♦ at 11 o'clock. These are the twelve foundations.
8♦119♣1210♥17♠7♠♠10J♠J♠J26♥6♥♥9Q♦Q♦Q35♣8K♣44♦4♦♦73♠3♠♠62♥2♥♥5
Grandfather's Clock – the twelve foundations; the number is the hour
  1. Deal the tableau: shuffle the other 40 cards and deal them face up in five rows of eight, each row slightly overlapping the one before. This gives eight columns of five cards. There is no stock – every card is in play from the start.

Building on the foundations

Each foundation is built up in suit: on the 9♣ goes the 10♣, then the J♣, then the Q♣. After the King comes the Ace, then the 2. A foundation is complete when its top card matches its hour; then no more cards may go on it.

Hour Starts Ends Hour Starts Ends
1 10♥ A♥ 7 4♦ 7♦
2 J♠ 2♠ 8 5♣ 8♣
3 Q♦ 3♦ 9 6♥ 9♥
4 K♣ 4♣ 10 7♠ 10♠
5 2♥ 5♥ 11 8♦ J♦
6 3♠ 6♠ 12 9♣ Q♣

The foundations at 1, 2, 3 and 4 o'clock need four more cards each, all the others three.

Playing

There are no rounds – you make one move after another, in any order you like:

  1. To a foundation: the last card of any column may go onto the foundation where it fits.
  2. In the tableau: you may put the last card of a column onto the last card of another column if it is one rank lower, of any suit – this is called building down regardless of suit. A 6 of any suit fits on any 7.
  3. One card at a time: only single cards move, never several together.
  4. Empty column: when a column is completely cleared, you may put any available card there.

Example: The last card of column 3 is the Q♣, but the 12 o'clock foundation still shows the 9♣. The 10♣ lies at the end of column 6: it goes on the 9♣. The J♣ lies in column 1, covered only by the Q♥ – move the Q♥ onto the K♠ at the end of column 4, and the J♣ is free. Now J♣ and Q♣ follow, and 12 o'clock is complete.

Winning

You win when all 52 cards are on the clock and every foundation shows its hour. If no more moves are possible, the game is lost. There is no redeal.

Tips for beginners

  • Look ahead: if two cards could make the same move, pick the one that frees a card you need soon.
  • Build long runs in the tableau only when they help – a card buried under a run is hard to reach.
  • An empty column is valuable: fill it only with a card that frees something important.
  • The four-card hours (1–4 o'clock) need the cards round the corner (K, A, 2, 3) – keep an eye on them.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

  • One free space (easier): you may keep one card set aside next to the tableau. The last card of a column can go there at any time; from there it may only go to a foundation, onto a column, or into an empty column – and the space must be free again before you can use it for another card.
  • Both directions (easier): in the tableau, a card may go onto a card that is one rank lower or one rank higher, of any suit.
  • Alternating colours (harder): in the tableau, a card goes onto a card one rank higher only if it is of the opposite colour.

Background & history

  • Family: Patience (one deck; foundations arranged as a clock face)
  • Origin: unknown; in English-language patience books since at least 1949
  • Also known as: Grandfather's Clock Patience
  • Related games: Big Ben (its two-deck counterpart), Clock (a pure-luck game with the same clock face), Flower Garden, King Albert

Who invented Grandfather's Clock is not known. The earliest description we found is in Albert H. Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith's Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games (1949), which gives exactly the rules used here: the twelve clock cards from 2♥ to K♣ with the 9♣ at twelve o'clock, a tableau of five rows of eight, building down regardless of suit. They estimate eight minutes per game and a chance of winning of three out of four.

In the same book the game stands next to Clock and Watch, the patiences in which every card turned up sends you to the next pile. The clock face is the only thing they share: Clock needs no decisions at all and comes out once in thirteen games, whereas Grandfather's Clock is played with all cards face up and rewards looking ahead. Morehead and Mott-Smith also write that they "rechristened one of the 'Clocks' as Big Ben" – the two-deck game that works much like Grandfather's Clock on a larger scale.

This naming history explains why the titles are so easily mixed up: in older books "The Clock" and "Grandfather's Clock" can mean different games. According to Wikipedia, it also appears in later compendiums such as Philip D. Morehead's Hoyle's Rules of Games (2001). Its tableau rules – build down regardless of suit, one card at a time, any card into a space – are the same as those of Flower Garden, only without a reserve.

Sources